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John Wayne

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Marion Robert Morrison<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>Template:Efn (May 26, 1907 – June 11, 1979), professionally known as John Wayne and nicknamed "Duke", was an American actor who became a popular icon through his starring roles in films which were produced during Hollywood's Golden Age, especially in Western and war movies. His career flourished from the silent film era of the 1920s through the American New Wave, as he appeared in a total of 179 film and television productions. He was among the top box-office draws for three decades<ref name="numbers">Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and appeared with many other important Hollywood stars of his era. In 1999, the American Film Institute selected Wayne as one of the greatest male stars of classic American cinema.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Wayne was born in Winterset, Iowa, but grew up in Southern California. After losing his football scholarship to the University of Southern California due to a bodysurfing accident,Template:Sfn he began working for the Fox Film Corporation. He appeared mostly in small parts, but his first leading role came in Raoul Walsh's Western The Big Trail (1930), an early widescreen film epic that was a box-office failure. He played leading roles in numerous Template:Nowrap during the 1930s, most of them also Westerns, without becoming a major name. John Ford's Stagecoach (1939) made Wayne a mainstream star, and he starred in 142 motion pictures altogether. According to biographer Ronald Davis, "John Wayne personified for millions the nation's frontier heritage."<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Wayne's other roles in Westerns included a cattleman driving his herd on the Chisholm Trail in Red River (1948), a Civil War veteran whose niece is abducted by a tribe of Comanches in The Searchers (1956), a troubled rancher competing with a lawyer (James Stewart) for a woman's hand in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962), and a cantankerous one-eyed marshal in True Grit (1969), for which he received the Academy Award for Best Actor. Wayne is also remembered for his roles in The Quiet Man (1952) with Maureen O'Hara, Rio Bravo (1959) with Dean Martin, and The Longest Day (1962). In his final screen performance, he starred as an aging gunfighter battling cancer in The Shootist (1976). Wayne made his last public appearance at the Academy Awards ceremony on April 9, 1979,<ref>Duke, We're Glad We Knew You: John Wayne's Friends and Colleagues Remember His Remarkable life   by Herb Fagen Template:Webarchive page 230;  Retrieved February 13, 2016</ref><ref>Easy Riders Raging Bulls: How the Sex-Drugs-And Rock 'N Roll Generation Saved Hollywood    by Peter Biskind page 372;  Retrieved February 13, 2016</ref> and died of stomach cancer two months later.<ref>Los Angeles Times Template:Webarchive June 12, 1979;  Retrieved February 13, 2016</ref> In 1980, he was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor of the United States.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Early life

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File:John Wayne birthplace.jpg
The house in Winterset, Iowa, where Wayne was born

Wayne was born Marion Robert Morrison on May 26, 1907, at 224 South Second Street in Winterset, Iowa.<ref>Madison County, Iowa, birth certificate.</ref> The local paper, Winterset Madisonian, reported on page 4 of the edition of May 30, 1907, that Wayne weighed 13 lb (around 6 kg) at birth.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Wayne claimed his middle name was soon changed from Robert to Michael when his parents decided to name their next son Robert, but extensive research has found no such legal change, although it might have been changed informally or the documentation may have been lost. Wayne's legal name apparently remained Marion Robert Morrison his entire lifeTemplate:Sfn<ref>Wayne, John, My Kingdom, unfinished draft autobiography, University of Texas Library.</ref> although to this day his original name is almost always referred to as Marion Michael Morrison.

Wayne's father, Clyde Leonard Morrison (1884–1937), was the son of Marion Mitchell Morrison (1845–1915), a veteran who'd served in the Union army during the American Civil War. Wayne's mother, the former Mary "Molly" Alberta Brown (1885–1970), was from Lancaster County, Nebraska. Wayne had Scottish, Scotch-Irish, English, and Irish ancestry.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> His great-great-grandfather Robert Morrison (b. 1782) left County Antrim, Ireland, with his mother, arriving in New York in 1799 and eventually settling in Adams County, Ohio. The Morrisons were originally from the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides, Scotland.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> He was raised Presbyterian.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Wayne's family moved to Palmdale, California, and then in 1916 to Glendale at 404 Isabel Street, where his father worked as a pharmacist. He attended Glendale Union High School, where he performed well in both sports and academics. Wayne was part of his high school's football team and its debating team. He was also the president of the Latin Society and contributed to the school's newspaper sports column.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

A local fireman at the station on his route to school in Glendale started calling him "Little Duke" because he never went anywhere without his huge Airedale Terrier, Duke.Template:Sfn<ref name="Munn">Munn, Michael (2003). John Wayne: The Man Behind the Myth. London: Robson Books. p. 7. Template:ISBN.</ref> He preferred "Duke" to "Marion", and the nickname stuck. Wayne attended Wilson Middle School in Glendale. As a teen, he worked in an ice-cream shop for a man who shod horses for Hollywood studios. He was also active as a member of the Order of DeMolay. He played football for the 1924 league champion Glendale High School team.<ref name="glendale">Template:Cite web</ref>

