John Wayne broke strict rule he followed for | TV Shows

John Wayne’s career spanned 50 years and his legacy is still strongly felt in Hollywood.

Having worked on major films including The Cowboys, The Shooting and The Seachers, the actor – nicknamed Duke – became a popular icon especially in Western and war movies.

Throughout his career, he broke some of his own rules, such as making his characters “fight dirty” as he didn’t see a need for the people he portrayed to be polite when punching opponents.

He also wanted his characters to follow certain moral codes – for example, helping others in need and never shooting an unarmed man.

But there was a strict rule he followed for decades and broke in the neo-noir crime action film McQ: never shooting an attacked in the back.

This is quite different from John’s previous Western protagonists, who would refrain from shooting a man frm behind, whether they “deserved” it or not.

But McQ wasn’t set in the Old West and such a scene appears to show a new kind of character for the veteran actor.

When he later worked on The Shootist, he was cast as a gunfighter dying of cancer – but while in the book the film was inspired by the character shoots one of his enemies in the back, John refused to do so.

According to Clint Eastwood, who spoke about the movie to Inside the Actor’s Studio, John said, “I don’t shoot people in the back.”

During a discussion about the scene, John went “blue,” Clint claimed, yelling at the director, “I don’t care what that kid woulda done, I don’t shoot ’em in the back!”

The actor eventually got his way and didn’t kill anyone from behind in the final cut of The Shootist.