(1907 – 1979) John “Duke” Wayne embodied a conservative, Cold War, patriotic heroism during his forty-year reign as one of Hollywood’s most popular stars. In the mythical westerns and Hollywood wars he inhabited, Wayne cut a forthright, paternal, but occasionally violent, figure. Director John Ford made Wayne a star in Stage Coach (1939), and both Ford and Howard Hawks used Wayne to good advantage in several films, including Hawks’ Red River (1948). During the Vietnam War, Wayne codirected and starred in the pro-war The Green Berets (1968). Ironically Wayne assiduously avoided seeing action during the Second World War and Korea.