“Imagine what I could have done with that”: the actor John Wayne called “a waste of a face”

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“Imagine what I could have done with that”: the actor John Wayne called “a waste of a face”

(Credits: Far Out / TCM)

Fri 21 November 2025 16:45, UK

Although he spent decades sitting pretty as one of the biggest and most bankable stars in the business, John Wayne wasn’t what anyone would call a heartthrob or a sex symbol.

The old saying that ‘women want to be with him and men want to be him’ was only partially true in his case, and only the latter applied. Thanks to his no-nonsense attitude, heroic screen persona, and indomitable presence, ‘The Duke’ was a bastion and barometer of American masculinity.

While it’s probably not true that women didn’t want to be with him, since he was married several times, had a scandalous affair with Marlene Dietrich, and made up for what he lacked in handsomeness by being John goddamn Wayne, it wasn’t like he was trapped in the Paul Newman ouroboros cycle of being famous for being so handsome, while hating the fact he was famous for being so handsome.

You wouldn’t call him sexy, but would you kick him out of bed for eating a packet of crisps? That’s entirely in the eye of the beholder, and despite facing precisely zero criticism during his career of landing roles and drawing in crowds because of his breathtaking looks, he could still feel the odd pang of jealousy when a statuesque specimen was in his sights.

This being Wayne, though, it was laced with no small amount of bigotry. It took him a while to warm to Rock Hudson when they made 1969’s The Undefeated together, and even though his views weren’t what anyone would call progressive, even by the standards of the time, it wasn’t because it was one of Hollywood’s most famous open secrets that his co-star was gay.

Hudson was awestruck by ‘The Duke’, who enjoyed giving his younger colleagues a hard time. The easiest way to earn his respect was to take a stand, refuse to back down, and throw it back in his face. When he did exactly that, they became friends, and it helped that the former turned out to be a decent card player.

“What Rock Hudson does in the privacy of his own room is his own business,” Wayne once said. “He’s a professional on the set and a real gentleman, and he plays a hell of a hand of bridge.” He didn’t have very nice things to say about Midnight Cowboy, but since Hudson was somebody he was close to, his questionable views rarely entered his thoughts.

Apart from that one time they did, when ‘The Duke’ was standing off-camera and watching his cohort play a scene. “Look at that face,” he remarked to his daughter, Aissa, who was only 14 at the time. “What a waste of a face on a queer. Imagine what I could have done with that face.”

Since Hudson was gay, Wayne thought that being very easy on the eyes was pointless, since he had no interest in women, which was unfortunately on-brand for the industry icon. They swooned over him, sure, but it was a one-way street, leaving him to wonder how he would have fared if he were anywhere near as chiselled and handsome as a contemporary who lived a life he didn’t approve of, not that it stopped them from being friends.