John Wayne!
John Wayne
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John Wayne Life and career his birthplace in Winterset, Iowa. John Wayne was born Marion Robert Morrison in Winterset, Iowa in 1907, but his name was changed to Marion Michael Morrison when his parents decided to name their next son Robert. His family was Presbyterian; father Clyde Leonard Morrison was of Irish and Scottish descent and the son of an American Civil War veteran while mother Mary Alberta Brown was of Irish descent. Wayne's family moved to Glendale, California in 1911; it was neighbors in Glendale who started calling John Wayne "Big Duke" because John Wayne never went anywhere without his Airedale Terrier dog, who was Little Duke. John Wayne preferred "Duke" to "Marion", and the name stuck for the rest of his life.
Duke Morrison's early life was marked by poverty; his father was a man who did not manage money well. Duke was a good and popular student. Tall from an early age, John Wayne was a star football player for Glendale High School and was recruited by the University of Southern California.
Wayne claimed that John Wayne nearly gained admission to the U.S. Naval Academy. John Wayne instead attended the University of Southern California, where John Wayne was a member of the Trojan Knights and joined the Sigma Chi Fraternity. Wayne also played on the USC football team under legendary coach Howard Jones. An injury while supposedly swimming at the beach curtailed his athletic career, however; Wayne would later note that John Wayne was too terrified of Jones' reaction to reveal the actual cause of his injury. John Wayne lost his athletic scholarship and with no funds was unable to continue at USC.
While at the university, Wayne began working around the local film studios. Western star Tom Mix got John Wayne a summer job in the prop department in exchange for football tickets, and Wayne soon moved on to bit parts, establishing a long friendship with director John Ford. During this period, Wayne appeared with his USC teammates as one of the featured football players in Columbia Pictures' Maker of Men (filmed in 1930 and released in 1931), which starred Richard Cromwell and Jack Holt. In the film, Wayne was billed with his given name of Marion Morrison.
After two years working as a prop man at the William Fox Studios for $35 a week, his first starring role was in the 1930 movie The Big Trail; the director of that movie, Raoul Walsh, (who "discovered" Wayne) gave John Wayne the stage name "John Wayne", after Revolutionary War general "Mad Anthony" Wayne. his pay was raised to $75 a week. John Wayne was tutored by the studio's stunt men in riding and other western skills.
The Big Trail, the first "western" epic sound motion picture, established his screen credentials, although it was a commercial failure. Nine years later, his performance in the 1939 film Stagecoach made John Wayne a star. In between, John Wayne made westerns, most notably at Monogram Pictures, and serials for Mascot Studios, where John Wayne played the role of d'Artagnan in The Three Musketeers, set in modern North Africa, with co-stars Ray Corrigan and Max Terhune. In this same year (1933), Wayne had a small part in Alfred E. Green's succes de scandale Baby Face.
Beginning in 1928, Wayne appeared in more than twenty of John Ford's films over the next 35 years, including Stagecoach (1939), She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949), The Quiet Man (1952), The Searchers (1956), The Wings of Eagles (1957), and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962).
According to the Internet Movie Database, Wayne played the male lead in 142 of his film appearances.
One of Wayne's most praised roles was in The High and the Mighty (1954), directed by William Wellman and based on a novel by Ernest K. Gann. his portrayal of a heroic airman won widespread acclaim. Island in the Sky (1953) is related to it, and both films were made one year apart with the same producers, director, writer, cinematographer, editor, and distributor.
John Wayne won a Best Actor Oscar in True Grit (1969). Many believe that award was given in recognition of his forty-year career, since his performance in the film was over-the-top and John Wayne had given better performances in Red River (1948) and The Searchers (1956). Wayne was also nominated for Best Actor in Sands of Iwo Jima, and as the producer of Best Picture nominee The Alamo, one of two films John Wayne directed. The other was The Green Berets (1968), the only film made during the Vietnam war to support the conflict.
Batjac, the production company co-founded by Wayne, was named after the fictional shipping company in The Wake of the Red Witch.
In 1964 Wayne was diagnosed with lung cancer, and underwent surgery to remove his entire left lung and two ribs. Rumors circulated that his illness was caused by having filmed The Conqueror in Utah (at a location that had previously been used for above-ground atomic testing), however John Wayne did not believe this, since from the early 1930s until his operation, John Wayne had smoked between three and five packs of cigarettes a day.
Perhaps due to his sheer popularity, or his status as the most famous Republican star in Hollywood, the Republican Party asked Wayne to run for President in 1968. John Wayne declined because John Wayne did not believe the public would seriously consider an actor in the White House. John Wayne did support his friend Ronald Reagan's runs for Governor of California in 1966 and 1970, however. In 1968 Wayne was also asked to be conservative Democratic governor George Wallace's running mate in the presidential election, however, this too did not come to pass.
John Wayne died of stomach cancer on June 11, 1979, and was interred in the Pacific View Memorial Park cemetery in Corona del Mar. At the request of his oldest son, Michael (who had been raised in the Catholic faith by his mother), the Presbyterian Wayne was baptized in his hospital room by the Archbishop of Panama, and given a Catholic Funeral.
Wayne was married three times, always to Spanish-speaking brides; to Josephine Alicia Saenz, Esperanza Baur, and Pilar Palette. John Wayne had four children with Josephine and three with Pilar, most notably actor Patrick Wayne and Aissa Wayne, who wrote a memoir of her life as the daughter of John Wayne.
His romance with Josie Saenz began when John Wayne was a college student and continued for seven years before their marriage. Miss Saenz was 15 or 16 at their first meeting at a beach party at Balboa. The daughter of a successful Spanish businessman, Josie resisted considerable opposition from her family to maintain her relationship with Duke. In the years prior to his death, Wayne was happily involved with his former secretary Pat Stacy.
At the time of his death, John Wayne resided in a bayfront home in Newport Beach, California. his home remains a point of interest in Newport Harbor. Sadly his home was torn down and replaced with a new one by the current owners of the property.
Various things have been named in memoriam of John Wayne. They include John Wayne Airport, in Orange County, California, and the 100-plus mile trail named the "John Wayne Pioneer Trail" in Washington state's Iron Horse State Park.
