The role of Wild West US Marshall would be his best known, starring in the series for an incredible 20 years. However, when it came time to return the favor, Wayne would be sorely disappointed.
By the late 1950s, Duke had been working on his passion project for nearly 15 years: a big-budget movie about the Battle of the Alamo. Originally, Republic Pictures had offered him only $3 million and he ended up falling out with the studio and left to found Batjac.
Wayne had planned to play the small role of Sam Houston in 1960’s The Alamo. However, he couldn’t get the $12 million ($120 million today) budget he wanted from backers without playing Davy Crockett himself. The incredibly invested Duke also had to chip in $1.5 million of his own money by taking out second mortgages on his houses and using his cars and yachts as collateral to get loans.
Now, the role for Houston was open and the western legend, who was also making his directorial debut with The Alamo, contacted his old friend Arness about the role.
READ MORE: John Wayne was ‘enraged’ by Kirk Douglas – ‘We never saw eye to eye’
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