Wayne applied to the U.S. Naval Academy, but was not accepted due to poor grades. Instead, he attended the University of Southern California (USC), majoring in pre-law. He was a member of the Trojan Knights and Sigma Chi fraternities.<ref name=davis>Template:Cite book</ref>Template:Rp Wayne, who stood Template:Height tall, also played on the USC football team under coach Howard Jones. A broken collarbone injury curtailed his athletic career; Wayne later noted that he was too terrified of Jones' reaction to reveal the actual cause of his injury, a bodysurfing accident.<ref name="travers">Template:Cite book</ref> He lost his athletic scholarship, and without funds, had to leave the university.<ref name=jwayne.com>Shephard, Richard. Biography Template:Webarchive. JWayne.com. Retrieved March 11, 2010.</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

Career

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Early works and first lead role

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As a favor to coach Jones, who had given silent Western film star Tom Mix tickets to USC games, director John Ford and Mix hired Wayne as a prop boy and extra.<ref name=hughes/><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Wayne later credited his walk, talk, and persona to his acquaintance with Wyatt Earp, who was good friends with Tom Mix.<ref name=hughes>Template:Cite book</ref> Wayne soon moved to bit parts, establishing a longtime friendship with the director who provided most of those roles, John Ford. Early in this period, he had a minor, uncredited role as a guard in the 1926 film Bardelys the Magnificent. Wayne also appeared with his USC teammates playing football in Brown of Harvard (1926), The Dropkick (1927), and Salute (1929) and Columbia's Maker of Men (filmed in 1930, released in 1931).<ref name=JWBio-TQL>Template:Cite web</ref>

File:The Big Trail (publicity photo - Wayne & Churchill).jpg
With Marguerite Churchill in the widescreen The Big Trail (1930); John Wayne's first role as a leading man

While working for Fox Film Corporation in bit roles, Wayne was given on-screen credit as "Duke Morrison" only once, in Words and Music (1929). Director Raoul Walsh saw him moving studio furniture while working as a prop boy and cast him in his first starring role in The Big Trail (1930). For his screen name, Walsh suggested "Anthony Wayne", after Revolutionary War General "Mad" Anthony Wayne. Fox Studios chief Winfield Sheehan rejected it as sounding "too Italian". Walsh then suggested "John Wayne". Sheehan agreed, and the name was set. Wayne was not even present for the discussion.Template:Sfn His pay was raised to $105 a week.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

The Big Trail was to be the first big-budget outdoor spectacle of the sound era, made at a then-staggering cost over $2 million (over $32.8 million equivalent in 2021),<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> using hundreds of extras and wide vistas of the American Southwest, still largely unpopulated at the time. To take advantage of the breathtaking scenery, it was filmed in two versions, a standard 35 mm version and another in the new 70 mm Grandeur film process, using an innovative camera and lenses. Many in the audience who saw it in Grandeur stood and cheered, but only a handful of theaters were equipped to show the film in its widescreen process, and the effort was largely wasted at the time. The film was considered a huge box-office flop at the time, but came to be highly regarded by modern critics.<ref name=Clooney195>Template:Cite book</ref>

Subsequent films, breakthrough, and war years

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File:The Big Trail lobby card (5).jpg
The Big Trail (1930) lobby card
File:Girls Demand Excitement lobby card.jpg
Lobby card for Girls Demand Excitement (1931)
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With Evalyn Knapp and Natalie Kingston in His Private Secretary (1933)
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Wayne as "Singin' Sandy" Saunders in Riders of Destiny (1933)
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File:Conflict (1936) 1.jpg
With Jean Rogers and Ward Bond in Conflict (1936)
File:Born to the West (1937) 1.jpg
With Marsha Hunt in Born to the West (1937)
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With Joan Blondell in Lady for a Night (1942)
File:Angel and the Badman 1947.jpg
John Wayne and Gail Russell in Angel and the Badman (1947)

After the commercial failure of The Big Trail, Wayne was relegated to small roles in A pictures, including Columbia's The Deceiver (1931), in which he played a corpse. He appeared in the serial The Three Musketeers (1933), an updated version of the Alexandre Dumas novel in which the protagonists were soldiers in the French Foreign Legion in then-contemporary North Africa. He played the lead, with his name over the title, in many low-budget Poverty Row Westerns, mostly at Monogram Pictures and serials for Mascot Pictures Corporation. By Wayne's own estimation, he appeared in about 80 of these horse operas from 1930 to 1939.<ref>Clooney, p. 196.</ref> In Riders of Destiny (1933), he became one of the first singing cowboys of film, albeit via dubbing.<ref name="peterson1997">Template:Cite book</ref> Wayne also appeared in some of the Three Mesquiteers Westerns, whose title was a play on the Dumas classic. He was mentored by stuntmen in riding and other Western skills.<ref name=JWBio-TQL /> Stuntman Yakima Canutt and Wayne developed and perfected stunts and onscreen fisticuffs techniques that are still in use.<ref>Canutt, Yakima, with Oliver Drake, Stuntman. University of Oklahoma Press, 1997, Template:ISBN.</ref> One of the main innovations with which Wayne is credited in these early Poverty Row Westerns is allowing the good guys to fight as convincingly as the bad guys, by not always making them fight clean. Wayne claimed, "Before I came along, it was standard practice that the hero must always fight clean. The heavy was allowed to hit the hero in the head with a chair or throw a kerosene lamp at him or kick him in the stomach, but the hero could only knock the villain down politely and then wait until he rose. I changed all that. I threw chairs and lamps. I fought hard and I fought dirty. I fought to win."<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Wayne's second breakthrough role came with John Ford's Stagecoach (1939). Because of Wayne's B-movie status and track record in low-budget Westerns throughout the 1930s, Ford had difficulty getting financing for what was to be an A-budget film. After rejection by all the major studios, Ford struck a deal with independent producer Walter Wanger in which Claire Trevor—a much bigger star at the time—received top billing. Stagecoach was a huge critical and financial success, and Wayne became a mainstream star. Cast member Louise Platt credited Ford as saying at the time that Wayne would become the biggest star ever because of his appeal as the archetypal "everyman".<ref name="Louise Platt letter">Letter, Louise Platt to Ned Scott Archive, July 7, 2002 Template:Webarchive pp. 40:</ref>

