John Wayne was reportedly left furious (Image: Getty)
If you thought Will Smith slapping Chris Rock at the Oscars caused a stir, consider yourself fortunate to have avoided witnessing John Wayne’s near stage-rushing incident back in 1973. The western legend, celebrated for films like True Grit, had to be physically held back by six security personnel when audience members began booing during the ceremony.
That year marked Marlon Brando’s Best Actor victory for The Godfather. However, Brando declined to attend, sending activist Sacheen Littlefeather in his place, who appeared in traditional Apache attire. She turned down Brando’s award and used the platform to draw attention to the Wounded Knee Occupation.
During that period, roughly 200 Oglala Lakota individuals had occupied the town of Wounded Knee in South Dakota, demanding the US government honor its broken treaties with Native American tribes and addressing concerns surrounding Richard Wilson’s impeachment.
Sacheen Littlefeather was later handed an apology (Image: Getty)
Wayne was enraged by the situation. He was positioned backstage, attempting to reach the stage until six guards prevented him from doing so.
He lashed out at Brando, declaring at the time: “If [Brando] had something to say, he should have appeared that night and stated his views instead of taking some little unknown girl and dressing her up in an Indian outfit.”
Sacheen was allocated merely 60 seconds to deliver her message, and faced jeering and foot-stomping from those in attendance. Reflecting on the moment decades later, she recalled: “I remember the faces in the crowd… John Wayne, backstage, had to be restrained by six men from coming to get me and pull me off the stage.
“I did not put up my fist in protest; I did not use profanity… We did not have jobs in the industry, we were excluded.
“They boycotted me; they went around to the production companies and said if you hire her we will shut you down… I was not allowed to be on any talk shows, Dick Cavett, Merv Griffin, and the like,” she revealed to Entertainment Weekly.
Speaking to Variety, she emphasized: “[Wayne] was never admonished by the Academy. It was never published in the press. But the most violent moments took place then and there at the Academy Awards by John Wayne.”
Nevertheless, skeptics have characterized the account as a “persistent urban legend” – purportedly originating as an embellishment from Oscars telecast director Marty Pasetta, a year following Littlefeather’s stage appearance.
Film historian Farran Nehme points to Wayne’s lung cancer surgery nine years prior, which resulted in the removal of two ribs and a portion of his left lung – leaving him in poor health for years afterward – as evidence undermining the plausibility of the alleged backstage confrontation. Nevertheless, the Academy issued an apology to Littlefeather years later.
Academy President David Rubin penned: “The abuse you endured because of this statement was unwarranted and unjustified.
“The emotional burden you have lived through and the cost to your own career in our industry are irreparable. For too long the courage you showed has been unacknowledged. For this, we offer both our deepest apologies and our sincere admiration.”
