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# ‘The Duke’ wasn’t such a stand-up guy
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/the-duke-wasnt-such-a-stand-up-guy-editor/
- Published: 2007-07-19T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-24T02:19:34.000Z
- Author: Guest Author
- Tags: Opinion, Santa Monica, #archive-import

*By Henry Rosenfeld Ocean Park*

“That Rutherford Guy” praising John Wayne (“John Wayne was absolutely for real,” July 17) was fine, as long as he kept to his movie roles. But then (John Whitehead) wrote: “Off-screen, he was much like the characters he played on-screen.”

Oh, really? Is that why Wayne was known back then for having “fought three war films for his country?” This brave star of Hollywood formed a smear group with wanna-be Joe McCarthy witch-hunters, exposing chosen “Communists.”

Yeah, lovely guy. If “John Wayne was the real deal,” he should have used his real name — Marion Morrison.

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on July 19, 2007.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/071907.pdf?ref=smdp.com)