America's entry into World War II resulted in a deluge of support for the war effort from all sectors of society, and Hollywood was no exception. Wayne was exempted from service due to his age (34 at the time of Pearl Harbor) and family status (classified as 3-A – family deferment). Wayne repeatedly wrote to John Ford saying he wanted to enlist, on one occasion inquiring whether he could get into Ford's military unit.Template:Sfn Wayne did not attempt to prevent his reclassification as 1-A (draft eligible), but Republic Studios was emphatically resistant to losing him, since he was their only A-list actor under contract. Herbert J. Yates, president of Republic, threatened Wayne with a lawsuit if he walked away from his contract,Template:Sfn and Republic Pictures intervened in the Selective Service process, requesting Wayne's further deferment.Template:Sfn

U.S. National Archives records indicate that Wayne, in fact, did make an application<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> to serve in the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), precursor to the modern CIA, but his bid was ultimately unsuccessful. Wayne toured U.S. bases and hospitals in the South Pacific for three months in 1943 and 1944,Template:Sfn with the USO.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> During this trip, he carried out a request from William J. Donovan, head of the OSS, to assess whether General Douglas MacArthur, commander of the South West Pacific Area, or his staff were hindering the work of the OSS.<ref name="Munn"/>Template:Rp Donovan later issued Wayne an OSS Certificate of Service to memorialize Wayne's contribution to the OSS mission.<ref name="Munn"/>Template:Rp<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

By many accounts, his failure to serve in the military later became the most painful part of his life.Template:Sfn His widow later suggested that his patriotism in later decades sprang from guilt, writing: "He would become a 'superpatriot' for the rest of his life trying to atone for staying home."<ref>Wayne, Pilar, John Wayne, pp. 43–47.</ref>

Wayne's first color film was The Shepherd of the Hills (1941), in which he co-starred with his longtime friend Harry Carey. The following year, he appeared in his only film directed by Cecil B. DeMille, the Technicolor epic Reap the Wild Wind (1942), in which he co-starred with Ray Milland and Paulette Goddard; it was one of the rare times he played a character with questionable values.

Like most Hollywood stars of his era, Wayne appeared as a guest on radio programs, such as: The Hedda Hopper Show and The Louella Parsons Show. He made a number of appearances in dramatic roles, mainly recreations for radio of his own film roles, on such programs as Screen Directors Playhouse and Lux Radio Theatre. For six months in 1942, Wayne starred in his own radio adventure series, Three Sheets to the Wind, produced by film director Tay Garnett. In the series, an international spy/detective show, Wayne played Dan O'Brien, a detective who used alcoholism as a mask for his investigatory endeavors. The show was intended by Garnett to be a pilot of sorts for a film version, though the motion picture never came to fruition. No episodes of the series featuring Wayne seem to have survived, though a demonstration episode with Brian Donlevy in the leading role does exist. Wayne, not Donlevy, played the role throughout the series' run on NBC.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

File:Angel and the Badman 1947 John Wayne.ogv
Wayne (right) acting in a short clip from Angel and the Badman (1947) (click to play)
File:Gail Russell-John Wayne in Wake of the Red Witch trailer.jpg
Gail Russell and John Wayne in Wake of the Red Witch (1948)

Director Robert Rossen offered to Wayne the starring role in All the King's Men (1949), but Wayne refused, believing the script to be "un-American in many ways."Template:Sfn Broderick Crawford, who was eventually cast in the role, won the 1949 Oscar for Best Actor, ironically beating out Wayne, who had been nominated for Sands of Iwo Jima (1949).

1950s

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He lost the leading role of Jimmy Ringo in The Gunfighter (1950) to Gregory Peck due to his refusal to work for Columbia Pictures because its chief, Harry Cohn, had mistreated him years before when he was a young contract player. Cohn had bought the project for Wayne, but Wayne's grudge was too deep, and Cohn sold the script to Twentieth Century Fox, which cast Peck in the role Wayne badly wanted, but for which he refused to bend.Template:Sfn<ref>Hyams, J. The Life and Times of the Western Movie. Gallery Books (1984), pp. 109–12. Template:ISBN</ref>

Batjac, the production company co-founded by Wayne in 1952, was named after the fictional shipping company Batjak in Wake of the Red Witch (1948), a film based on the novel by Garland Roark. (A spelling error by Wayne's secretary was allowed to stand, accounting for the variation.)Template:Sfn Batjac (and its predecessor, Wayne-Fellows Productions) was the arm through which Wayne produced many films for himself and other stars. Its best-known non-Wayne productions were Seven Men From Now (1956), which started the classic collaboration between director Budd Boetticher and star Randolph Scott, and Gun the Man Down (1956) with contract player James Arness as an outlaw.

