Here are four facts that might surprise you about John Wayne.

1. Stalin ordered his death

Joseph Stalin was extremely outraged by the anti-communist sentiments that were expressed by Wayne in the late 1940s. According to sources including an unnamed Soviet source and Stalin’s successor Premier Nikita Khrushchev, two KGB assassins were dispatched to kill the movie star in 1951. However, they were intercepted by the FBI. The FBI also managed to foil other plans to kill Wayne, including a sniper attack during his visit to Vietnam in 1966.