John Wayne’s co-star James Caan needed to be held again from punching Duke on set | Films | Entertainment | EUROtoday

James Caan was 27 when solid as knife-throwing gambler Mississippi in Howard Hawks’ first remake of Rio Bravo, El Dorado.

Co-starring reverse John Wayne and Robert Mitchum within the 1966 Western was an enormous deal and through the years he’s shared some stunning tales of the shenanigans and at occasions fiery altercations he had with Duke.

Acting reverse Wayne meant that Caan, who was the identical peak as Tom Cruise at 5ft 7in, needed to put on three-inch lifts subsequent to the towering Western legend.

The pair turned shut on set however not earlier than Duke had his enjoyable pranking the rising star by means of intimidation.

Caan, who died in 2022 aged 82, has mentioned in interviews how Wayne would name him “kid” and say issues like “You’re doing a lot of smiling Jiminy Cricket” due to his hat.

During their breaks, they’d typically play chess and one time the younger actor accused Duke of dishonest which sparked a violent argument between them Robert Mitchum needed to quiet down by intervening.

Speaking on The Tonight Show in 1997, Caan mentioned of Wayne: “If he could intimidate you, he’d stay on you forever until you just crumbled. He’d try you. So this one night I remember I was between he and Robert Mitchum and Howard Hawks was about 72 at the time and we’re outside in this big old Western town.”

The Godfather star shared how Duke would method him and inform him to show round in a shot, take a step and “Give me that look that you me.” The younger actor would do as Duke informed him, however then director Howard Hawks would yell “Cut!” and inform him to not take the step.

The Western star then informed him once more to take half a step and this went forwards and backwards till the Mississippi actor blew up. Caan admitted: “I was gonna hit him!” However, Mitchum ran up and broke up the confrontation similar to with the chess sport.

Caan declared: “He knew what he was doing, he was having a good time at my expense!” From then on they turned good buddies who would exit of their approach to attempt to screw one another’s scenes up. The Mississippi actor remembered pushing aside Wayne by mouthing “You snake!” at Duke, which made him chortle.

That was till in the future the 27-year-old couldn’t get into his dressing room because it was locked, so he requested for the important thing. He revealed: “Garbage just came out! He piled it with garbage, he was like a 12-year-old kid Duke.”