One of Wayne's most popular 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 copilot won widespread acclaim. Wayne also portrayed aviators in Flying Tigers (1942), Flying Leathernecks (1951), Island in the Sky (1953), The Wings of Eagles (1957), and Jet Pilot (1957).

He appeared in nearly two dozen of John Ford's films over 20 years, including She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949), The Quiet Man (1952), and The Wings of Eagles (1957). The first movie in which he called someone "Pilgrim", Ford's The Searchers (1956), is often considered to contain Wayne's finest and most complex performance.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

On May 14, 1958, Hal Kanter's I Married a Woman starring George Gobel and Diana Dors had its Los Angeles opening. In it, Wayne had a cameo as himself.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> On October 2, John Huston's The Barbarian and the Geisha, in which Wayne played the lead and clashed with his director all the way, had its New York opening.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Howard Hawks's Rio Bravo premiered on March 18, 1959. In it, Wayne plays the lead with a supporting cast including Dean Martin, Ricky Nelson, Angie Dickinson, Walter Brennan and Ward Bond.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> John Ford's The Horse Soldiers had its world premiere in Shreveport, Louisiana on June 18. Set during the Civil War, Wayne shares the lead with William Holden.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Wayne notoriously portrayed Genghis Khan in The Conqueror (1956), which was panned by critics.

1960s

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File:The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (publicity photo - Wayne & Stewart).jpg
Wayne and James Stewart in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)

In 1960, Wayne directed and produced The Alamo portraying Davy Crockett, with Richard Widmark as Jim Bowie. Wayne was nominated for an Oscar as the producer in the Best Picture category.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> That year Wayne also played the lead in Henry Hathaway's North to Alaska also starring Stewart Granger and Ernie Kovacs.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In 1961, Wayne shared the lead with Stuart Whitman in Michael Curtiz's The Comancheros.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

On May 23, 1962, Wayne starred in John Ford's The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance with James Stewart.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> May 29 marked the premiere of Howard Hawks's Hatari!, shot on location in Africa with Wayne playing the lead capturing wild animals from the beds of trucks; all the scenes with animals in the film are real.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> On October 4, The Longest Day started its theatrical run, with Wayne memorably acting with an ensemble cast.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Although the other top-level actors in the film accepted a token payment of only $10,000 each to play their roles, making the all-star cast feasible for the budget, Wayne was paid a quarter of a million dollars due to an earlier dispute with producer Darryl F. Zanuck. During this time, the cast of the television drama, Combat!, were preparing for the inaugural season. The principal cast (including Vic Morrow) were to go through a week of basic training at the Army's Infantry Training Center at Fort Ord in northern California.<ref name="Penton">Template:Cite news</ref> Morrow noted that the instructors who worked with the cast at Fort Ord had one common request: not to act like John Wayne. "Poor John," Morrow told a reporter. "I wonder if he knows he's almost a dirty word in the Army."<ref name="Penton"/>

On February 20, 1963, Wayne acted in a segment of How the West Was Won<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> directed by John Ford. On June 12, Wayne played the lead in his final John Ford film, Donovan's Reef, co-starring Lee Marvin.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> On November 13, another film starring Wayne premiered, Andrew V. McLaglen's McLintock!, once again opposite Maureen O'Hara.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

In 1964, Wayne played the leading role in Henry Hathaway's Circus World with Claudia Cardinale and Rita Hayworth.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

On February 15, 1965, Wayne played the brief cameo role of a centurion in George Stevens's The Greatest Story Ever Told.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> On April 6, he shared the screen with Kirk Douglas and Patricia Neal in Otto Preminger's In Harm's Way.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> On June 13, he acted in Henry Hathaway's The Sons of Katie Elder with Dean Martin.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

In 1966, Wayne appeared in a cameo role for Melville Shavelson's Cast a Giant Shadow starring Kirk Douglas.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

On May 24, 1967, Wayne played the lead in Burt Kennedy's The War Wagon with Kirk Douglas as the second lead.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> His second movie that year, Howard Hawks's El Dorado, a highly successful partial remake of Rio Bravo with Robert Mitchum playing Dean Martin's original role, premiered on June 7.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

In 1968, Wayne co-directed with Ray Kellogg The Green Berets,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> the only major film made during the Vietnam War in support of the war.<ref name="jwayne.com" /> Wayne wanted to make this movie because at that time Hollywood had little interest in making movies about the Vietnam War.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> During the filming of The Green Berets, the Degar or Montagnard people of Vietnam's Central Highlands, fierce fighters against communism, bestowed on Wayne a brass bracelet that he wore in the film and all subsequent films.Template:Sfn Also that year, Wayne played the lead in Andrew V. McLaglen's Hellfighters, a film about the crews who put out oil rig fires.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Katharine Ross played a supporting role.

