In the mid-'30s Cohn hired a relatively unknown cowboy actor,
John Wayne, for a several-picture contract at Columbia with its "B" western unit. Cohn, a married man, soon
got the idea that Wayne had made a pass at a Columbia starlet with whom
Cohn was having an affair. When he confronted Wayne about it Wayne
denied it, but Cohn called up executives at other studios and told them
that Wayne would show up for work drunk, was a womanizer and a
troublemaker and requested that they not hire him. Wayne didn't work
for several months afterward, and when he discovered what Cohn had
done, he burst into Cohn's office at Columbia, grabbed him by the neck
and threatened to kill him. After he cooled off he told Cohn that "You son of a bitch, as
long as I live I will never work one day for you or Columbia no matter
how much you offer me." Later, after Wayne had become a major star, he
received several lucrative film offers from Columbia, including the
lead in
O Matador (1950) (which was later made by 20th Century-Fox with
Gregory Peck in the role), all of which he turned down cold. Even after Cohn died
in 1958, Wayne still refused all offers from
Columbia Pictures, including several that would have paid him more than
a million dollars.
