John_Wayne_in_Rooster_Cogburn

It might come as a surprise that Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin was quite the movie buff. Sources reported that after one of his routine film viewings, Stalin ordered the KGB to assassinate John Wayne. He considered Wayne's anti-communist rhetoric to be a threat to the Soviet Union. According to several accounts, the KGB attempted to carry out the dictator’s order more than once but failed to kill the Duke. When Stalin died, his successor Nikita Khrushchev met privately with John Wayne and informed him that he had rescinded Stalin’s order.