On June 13, 1969, Henry Hathaway's True Grit premiered. For his role as Rooster Cogburn, Wayne won the Best Actor Oscar at the Academy Awards.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In November of that year another film starring Wayne was released, Andrew V. McLaglen's The Undefeated with Rock Hudson.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

1970s: later career

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File:JohnWayneRichardBooneKBF1971.jpg
Wayne and Richard Boone at Big Jake screening, 1971

On June 24, 1970, Andrew V. McLaglen's Chisum started to play in cinemas. Wayne took the role of the owner of a cattle ranch, who finds out that a businessman is trying to own neighboring land illegally.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> On September 16, Howard Hawks' Rio Lobo premiered. Wayne played Col. Cord McNally, who confronts Confederate soldiers who stole a shipment of gold at the end of the Civil War.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> This was another remake of Rio Bravo albeit without a second lead the box office caliber of Dean Martin or Robert Mitchum.

In June 1971, George Sherman's Big Jake made its debut. Wayne played the role of an estranged father who must track down a gang who kidnapped his grandson.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The film was a critically acclaimed hit.

In 1972, Wayne starred in Mark Rydell's The Cowboys. Vincent Canby of The New York Times, who did not particularly care for the film, wrote: "Wayne is, of course, marvelously indestructible, and he has become an almost perfect father figure".<ref name=":0">Template:Cite news</ref> The same year, he was selected in the last round of the NFL draft by the Atlanta Falcons for his past football experience, though the pick was disallowed by league officials as he was 64 years old at the time.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

On February 7, 1973, Burt Kennedy's The Train Robbers opened; Wayne appeared alongside Ann-Margret, Rod Taylor and Ben Johnson.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> On June 27, Andrew V. McLaglen's Cahill U.S. Marshal premiered, with Wayne, George Kennedy and Gary Grimes. It was a box office failure.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

In 1974, Wayne took on the role of the eponymous detective in John Sturges's crime drama McQ.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

On March 25, 1975, Douglas Hickox's Brannigan premiered. In it, Wayne played a Chicago police lieutenant named Jim Brannigan on the hunt in London for an organized-crime leader.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> On October 17, Rooster Cogburn started its theatrical run; Wayne reprised his role as U.S. Marshal Reuben J. "Rooster" Cogburn<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> with strong elements of the plot of The African Queen along with Katharine Hepburn as his leading lady.

In 1976, Wayne starred in Don Siegel's The Shootist, also starring Lauren Bacall, Ron Howard and James Stewart. It was Wayne's final cinematic role, whose main character, J. B. Books, was dying of cancer, to which Wayne himself succumbed three years later. It contains numerous plot similarities to The Gunfighter of nearly 30 years before, a role which Wayne had wanted, but turned down.Template:Sfn Upon its theatrical release, it grossed $13,406,138 domestically. About $6 million were earned as US theatrical rentals.<ref>Box Office Information for The Shootist. Template:Webarchive The Numbers. Retrieved September 18, 2013.</ref> The film received positive reviews.<ref>Movie Reviews for The Shootist. Template:Webarchive Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved September 18, 2013.</ref> It was named one of the Ten Best Films of 1976 by the National Board of Review. Film critic Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times ranked The Shootist number 10 on his list of the 10 best films of 1976.<ref>Roger Ebert's 10 Best Lists: 1967 to present. Template:Webarchive Roger Ebert's Journal. Retrieved September 18, 2013.</ref> The film was nominated for an Oscar, a Golden Globe, a BAFTA film award, and a Writers Guild of America award.

Personal life

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Wayne was married three times and divorced twice. His wives included one of Spanish American descent, Josephine Alicia Saenz, and two from Latin America, Esperanza Baur and Pilar Pallete. He had four children with Josephine: Michael Wayne (1934–2003), Mary Antonia "Toni" Wayne LaCava (1936–2000), Patrick Wayne (born 1939), and Melinda Wayne Munoz (1940–2022). He had three more children with Pilar: Aissa Wayne (born 1956), John Ethan Wayne (born 1962), and Marisa Wayne (born 1966).

File:Walter Knott with John and Ethan Wayne, Log Ride opening, Knott's Berry Farm, 1969.jpg
John and Ethan Wayne with Walter Knott in 1969

Several of Wayne's children entered the film and television industry. Son Ethan was billed as John Ethan Wayne in a few films, and played one of the leads in the 1990s update of the Adam-12 television series.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Ethan has also appeared on the History Channel show Pawn Stars to help authenticate merchandise supposedly related to his father's career. Granddaughter Jennifer Wayne, daughter of Aissa, is a member of the country music group Runaway June.<ref name="jennifer wayne">Template:Cite web</ref>

File:JohnPilarWayneKBF1971.jpg
Wayne with third wife Pilar Pallete at Knott's Berry Farm in 1971

