John Agar

 John Agar is a name with which probably not many movie fans of today are familiar. His career was not particularly stellar and most of his movies are undoubtably forgotten.

His main claim to fame is that he was the first husband of Shirley Temple. The two married in 1945 and the publicity, and his good looks, prompted studio boss, David O Selznick, to offer him a five year picture deal. The first was Fort Apache in 1948.

It was a tough initiation to the business due to the director who took no nonsense from anyone - John Ford. The movie starred John Wayne and Henry Fonda. It was not a happy time for Fonda who was suffering emotional problems at the time. If one reads anything about Fonda it will be discovered that emotional problems were part and parcel of his make up for most of his career. Here, he was in a particularly bad place due to a stalled career, failed marriages and alienation from his children and some friends. If anyone has seen the film, he plays an unbending martinet of a human being. His biographer, Peter Collier, wrote, ‘’His character was perhaps closest to his off-screen personality at the time.’’ He suffered bullying from Ford and John Wayne’s son, Michael, wrote that he saw tears in Fonda’s eyes on one occasion after a rollicking from the director.

But it was Agar who bore the brunt of the bullying. Being his first movie and inexperienced Ford had little time for him. It could also be that Ford considered that Agar had not earned his part in the movie but had simply married into the role.

Whatever the reason, he made life hell for the young actor. He constantly referred to him as ‘Mr Temple,’ and incessantly denigrated his acting and the way he said his lines. Her also criticised the way he rode his horse, given that he was portraying a professional cavalry officer.

One day things got so bad he stormed off the picture vowing never to return. Wayne took it upon himself to help the young actor. He took him aside and went through his scenes with him, pretty much directing him. Agar began a lifetime devotion to the actor saying publicly, “I would go to hell and back for Duke.”

Wayne was likewise drawn to him and asked him to appear in several more of his movies, Sands of Iwo Jima, She Wore A Yellow Ribbon, Undefeated, Chisum and Big Jake.

Agar and Temple divorced a year later. He died in 2002.