INSIDE EDITION spoke with author Scott Eyman about his new book that sheds a new light on American icon John Wayne.
John Wayne is the legendary American screen hero without equal. Now, brace yourself for something you didn't know about Wayne.
Author Scott Eyman told INSIDE EDITION’s Les Trent, "He loved to go antiquing. He enjoyed decorating a house."
A shocked Trent replied, "John Wayne decorating?"
"He'd walk into a room and say, "The chair goes here, the couch goes here. The TV can go here,” said Eyman.
Eyman is the author of the new bestseller John Wayne, The Life and Legend, which pulls back the curtain on the man behind the macho image.
“He was extremely courteous as a person, extremely sensitive," said Eyman.
Trent said, "You write that John Wayne was quite smart."
"He was an excellent chess player, very aggressive. He’d obliterate you in short order," said Eyman.
At 6’4” and 250 pounds, Wayne was a big man with a big family and even bigger appetites.
Eyman said, "Food, tequila, tobacco, red meat, any red meat. It's a wonder he lived to be 72!"
Wayne came to define American heroism through his roles in such war movies as The Longest Day, right through The Green Berets, but in real life, he was never in the army.
Trent asked, "John Wayne was this tough guy, but he never served in the military. Did he have any regrets about that?"
Eyman replied, "Quite a few."
Trent asked, "Why didn't he serve?"
"He wouldn't verbalize it. A number of people close to him believe much of his later gung-ho pro-Vietnam stant was a guilt mechanism he felt over not serving in World War II,” said Eyman.
Wayne was a complicated, bigger-than-life star whose heroic image endures to this day.
Eyman said, "He was more than a movie star. He personified those qualities that represented America at its best."