In 1973, Wayne was encouraged by Pilar, an avid tennis player, to build the John Wayne Tennis Club in Newport Beach, California. In 1995, the club was sold to Ken Stuart, former general manager, and became the Palisades Tennis Club. In The Quiet Man (1952), Wayne tells Michaeleen "Óg", (Irish;Young),<ref>{{https://translate.google.com/?sl=auto&tl=en&text=%C3%93g&op=translate}}</ref> Flynn (portrayed by Barry Fitzgerald) that he is six feet "four and a half" (194 cm), an assertion corroborated by Pilar's book John Wayne: My Life With the Duke.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

His divorce from Esperanza Baur, a Mexican former actress, was stormy. She believed that Wayne and co-star Gail Russell were having an affair, a claim that both Wayne and Russell denied. The night the film Angel and the Badman (1947) wrapped, the usual party was held for cast and crew, and Wayne came home very late. Esperanza was in a drunken rage by the time he arrived, and she attempted to shoot him as he walked through the front door.Template:Sfn

Wayne had several high-profile affairs, including one with Merle Oberon that lasted from 1938 to 1947.Template:Sfn After his separation from Pilar, in 1973, Wayne became romantically involved and lived with his former secretary Pat Stacy (1941–1995) until his death in 1979.<ref name="jwayne.com" /> Stacy published a book about her life with him in 1983, titled Duke: A Love Story.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Wayne's hair began to thin in the 1940s, and he had begun to wear a hairpiece by the end of the decade.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> He was occasionally seen in public without the hairpiece (such as, according to Life, at Gary Cooper's funeral). During an appearance at Harvard University, Wayne was asked by a student, "Is it true that your toupée is real mohair?" He responded: "[...] sir, that's real hair. Not mine, but real hair."<ref>Transcribed from CBS video of the event posted on YouTube at Template:Cite web</ref>

A close friend, California Congressman Alphonzo E. Bell Jr., wrote of Wayne: "Duke's personality and sense of humor were very close to what the general public saw on the big screen. It is perhaps best shown in these words he had engraved on a plaque: 'Each of us is a mixture of some good and some not so good qualities. In considering one's fellow man, it's important to remember the good things. ... We should refrain from making judgments just because a fella happens to be a dirty, rotten S.O.B.'"<ref>Alphonzo Bell, with Marc L. Weber, The Bel-Air Kid: An Autobiography, Trafford Publishing, 2002, Template:ISBN.</ref>

Wayne was fond of literature, his favorite authors being Charles Dickens, Arthur Conan Doyle, and Agatha Christie. His favorite books were David Copperfield, and Conan Doyle's historical novels The White Company and Sir Nigel.

Wayne was a chess player. Roger Ebert recalls that on the set of Chisum, "we were playing a chess game, both of us bending over the board on an upended apple crate. Wayne, slouched in his old stitched leather director's chair, had a crowd of kibitzers: wranglers, extras, old cronies, drinking buddies, a couple of Mexican stuntmen. He studied the board, roared with laughter, and said, 'God...damn it! You've trapped my queen!' We studied the board. I made a decisive move. 'Why the hell did I just say that?' he asked. If I hadn't-a...said it, you wouldn't-a...seen it.'"<ref name="auto">Template:Cite book</ref> According to Michael Munn, when Wayne was asked about Rock Hudson's sexuality, he replied, "Who the hell cares if he's a queer? The man plays great chess."<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

He used the same 1873 Colt Single Action Army revolver in many of the Westerns in which he appeared.<ref>Reader's Digest magazine</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Wayne had been a chain smoker of cigarettes since young adulthood and was diagnosed with lung cancer in 1964. He underwent successful surgery to remove his entire left lung<ref name="cr">Template:Cite journal</ref> and two ribs. Despite efforts by his business associates to prevent him from going public with his illness for fear that it would cost him work, Wayne announced he had cancer and called on the public to get preventive examinations. Five years later, Wayne was declared cancer-free. Wayne has been credited with coining the term "the Big C" as a euphemism for cancer.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Wayne biographer Michael Munn chronicled Wayne's drinking habits.<ref name="Munn" /> According to Sam O'Steen's memoir, Cut to the Chase, studio directors knew to shoot Wayne's scenes before noon, because by afternoon, he "was a mean drunk".<ref>"Cut to the Chase" by Sam O'Steen. Los Angeles: Michael Wiese Productions (February 2002) Template:ISBN, p. 11.</ref> Roger Ebert quotes him as saying: "Tequila makes your head hurt. Not from your hangover. From falling over and hitting your head."<ref name="auto"/>

He was a very active Freemason. He was made a Master Mason at Marion McDaniel Lodge No. 56 F&AM, in Tucson, Arizona.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> He became a 32nd Degree Scottish Rite Mason and later joined the Al Malaikah Shrine Temple in Los Angeles, along with fellow actor Roy Rogers. He later became a member of the York Rite.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> During his childhood, he was a member of a local Demolay chapter in Glendale.

During the early 1960s, Wayne traveled often to Panama, and he purchased the island of Taborcillo off that nation's Pacific coast. It was sold by his estate at his death.

