Chuck Norris Recalls How His Childhood Hero, John Wayne, Faced Off Against Russian Assassins
By Movieguide® Staff
Although Chuck Norris is a hero to many, even the martial artist and actor has a hero of his own, the late actor John Wayne.
Norris recently recalled how seeing “The Duke” on screen inspired him as a young child growing up in America after the Great Depression.
“When I was growing up, my family was very poor. America was still recovering from the Great Depression, and we were fighting in World War II,” Norris wrote. “Because of my alcoholic father’s irresponsibility, we moved a lot and lived in several places, including Oklahoma, California and Arizona. But Mom and God provided all the security my two brothers and I ultimately needed.
“I was born in Ryan, Oklahoma, then lived out my earliest years in the rural town of Wilson,” he added. “Growing up, I used to patrol the streets of Wilson every day after school and collect pop bottles that I would return to the grocer for a refund. I also picked up scrap iron, which I sold for a penny a pound.”
Norris said that he saved up his money to go to the one movie theater in Wilson.
“I could spend all Saturday afternoon watching the double feature. Back then, during World War II, you’d even get to watch news reels before the movies,” he said. “I loved those Saturdays. With a nickel bag of popcorn on my lap, I could escape into another world. I went to Casablanca with Humphrey Bogart, and Cary Grant took me to India. My favorite movies, however, were Westerns, especially ones with John Wayne. For those few hours in the movie theater when I was watching a John Wayne movie, I became him.
“Like many young kids, I dreamed of becoming a cowboy,” he added. “There was no one who set that bar better than John Wayne, who is also still endearingly known as ‘The Duke.’ Eight decades later, he’s still my biggest screen hero. His persona helped me to fashion mine in over 200 episodes of my television series, ‘Walker, Texas Ranger.’”
But Norris said that Wayne’s toughness on-screen was lived out in real life. On one occasion, Wayne “faced off with actual Russian assassins.”
“There’s one fact about the Duke you can take to the bank: he was tough, and he proved it on screen and off screen,” he said.
Norris shared:
Remember the Russian dictator Josef Stalin, who ruled the Soviet Union from 1922 until his death in 1953? According to a Stanford historian, he was responsible for the deaths of at least 9 million people through mass murder, forced labor and famine, but the true figure may be as high as 60 million.
Well, apparently Stalin hated John Wayne. Why? Because Wayne was a true-blue American patriot, who hated communism. And because of the power and influence of stars on stage and screen, Stalin considered Duke a huge global threat to his rule and the spread of communism.
One might think, with Stalin’s reputation and record of brutality, even Wayne might have trembled in his boots and hid, but it was just the opposite. Stalin’s disdain for the Duke didn’t bother that cowboy at all. In fact, Wayne was irritated and ready to confront Stalin’s hatred and death threats. The Duke knew the only way to beat a bully was to stand up to him, not cower and run.
Stalin ordered an actual hit on the movie star by dispatching two KGB assassins in 1951. The FBI uncovered the plot from an unnamed Soviet source, which was years later verified by Stalin’s successor himself, Premier Nikita Khrushchev. When Khrushchev met John Wayne in 1958, he apologized for the killing contract, telling him, “That was the decision of Stalin in his last mad years. I rescinded the order.” But not before the Russians tried to take out the Duke.
The FBI notified Wayne about the KGB assassination plot. He responded to the FBI by asking them to let the two hit men show up and he would deal with them himself.
Military.com explained, “Obviously not one to let a thing like Communist assassins get him down, Wayne and his scriptwriter Jimmy Grant allegedly abducted the hitmen [some say with additional help of a few stuntmen], took them to the beach, and staged a mock execution. No one knows exactly what happened after that, but Wayne’s friends say the Soviet agents began to work for the FBI from that day on.” (They feared retribution back in the USSR, so pleaded to remain and became FBI informants.)
Unfortunately, this was not the only Soviet assassination attempt of the Duke. There were other plots to kill him, including an attempt in Mexico on the set of the film “Hondo” (which was released in 1953), led by a communist cell. There was also a sniper attack when Wayne visited Vietnam in 1966, though it’s difficult to say if that was a Soviet-based plot because it was a decade after the contract on Wayne’s life was apparently rescinded.
Military.com concluded, “The entire time Wayne knew there was a price on his head, he refused the FBI’s offer of federal protection and didn’t even tell his family. He just moved into a house with a big wall around it. Once word got out, though, Hollywood stuntmen loyal to the Duke began to infiltrate Communist Party cells around the country and expose plots against him. Wayne never spoke of the incidents publicly.”
In the end, and despite repeated Russian attempts to take his life, John Wayne came out unscathed, victorious and went on to have an illustrious career of filmmaking, notoriety and benevolence. Sounds like an American hero to me!
It all reminds me of the way the Duke rode through life and the movies, and we would be wise to do as well: As he said in “True Grit” (1969), “Courage is being scared to death but saddling up anyway.”
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Now more than ever we’re bombarded by darkness in media, movies, and TV. Movieguide® has fought back for almost 40 years, working within Hollywood to propel uplifting and positive content. We’re proud to say we’ve collaborated with some of the top industry players to influence and redeem entertainment for Jesus. Still, the most influential person in Hollywood is you. The viewer.
What you listen to, watch, and read has power. Movieguide® wants to give you the resources to empower the good and the beautiful. But we can’t do it alone. We need your support.
You can make a difference with as little as $7. It takes only a moment. If you can, consider supporting our ministry with a monthly gift. Thank you.
Movieguide® is a 501c3 and all donations are tax deductible.
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