For his audience, John Wayne was the epitome of the western and a legend. It wasn’t always so easy for his co-stars and filmmakers. Anyone who had his respect could work well with him. Those who didn’t had a hard time with him too.
Rock Hudson was pestered by Wayne for weeks on the set of the western The Undefeated (1969) until he finally found a way to fight back.
Rock Hudson gave John Wayne a taste of his own medicine
In a 2001 interview with Larry King Rock Hudson’s long-time partner Marc Christian talks about the problems Hudson initially had working with John Wayne.
Christian first made it clear that Hudson himself was an admirer of John Wayne:
Rock admired John Wayne, who was simply the greatest male movie star of all time. […] [Wayne] found out that Rock’s real name was Roy Scherer, Junior, that he was a junior. So he started calling Rock ‘June’ on set and I think he probably knew Rock was gay or had heard rumors about it.
After a few weeks, Hudson had enough and was no longer so enthusiastic about his co-star. Marc Christian says:
He thought, ‘That guy must be a real badass!’
However, Rock Hudson was also able to learn a secret from John Wayne, as Christian told him. A crew member took pity on the actor and revealed to him that Wayne’s real name Marion Morrison was. With that, Hudson was ready for the counterattack. The very next day, when John addressed Rock again as “June,” he replied, according to the story:
I’m right here, Marion.
In doing so, he broke the ice and was able to successfully defend himself against the pricking. Another version of the story is told by Mark Griffin in his Rock Hudson biography All that Heaven Allows. According to this version, Wayne gave his co-star persistent directions – until he eventually did the same to him. Wayne’s reaction: “I like you.” After that, the two regularly played chess and bridge together.