Wayne's yacht, the Wild Goose, was one of his favorite possessions. He kept it docked in Newport Beach Harbor, and it was listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places in 2011.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Political and social views

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File:John wayne challenge of ideas screenshot 2.jpg
Wayne in The Challenge of Ideas (1961)
File:Richard M. Nixon and Henry Kissinger meeting with Marion "John" Wayne - NARA - 194768.tif
Wayne meeting with President Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger in San Clemente, California, July 1972
File:John Wayne at the podium of the 1968 Republican National Convention - Miami Beach, Florida.jpg
Wayne addressing the Republican Convention in Miami, 1968

Throughout most of his life, Wayne was a vocally prominent conservative Republican in Hollywood, supporting anti-communist positions.<ref name="autogenerated265">Jim Beaver, "John Wayne". Films in Review, Volume 28, Number 5, May 1977, pp. 265–284.</ref> However, he voted for Democratic President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the 1936 presidential election and expressed admiration for Roosevelt's successor, fellow Democratic President Harry S. Truman, despite having supported Republican candidate Thomas E. Dewey in 1948.<ref name=Thomas>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> He took part in creating the conservative Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Ideals in February 1944 before being elected its president in 1949. An ardent anti-communist and vocal supporter of the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), he made Big Jim McLain (1952) with himself as a HUAC investigator to demonstrate his support for the cause of anti-communism. His personal views found expression as a proactive inside enforcer of the "Black List", denying employment and undermining careers of many actors and writers who had expressed their personal political beliefs earlier in life. Soviet leader Joseph Stalin is alleged to have said that Wayne should be assassinated for his frequently espoused anti-communist politics, despite being a fan of his movies.<ref>Montefiore, Simon Sebag (2003). Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar. London: George Weidenfeld & Nicolson. Template:ISBN.</ref><ref>"Why Stalin loved Tarzan and wanted John Wayne shot" Template:Webarchive. The Daily Telegraph, April 6, 2004.</ref> Wayne was a supporter of Senator Joseph McCarthy.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Wayne supported Vice President Richard Nixon in the presidential election of 1960, but expressed his vision of patriotism when John F. Kennedy won the election: "I didn't vote for him, but he's my president, and I hope he does a good job."<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> He used his star power to support conservative causes, including rallying support for the Vietnam War by producing, co-directing, and starring in the financially successful film The Green Berets (1968).<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In 1960, he joined the anti-communist John Birch Society, but quit after the organization denounced fluoridation of water supplies as a communist plot.<ref name="WaPo" /> In 1964, Wayne was a staunch supporter of Barry Goldwater, and actively campaigned for him.<ref>When Hollywood was Right- How Movie Stars, Studio Moguls, and Big Business Remade American Politics; Donald T. Critchlow, 2013</ref>

Due to his status as the highest-profile Republican star in Hollywood, wealthy Texas Republican Party backers asked Wayne to run for national office in 1968, like his friend and fellow actor Senator George Murphy. He declined, joking that he did not believe the public would seriously consider an actor in the White House. Instead, he supported his friend Ronald Reagan's campaigns for Governor of California in 1966 and 1970. He was asked to be the running mate for Democratic Alabama Governor George Wallace, who had been nominated for president by the American Independent Party, in his 1968 campaign, but he immediately rejected the offer<ref name="autogenerated265" /> and actively campaigned for Richard Nixon;<ref>Judis, John. – "Kevin Phillips, Ex-Populist: Elite Model" Template:Webarchive. – The New Republic. – (c/o Carnegie Endowment for International Peace) – May 22, 2006.</ref> Wayne addressed the 1968 Republican National Convention on its opening day.<ref name="WaPo">Template:Cite news</ref>

In 1971, Wayne wrote to President Richard Nixon, who was a friend, to oppose Nixon's planned trip to China. Wayne enclosed some hate literature on "that Jew, Kissinger," who had negotiated the historic meeting with Chinese leaders.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Wayne openly differed with many conservatives over the issue of returning the Panama Canal, as he supported the Panama Canal Treaty in the mid-1970s;<ref>Warner, Edwin. – "That Troublesome Panama Canal Treaty" Template:Webarchive. – Time. – October 31, 1977.</ref> while Republican leaders such as Reagan, Jesse Helms, and Strom Thurmond had wanted the U.S. to retain full control of the canal, Wayne and fellow conservative William F. Buckley believed that the Panamanians had the right to the canal and sided with President Jimmy Carter. Wayne was a close friend of Panamanian leader Omar Torrijos Herrera, and Wayne's first wife Josephine was a native of Panama. His support of the treaty brought him hate mail for the first time in his life.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Glad, Betty (2009) An Outsider in the White House, Cornell University Press</ref>

