AMC Shows 35 John Wayne Films

 

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Glen Campbell says he'll never forget the day his co-star John Wayne cleared a fence on horseback during the filming of 1969's ``True Grit.''

Director Henry Hathaway was worried that it would be a financial disaster if Wayne got hurt doing the stunt, said Campbell, who's the spokesman for American Movie Classics' John Wayne Film Festival, which runs Thursday through Sunday.

``Duke insisted that he do his own jump,'' Campbell recalled. ``He shouted at Hathaway, `I ain't having no one jump for me. I'll do my own stunts, thank you. Besides, I can jump a four-rail fence without a horse.'

``So John Wayne ... rolled in the saddle as his nag ran at a gallop in the snow toward the chest-high fence. The horse stretched, Duke rose, and the two cleared the fence with plenty of room.''

The AMC film festival will feature 35 films starring Wayne, who died in 1979 at age 72.

``Acting alongside the larger-than-life star I'd grown up idolizing back in Delight, Ark., was truly one of the most memorable experiences of my life,'' the 65-year-old Campbell said Tuesday.

``It was hard to separate reality from fantasy when you were around him. After `True Grit,' I used to visit Duke at his house in Newport Beach. We'd sit in the living room having a drink, and it was as if the cameras were rolling.''

The AMC film festival helps raise funds to preserve hundreds of films each year. Since 1993, AMC has raised more than $2 million for The Film Foundation, which funds archives across the country to restore and preserve films.