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| Above, John Wayne as a Roman Centurian in The Greatest Story Ever Told. MGM photo. |
This has to go down as the greatest movie urban legend ever told.
In the 1965 movie, The Greatest Story Ever Told, the story of the life of Christ, John Wayne made a cameo appearance at the end of the movie as a Roman Centurian. After Christ was crucified, Wayne looked up at him and said his only line, "Truly this was the son of God!"
A story about this scene has been floating around since 1965.
According to Legends Revealed:
Wayne appears at the end of the film as a Roman Centurion tasked with guarding Jesus Christ on the cross. As Jesus expires from the mortal plane, Wayne’s character exclaims, “Truly this was the son of God.”
Well, as the story goes (here is one of a gazillion different versions of this story, all of which are essentially the same)…
[T]hat at the rehearsal for “The Greatest Story Ever Told’, The Duke, playing the Roman soldier who speared Jesus on the cross, said rather flatly: “Truly he was the son of God”. the director said: “Not like that, say it with awe!”
Obligingly Wayne repeated his line: “Aw, truly he was the son of God.”
It’s a great story, and definitely one that I could completely see happening since, according to the story, it is just a one-off joke, presumably made to cut the tension during the filming of the elaborate epic film.
But DID it happen?
Both John Wayne and George Stevens have independently denied the story, and in both of their cases, they noted that the story IS funny, but that it did not happen (so it’s not like a case of people being so embarrassed that of COURSE they’d deny it). The film also featured a young Roddy McDowell as the apostle Matthew. Years later, McDowell claimed that he was there when Wayne shot his one line, and that the “aw, truly” scene never actually took place. And I’ve never heard or read of an eyewitness claim OTHERwise.
I first read this story back in the mid-1970s in a biography of Wayne.
To read more, go here.
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