30 Years of Brilliance: 1930-1959
John Wayne
John Wayne appeared in almost 180 films over the course of his career and won a Best Actor Oscar in 1969. His box-office appeal was huge and his movies have so far grossed over $700million - far in excess of any other performer. Yet, he was far more than just a money making machine. He became a legend, an image for the youth of America and the world to aspire to, an image of moral strength, physical courage and immense determination. His career spans almost the entire history of Hollywood, beginning in silent movies in the 1920's right up to 'The Shootist' in 1976 when he gave one of his greatest ever performances.
The American Film Institute named him thirteenth among the Greatest Male Stars of All Time. In 2007 a Harris Poll placed Wayne third among America's favorite film stars. He is the only one who has appeared on the poll every year. His movie,'The Searchers' was named the Greatest Western of all time by the American Film Institute in 2008. He is the most popular actor in history and is still, today, 3 decades after his death, an immense presence towering over Hollywood.
Search Amazon for John WayneJohn Wayne was born in Winterset, Iowa on May 26, 1907. His birth name was Marion Robert Morrison, which was changed shortly afterwards to Marion Mitchell Morrison as his parents had decided to give their next son the name Robert.
The family moved to the sunny climate of California to improve his father's health and after an abortive attempt at ranching, they moved again and his father opened a pharmacy shop in Glendale, California. Marion delivered orders for his father, whilst still at school. He began to be called 'Little Duke' to differentiate him from his huge Airedale dog called 'Duke' and the nickname 'Duke' stuck with him for the rest of his life.
As well as being a good student at Glendale High School he also made use of his athletic build and made a name for himself for his prowess at football, getting an athletic scholarship to study law at the University of Southern California. He naturally played football for the outstanding USC team and his first appearance on film is as a footballer with his USC teammates in 'Brown of Harvard' in 1926, 'The Dropkick' the following year, 'Salute' in 1929 and 'Maker of Men' in 1930.
He had to stop playing competitively when he had a serious ankle injury during his second year in 1926, but he had by then started doing part time work at the local film studios where he became good friends with the young up-and-coming director, John Ford, who was to play a big part in Duke's early career. Ford began giving him walk-on parts in his movies during the late 1920's, firstly under the name Duke Morrison and it was Ford who gave him his big break by recommending him to director Raoul Walsh for the lead role in the Western 'The Big Trail' in 1930. It was for this movie that he changed his name to John Wayne.
For the rest of the 1930's Wayne worked hard at his new profession and made over 40 B-movies, mainly Westerns. He consciously developed his distinctive acting stlye and his rugged yet warm screen image throughout this period.
Finally, in 1939, he was given the opportunity to show what he could do when Ford cast him as The Ringo Kid in the landmark Western 'Stagecoach'. It was the movie that redefined the Western and showed the depth and range of Wayne's acting abilities. The film was a great success both critically and financially and John Wayne became a top Hollywood star.
For the remainder of his long career, Wayne continued to appear in many of Ford's films of all types, particularly Westerns such as 'Fort Apache' in 1948, 'She Wore a Yellow Ribbon' the following year, 'Rio Grande' in 1950, 'The Searchers' in 1956 and 'The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance' in 1962 and war movies such as 1945's 'They Were Expendable' and more conventional dramas such as 'The Quiet Man in 1952.
In the early 1940's Wayne starred in a series of movies with Marlene Dietrich and his popularity with the public continued to rise steadily. He received criticism and accusations of being a draft dodger for not entering the armed services during World War II. He was in fact exempt from military service due to his age (he was 34 at the time of Pearl Harbor) and his family status, classified as 3-A (family deferment). He made a very significant contribution to the war effort by making films such as 'The Fighting Seabees' in 1944 and 'They Were Expendable' in 1945 and many wartime veterans said that a major reason for their joining up was their great appreciation of his movies. He also became a regular and immensely popular visitor to the war zones of World War II, noticeably raising morale amongst the troops.
After 1945 he continued to develop his 'tough-guy with morality' image and he gradually became an icon of masculinity for American men to aspire to. It was a deliberate strategy on Wayne's part. As an intelligent man he knew he was a product being packaged, and he was quite happy to be part of it.
His popularity continued to rise during the late 1940's with different genres of movies including several World War II thrillers such as 'Fighting Seabees' in 1944,'Back to Bataan' in 1945, 'Sands of Iwo Jima' in 1949, for which he was nominated for Best Actor Award; costume action dramas like 'Wake of the Red Witch in 1949; and of course, Westerns like 'Angel and the Badman' in 1947 and the classic 'Red River' in 1948.
By the start of the 1950's he was one of Hollywood's top stars. He also began producing movies through his own company Batjac, (originally called Wayne-Fellowes), many of which were very successful, including Island in the Sky' in 1953, 'The High and the Mighty' in 1954, and 'Rio Bravo' in 1958. 'The Searchers' in 1956 is seen by many critics as Wayne's finest performance. He plays Ethan Edwards, a Civil War Veteran searching for his niece who has been taken by Indians and the movie explores serious themes such as racial prejudice and sexism. In 1960 Wayne directed his first movie, 'The Alamo' in which he also starred, as Davy Crockett.
As his career progressed, Wayne's honest, straight-dealing reputation rose with him and he achieved a uniquely strong position in the mind of the movie-going public as well as the film critics.He continued to act in a succession of popular movies including 'Hatari!' in 1962, 'Donovan's Reef' the following year, 'The Green Berets' in 1968 and 'True Grit' in 1969 for which he won the Best Actor Oscar.
In the 1970's he played in a succession of Westerns which were successful primarily because of his reputation rather than for any intrinsic quality.'Rio Lobo' in 1970 was mauled by the critics, 'Big Jake' in 1971 made money but 'The Cowboys' in 1972 was indifferent and 'The Train Robbers' and 'Cahill U.S. Marshal' the following year were also disappointing. Wayne's final film was one of his best. 'The Shootist' in 1976, tells the story of an aging gunslinger who, discovers he's dying of cancer. Wayne gave a memorable performance made more poignant as he himself was dying of the same disease.
Wayne was a wealthy man and invested his large income wisely. He lived with his third wife, Pilar, in a large house in Newport Beach, Calif., where he also had a 135-foot yacht. He also owned cattle ranches in Stanfield and Springerville, Arizona.
Wayne began to have serious health problemms in the 1960's. Since his youth he had been a heavy smoker, getting through 5 packs a day, and in 1964, he was diagnosed with lung cancer. He underwent successful surgery to remove his entire left lung and four ribs. For the rest of his life he had oxygen bottles with him. In 1969 he announced that he had 'licked the big C'. Then in March 1978 he had heart valve replacement surgery; and in January 1979 his stomach was removed.
John Wayne died of gastric cancer on June 11, 1979 and was buried in the Pacific View Memorial Park cemetery in Orange County, California.
Its inscription reads: "Tommorow is the most important thing in life. Comes into us at midnight very clean. It's perfect when it arrives and it puts itself in our hands. It hopes we've learnt something from yesterday."
