October 13, 2012
Long before John Wayne entered the public consciousness of the movie going public as a cultural institution, director John Ford dubbed him the “biggest star ever”. Wayne earned this high praise from the famous director due to his performance in the movie Stagecoach, shot in 1938 and released in 1939. The exactness of this quote comes from another cast member in the film, Louise Platt who played the Virginia born wife of a cavalry officer. Louise reflected in a 2002 letter to the Ned Scott Archive on the Stagecoach experience. It is in this letter that she points out Ford’s feelings about the film and some of its cast members, Wayne included. Ford offered the reason for his laudatory judgement of Wayne as “the biggest star ever” by saying that “he is the perfect everyman”. More of John Ford’s reflections and Loise Platt’s personal recollections of the movie production can be found here.