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  • The scene where he was a priest fishing in the Quiet Man is my fav memorey of Mr B

    Greetings from North of the 49th

  • One of my favorite Bond scenes is from They Were Expendable. Bond was the Chief on Robert Montgomery's PT boat and he was always sniping with Murray Alper, the Chief on Waynes PT boat but, you could tell they were best friends. When Wayne loses his boat and Alper as his Chief, he makes it back to the base and as he tells Montgomery about who he lost, Bond just gets this empty look on his face and says, "that's great, that's just great". Then you could see both the anger and sorrow in his face over losing his buddy and rival.

  • The Duke's best friend was without a doubt Ward Bond. His presence in his movies was made better because of his presence. What was your favorite Ward Bond movie with or without the Duke. Mine was The Searchers.

    Captain dan, that's a hard one for me to answer. I seem to enjoy all the movies that Duke and Ward Bond were in together. 3 Godfathers, The Searchers, Rio Bravo are all favorites of mine (and yes I know there are several others as well). From what I've seen on the tv, Ward and Duke played practical jokes on each other as well.

    Stay thirsty my friends.

  • My favourite Ward Bond character was in The Quiet Man as the vicar.The bit when he finally catches that fish he's been after and he has to leave it allways makes me laugh.
    He could be deadly serious or do comedic roles equally well

    " I call that bold talk for a one-eyed fat man " True Grit

  • Ward Bond was always my favorite male co-star in Dukes movies. I think that his role in the searchers ranks high on my list of favorite Bond/Wayne movies. I read articles before of some of the pranks he and the Duke played on each other. Some of them were pretty funny.

  • A couple of years ago (no . . . it was almost THREE years ago!), I looked for other links of interest on the different co-stars that Keith highlighted. More recently, I've been trying to go through and make sure the links are still good, deleting the ones that no longer work, and seeing if anything else of interest is out there. Today, checking to see if there are other Ward Bond links of interest, I found this - Find a Grave Memorial Site (which I added to my original post).


    In reading it, I discovered an interesting tidbit which I hadn't heard before, regarding Ward Bond's burial -


    Quote

    Burial: Cremated, Ashes scattered at sea.
    Specifically: Ashes spread in the Pacific Ocean somewhere between Newport Beach and Catalina Island


    It seems that even in death, he didn't get too far away from his buddy John Wayne!


    Mrs. C :angel1:

  • As many have said here, I think Ward was my favorite Duke co-star. As for favorite roles, I'd have to agree with FarmerSteve and say his "Searchers" character (whose name escapes me at the moment). But his "Dakota" character was very well done, too!

  • Well nothing I can say would contribute to the person I consider the greatest supporting actor in film, with the possible exception of Walter Brennan, and I would hate to have to live on the difference. If you look at Ward Bonds film list I believe you will find 10 in the top 100 films of all time, according to A.F.I.
    My personal favorite is his role as Rev. Clayton in the Searchers. But for those who wish to see him in a truly villianous role, then check out The Falcon Takes Over. His role as the murderous Moose Malloy really shows off his ability to do any role and make it truly memorable and believeable.
    One role I did not see mentioned was his role as the union Captain in Gone With The Wind.
    To think what this remarkable actor would have accomplished, had he not died that day in Dallas. And doing this while being an epileptic to boot makes it all the more remarkable.
    One final note when my wife and I had our little sandwich shop in Salida, Colorado we had names for all our sandwiches. One was the Wagonmaster in honor of Ward Bond.

    Don't Believe In Surrenders!!!!!

  • I really enjoyed Ward Bond! I especially liked his character in The Quiet Man."

    Tbone



    "I have tried to live my life so that my family would love me and my friends respect me. The others can do whatever the hell they please."

  • I'm surprised no one has mentioned the incident where he had a serious car accident in Hollywood (might have been in the late 30's, but could have been during They Were Expendable) and was rushed to the ER. They didn't know who he was, and a knife-happy quack wanted to cut his leg off, but a VERY alert orderly spoke up and advised someone to call the studios, whereupon someone came down and stopped the amputation from occurring!

  • I'm surprised no one has mentioned the incident where he had a serious car accident in Hollywood (might have been in the late 30's, but could have been during They Were Expendable) and was rushed to the ER. They didn't know who he was, and a knife-happy quack wanted to cut his leg off, but a VERY alert orderly spoke up and advised someone to call the studios, whereupon someone came down and stopped the amputation from occurring!


    That occurred during the filming of They Were Expendable.

  • Yep - I thought that's when it was. That's why he has the crutch during the movie.


    Thank goodness for that orderly, and that he was a movie fan!!


    Strangely not mentioned in this profile but it
    is in the review for
    They Were Expendable
    http://www.dukewayne.com/showpost.php?p=39822&postcount=28
    and again as recently as July this year
    http://www.dukewayne.com/showpost.php?p=95020&postcount=69

    Best Wishes
    Keith
    London- England

    Edited once, last by ethanedwards ().

  • WOW, these were posted a long time ago. But, I feel that Ford was searching for someone who could fill in the roles Duke played for so long and thought that Ben might be it. After all, Ward Bond had the majority of the lead, and Dobe Carey stated that Ward carried the picture,(not the exact wording). Also, Ward was paid more than any of the others. In the DVD where Peter Bogdonovich and Dobe Carey were commentating, Dobe keeps saying Ward's horse was too small....of course Ford wouldn't have wanted Ward to be taller than Ben on horseback. Also, Dobe gives that the reason for Ward's fall. However, in frame by frame, you can see how Ben's horse Steel was mired up to his fetlocks and struggling to get out of the mud or quicksand...whatever it was. Ward and Ben did a good job of "winging" it. Actually, Ford sent Duke a telegram telling him that Ward had fallen on his bad leg but seemed to be OK. Dobe said that Ford Loved this little picture and was happy go lucky throughout the whole filming. Oh, and when Ward realized his pants were torn and Linda Darnell actually opened the pant leg up to the camera.....I believe she was trying to get a look at that leg of Ward's that was so mangled and which he almost lost. Frame by frame,you can see that Ward is quite angry with Linda, and she looks more than a little nervous about the whole thing. They got over it quickly though. She played in some excellent Wagon Train episodes....especially the one called The Andrew Hale Story. Love Ward Bond, KP

    God, she reminds me of me! DUKE