By Brian Carnell

Thursday, August 28, 2003

Michael Munn was apparently looking for a good bit of spin for his new biography of John Wayne and the British press ate up one of his more sensational (and poorly sourced) claims -- that Stalin ordered the KGB to assassinate Wayne.

The Guardian was typical of newspapers picking up this story with its headline, "Book tells how John Wayne survived Soviet assassination."

But Munn's source is laugh-out-loud hilarious. According to Munn, Soviet filmmaker Alexei Kapler tells Sergei Bondachuck who tells Orson Welles who then tells Munn about the plot in 1983.

Munn even goes so far as to posit an unsuccessful assassination attempt on Wayne during the filming of Hondo. In addition, as the BBC summarized another plot against Wayne,

Mr Munn says that in 1955 a group of communists based in Burbank, near Hollywood, plotted to kill him.

However, he adds, a group stuntmen loyal to the Duke raided the premises of his Burbank enemies and "ran them out of town".

Munn should stop writing second-rate books about Hollywood stars and turn to scriptwriting instead. He sure knows how to weave an unplausible, action-filled tale.

(For those actually interested in this sort of nonsense, Charles Paul Freund has an amusing take on why Stalin might have wanted Wayne dead).

Source:

Book tells how John Wayne survived assassination. Nick Paton Walsh, The Guardian, August 1, 2003.

Stalin 'tried to kill John Wayne. The BBC, July 31, 2003.

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