Those who are curious about the life and career of the famous American actor John Wayne, who is the lead role of "The Searchers" movie and won the best actor award at the Oscar.
John Wayne was born on May 26, 1907 in Winterset, Iowa. His real name is Marion Robert Morrison. His father, Clyde Leonard Morrison and his mother, Mary Alberta Brown, was of Irish descent. Wayne had Scottish, Scots-Irish, English, and Irish ancestry.
His family moved to Glendale, California in 1916. Here he came to be called the "Little Duke" because the huge Airedale Terrier wouldn't go anywhere without his dog. He chose "Duke" over "Marion" and stuck with the nickname. Wayne's childhood was spent in poverty as his father did not manage money well.
Wayne attended Wilson Middle School in Glendale. As a teenager, he also worked at the ice cream parlor of a man who shoeed horses in Hollywood studios. Wayne was a successful and popular student. Throwing in at an early age, he became one of Glendale High's star American football players. He was also president of the Latino Society and contributed to the school newspaper sports column. Upon graduation, he was registered to the University of Southern California.
Wayne also played on the college's American football teams coached by the legendary Howard Jones. The accident while surfing on the beach ended his sports career. When he loses his sports scholarship, he cannot continue school because he has no money.
Cowboy star Tom Mix got Wayne a summer job in the props department in exchange for a football ticket. He formed a long-lasting friendship with director John Ford and started getting small roles. He took cinema as a profession in 1930 with The Big Trail, in which he played his first dramatic role. John Wayne also made his stage name. The Big Trail, the first epic "cowboy" movie, was the actor's first on screen reference, albeit a commercial failure.
But nine years later, his friendship with director John Ford made Wayne a star with his now classic Stagecoach 1939 film. Equestrian and sheepdog skills training were commissioned by the stuntmen in the studio. The Stagecoach movie was a huge critical and financial success. The name that makes John Wayne so good is John Ford, the director of the inevitable Cowboy movies.
Wayne's first color film was Shepherd of the Hills (1941), in which he co-starred with longtime friend Harry Carey. For six months in 1942, Wayne starred in his own radio adventure series "Three Sheets to the Wind", produced.
One of Wayne's most important 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 co-pilot received critical acclaim. In addition, Wayne portrayed aviators in the films Flying Tigers (1942), Flying Leathernecks (1951), Island in the Sky (1953), The Wings of Eagles (1957) and Jet Pilot (1957).
Additionally, Wayne spent the next 35 years beginning in 1928, among them Stagecoach (1939), She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949), The Quiet Man (1952), The Searchers (1956), The Wings of Eagles (1957) and The He appeared in more than twenty John Ford films, including Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962).
In 1960, Wayne directed and produced the Alamo, which played Davy Crockett, with Richard Widmark as Jim Bowie. Wayne was nominated for an Oscar as a producer in the Best Picture category. That year, Wayne also starred in the Henry Hathaway film North to Alaska, which also starred Stewart Granger and Ernie Kovacs.
Wayne, who later starred in and directed many films, premiered Henry Hathaway's True Grit in 1969. Wayne won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his role. In June 1971, Big Jake, directed by George Sherman, made his debut. The film became popular with critical acclaim.
In 1976, Wayne starred in Don Siegel's The Shootist, which also starred Lauren Bacall, Ron Howard, and James Stewart. The main character, JB Books, is Wayne, who is dying of cancer and Wayne himself succumbs three years later. It was the last feature film of the movie. It grossed huge domestically after its theatrical release. The film received critical acclaim. It was named one of the Ten Best Films of 1976 by the National Board of Review.
Despite enrolling in a cancer vaccine trial to prevent Wayne's disease, he died of stomach cancer on June 11, 1979 at UCLA Medical Center. He is buried in the Pacific View Memorial Park Cemetery in Corona del Mar, Newport Beach. According to his son Patrick and grandson Matthew Muñoz, who are priests in the California Diocese of Orange, Wayne converted to Roman Catholicism shortly before his death. On his tombstone, he asked Wayne to inscribe "Feo, Fuerte y Formal", a Spanish inscription meaning "ugly, strong, and dignified."
Private life
Wayne has been married three times and he divorced twice. His three wives included Josephine Alicia Saenz of Spanish American descent and Esperanza Baur and Pilar Pallete from Latin America. He had four children with Josephine. He had three more children with Pilar: Aissa Wayne, John Ethan Wayne and Marisa Wayne. Several of Wayne's children entered the film and television industries. Aissa's granddaughter, Jennifer Wayne, is a member of the country band Runaway June.
In 1973, Wayne was encouraged by Pilar, an avid tennis player, to build the John Wayne Tennis Club in Newport Beach, California. Wayne's yacht, the Wild Goose, was one of his favorite things.
After breaking up with Pilar in 1973, Wayne became romantically involved and lived in with his former secretary, Pat Stacy. Stacy published a book about her life with him called "Duke: A Love Story" in 1983.
Wayne's hair began to thin in the 1940s, and by the end of the decade he was wearing hairpieces. Wayne was fond of literature, his favorite authors were Charles Dickens, Arthur Conan Doyle and Agatha Christie. His favorite books were the historical novels The White Company and Sir Nigel by David Copperfield and Conan Doyle.
He had been a smoker since his young adulthood and was thus diagnosed with lung cancer. Despite efforts by his business partners to prevent him from going public with his illness for fear it would cost him his job, Wayne announced he had cancer and urged the public to undergo preventive examinations. Five years later, Wayne was declared cancer free.