Sacheen Littlefeather ‘Six guards stopped John Wayne attacking me’

Littlefeather died at home with family after battling breast cancer for the past few years. Only a few weeks ago on September 17, The Academy of Motion Pictures and Sciences held a ceremony to honour her work. It followed a formal letter of apology for the dramatic fall-out following her appearance on the Oscars stage almost 50 years ago. It said: “The abuse you endured because of this statement was unwarranted and unjustified. For too long the courage you showed has been unacknowledged. For this, we offer both our deepest apologies and our sincere admiration.”

When Marlon Brando’s name was announced as the winner of the 1973 Best Actor for The godfather (up against Michael Caine, Laurence Olivier, Peter O’Toole and Paul Winfield) the auditorium and viewers were stunned to see a young woman in Apache clothing make her way to the stage.

She had been sent by the actor to protest the treatment of the indigenous American people by the film industry and on screen, and given an eight-page letter to read. However, the organisers told her she had 60 seconds so simply announced that Marlon Brando was “very regretfully” declining the award as part of his protest.

As boos and jeers battled cheers in the theatre, she said: “I beg at this time I have not intruded upon this evening, and that we will in the future, our hearts and our understandings will meet with love and generosity.”

Talking of the night in 2016, Littlefeather said: “I was given 60 seconds by the producer to make that speech or I would be arrested. John Wayne was waiting backstage to take me off. He had to be restrained by six security men… I did not put up my fist in protest; I did not use profanity. I used politeness; eloquence and quiet strength were my tools of delivering a message about the rights of native American people to be employed in an industry where a stereotype was being put forth that was not healthy for us.”

Marty Pasetta, the director of the Oscars show from 1972 to 1988, said on his retirement that he had been backstage with the 6’4 Western movies legend, who was waiting to present another award.

Pasetta said: “We had a fight is what we had. John Wayne wanted to go out there and physically yank her off the stage. It took six men to hold him back.”

DON’T MISS
‘Robbie Williams slept with every Spice Girl but me”
Disgusting’ Netflix Marilyn Monroe film Blonde blasted by viewers
 ‘Had me in tears’ Fans react to pics of Heath Ledger, Paul Walker now

Littlefeather said: “I was escorted off of that stage by some armed guards. And luckily so, because John Wayne was waiting in the wings ready to go on to pull me off the stage, and he had to be held back by six security men because he was so outraged about what I had said.”

Last year she said: “During my presentation, he was coming towards me to forcibly take me off the stage, and he had to be restrained by six security men to prevent him from doing so.”

And this August she was quoted on the official Academy podcast saying: “He attempted to assault me onstage. He had to be restrained by six security men in order to prevent him from doing exactly that.” And again the same month: “He came forth in a rage to physically assault and take me off the stage.”

But is it true? What exactly did Littlefeather herself see?

Wayne was certainly backstage around that time, since he was due to come at the very end of the night to bring back all the winners and cast of the night to sing You Outta Be In Pictures as the credits rolled. But it is unlikely he was anywhere in eyeshot from the stage or he would have been seen by many more people.

The wings of the stage that night were particularly open to view, so it’s unclear where he had been that might have been a danger to Littlefeather, who herself had never said at any time that she herself actually saw him ready to assault her. Furthermore, she was definitely not escorted off-stage by security but rather walked off by presenter Roger Moore. 

When The Duke came on, he did not look like he had just been grappling with six security guards. He was also 65, greatly weakened by lung cancer surgery which had removed two ribs and part of a lung, and frequently reliant on an oxygen tank.

Damningly, any mention of the most controversial part of the story only appeared years after the event.

The year after the ceremony, Pasetta said in 1974: “And there’s John Wayne backstage and he’s in an uproar and I had to calm him down. I said, ‘don’t go out there, Duke, that’ll only make it worse.’ Everybody was in an uproar.”

Pasetta later added: “He hollered, but he stayed.” No mention of restraining by six burly security guards.

The descriptions of Wayne physically threatening to attack only came first in 1981, after his death in 1979. Perhaps out of respect while he was alive, or concerns over a public or legal battle. Littlefeather’s increasingly detailed and dramatic accounts only started to include the details of six men restraining Wayne after they first appeared in print elsewhere.

Wayne’s temper and virulent right-wing and patriotic views are well-documented, but nowhere has it ever been said that he would physically attack a woman.

His biographer Scott Eyman told Farran Smith Nehme of Self Styled Siren: “Nobody I talked to who knew Wayne ever referred to or, apparently, believed that story. For one thing, Wayne was not physically aggressive. Not with men, certainly not with women. For another thing, he was a well brought up Edwardian man. Politeness was his basic social position unless confronted by overt rudeness. 

“I don’t doubt he would have been pissed off by Brando’s rejection of an award Wayne and his generation had considerable respect for, but the idea of him trying to storm the stage like Lawrence Tierney on a bender is ludicrous.”

SOURCE