Elvis Presley and John Wayne have never been more popular, with both American icons receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom and leaving a lasting legacy
Elvis Presley and John Wayne, two titans of American culture, continue to cast a long shadow nearly 50 years after their passing.
The Hollywood greats, both recipients of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, almost shared the screen in the 1969 film True Grit, which earned Wayne his Best Actor Oscar.
Elvis, who had looked up to Wayne since childhood, would sometimes encounter the Western icon on movie sets. Their mutual patriotic and conservative leanings meant they hit it off immediately.
In a recent exclusive with Express.co.uk, Elvis’ step-brother and Memphis Mafia bodyguard David Stanley revealed insights from their first meeting. Speaking from the Las Vegas stage where Elvis once performed, David shared: “He loved John Wayne.”
He recounted feeling “overwhelmed” when meeting Duke, who greeted him with a firm handshake and the words, “My name is John Wayne”, prompting a nervous teenage response, “I know who you are, sir”.
As for Elvis’ own introduction to the Western star, he paid tribute to Duke in an exceptionally heartfelt manner.
David reminisced: “Elvis walked up to him, shook his hand and said, ‘I want to personally thank you for winning World War II.’ Now the only reason he said that was because John did all those army movies. So Elvis, like any other 10-year-old when the war was on… he just saw the John Wayne movies and he associated John Wayne with victory.”
Despite not serving in the military during the Second World War, Wayne remained in Hollywood making films, a fact that his frequent directing partner John Ford would later tease him about. Consequently, Wayne felt obligated to continue producing patriotic war films that paid tribute to veterans of all eras.
Interestingly, Elvis followed a similar path after his army service in West Germany with films like GI Blues. After we highlighted all this to David, he nodded and responded: “Elvis had that mentality when he met him. He honored him.”