Stanley Kubrick’s Oscar-winning Roman epic was extremely controversial upon its launch in 1960.
Kirk Douglas allowed blacklisted communist screenwriter Dalton Trumbo, one of many Hollywood Ten, to pen Spartacus with out having to cover his identify.
The scribe had beforehand been taking a clandestine method to his work following his ostracisation from the movie trade years earlier.
However, he nonetheless managed to win two Academy Awards beneath different names for Roman Vacation and The Courageous One.
In consequence, John Wayne and the right-wing Nationwide Legion of Decency condemned the film as “Marxist propaganda” and picketed the epic upon its launch.
It was solely when John F Kennedy went to see Spartacus and referred to as it “good” did this blacklisting actually finish.
Regardless of this political loss, Wayne ended up working with Douglas on Solid a Large Shadow and In Hurt’s Manner, earlier than making 1967’s The Battle Wagon.
In the course of the latter’s manufacturing, Douglas was late to set as he had been taking pictures a business to endorse Edmund G Brown, a Democrat, as Governor of California.
This enraged Wayne, a life-long conservative, who was late himself the following day as he’d been filming an advert to endorse the Republican candidate, fellow actor and future US President Ronald Reagan.
Though the 2 Hollywood stars had their political variations they did ultimately turn into associates and had a mutual respect for one another.
Douglas later stated in a 1971 interview: “We get alongside properly, we by no means focus on politics. However he’s the primary man on the set, the toughest employee I’ve ever labored with, and I feel he’s fairly a personality.”