In 1973, actor Marlon Brando refused an Oscar he had won, due to "the treatment of American Indians today by the film industry"; Brando did not attend the award ceremony but asked Native American civil rights activist Sacheen Littlefeather to attend and deliver a refusal speech in the event that he won. Wayne was allegedly waiting in the wings and was so angry about her presence there that Littlefeather said "he was coming towards me to forcibly take me off the stage, and he had to be restrained by six security men to prevent him from doing so."<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> However, an investigation in 2022 found that this is unlikely to have happened, and Littlefeather had no way of witnessing this take place.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Roger Ebert wrote that Wayne had a sense of humor about his politics. He recalls Wayne giving him a tour of his house: "He pointed out autographed photos of Eisenhower, Nixon, Goldwater, and J. Edgar Hoover. I said I had to take a pee. On the wall of the bathroom opening off the den, he had a photo of Hubert Humphrey, inscribed 'with warm appreciation for your continued Support.'"<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Colorado Congresswoman Pat Schroeder recalled that "John Wayne gave me a silver cigarette lighter during the Vietnam War that said 'Fuck Communism' on it. I didn't know how to do that. I still don't."<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Left-wing activist Abbie Hoffman paid tribute to Wayne's singularity, saying, "I like Wayne's wholeness, his style. As for his politics, well—I suppose even cavemen felt a little admiration for the dinosaurs that were trying to gobble them up."<ref>Time magazine, August 8, 1969.</ref> Maoist avant garde film maker and critic Jean Luc Godard, in his Cahiers du Cinéma text "3000 heures de cinéma" ("3000 hours of cinema"), asked rhetorically:<ref name=hfa>Template:Cite web</ref>

How can I hate John Wayne upholding Goldwater and yet love him when abruptly he takes Natalie Wood in his arms in the last reel of The Searchers?

1971 Playboy interview

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File:John Wayne in Vietnam by Fleetwood (NARA).gif
Wayne signing the helmet of Pfc. Fonzell Wofford during a visit at Chu Lai, South Vietnam, in June 1966

In May 1971, Playboy magazine published an interview with Wayne, in which he expressed his support for the Vietnam War,Template:Sfn and made headlines for his opinions about social issues and race relations in the United States:<ref name="LAT 2019-02-31" />

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In the same Playboy interview, he also responded to questions about whether social programs were good for the country: Template:Blockquote

In February 2019, the Playboy interview resurfaced,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> which resulted in calls for John Wayne Airport to be renamed.<ref name="Colgrass">Template:Cite news</ref> John Wayne's son, Ethan, defended him, stating: "It would be an injustice to judge someone based on an interview that's being used out of context."<ref name="Vogt">Template:Cite news</ref> The calls for changing the airport's name back to Orange County Airport were renewed during the George Floyd protests in June 2020,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> though the name, as of 2025, remains unchanged.

In October 2019, student activists of Wayne's alma mater University of Southern California called for removing from the university's premises an exhibit dedicated to Wayne, citing the interview as cause.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In July 2020, it was announced that the materials of the 2012-created exhibit would be moved to the USC Cinematic Arts Library for "research," to "allow scholarship to continue on the role John Wayne’s films played in the history of cinema."<ref name=repo>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Death

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Although he enrolled in a cancer vaccine study in an attempt to ward off the disease,<ref name="cr"/> Wayne died of stomach cancer on June 11, 1979, aged 72, at the UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> He was buried in the Pacific View Memorial Park Cemetery in Corona del Mar, Newport Beach. According to his son Patrick and his grandson Matthew Muñoz, who was a priest in the California Diocese of Orange, Wayne converted to Roman Catholicism shortly before his death.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> He requested that his tombstone read "Feo, Fuerte y Formal ", a Spanish epitaph Wayne described as meaning "ugly, strong, and dignified".<ref>Candelaria, Nash. "John Wayne, Person and Personal The love affairs of an American legend" in Hopscotch: A Cultural Review, Volume 2, Number 4, 2001, pp. 2–13, Duke University Press.</ref> His grave, which was unmarked for 20 years, has been marked since 1999 with the quotation:

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Legacy

[edit]

Acting evaluation

[edit]
File:The Big Trail lobby card (2).jpg
Lobby card for The Big Trail (1930) with Tully Marshall and Wayne
File:Sagebrush Trail lobby card.jpg
Lobby card for Sagebrush Trail (1933) with Wayne and Yakima Canutt
File:John Wayne - 1961.JPG
Wayne in The Comancheros (1961)

In 1974, film critic Charles Champlin wrote of Wayne: "Wayne is a motion picture actor, first, last and always, who defined as powerfully as anyone else what that means. From the lean and intense early days, in those low-cost dusters which still play on morning television, Wayne has had a presence which got through the lenses and shutters and onto the film undiminished."<ref>John Wayne Dies at 72 of Cancer; Los Angeles Times, June 12, 1979</ref> John Ford said of him: "He's not something out of a book, governed by acting rules. He portrays John Wayne, a rugged American guy. He's not one of those method actors, like they send out here from drama schools in New York. He's real, perfectly natural." Lee Strasberg observed that Wayne was similar to fellow actors Spencer Tracy and Gary Cooper, who "try not to act but be themselves".

Wayne thought of himself as a reactor rather than an actor, and felt that the difference between good and bad acting was in acting and reacting. He explained this difference: "In a bad picture, you see them acting all over the place. In a good picture, they react in a logical way to a situation they're in, so the audience can identify with the actors." When asked about his approach to acting, Wayne commented: "I read dramatic lines undramatically and react to situations normally. This is not as simple as it sounds. I've spent a major portion of my life trying to do it well and I am not past learning it yet." Much like many actors of his generation, Wayne disliked method acting, and once said of them: "Let those actors who picked their noses get all the dialogue, just give me the close-up of reaction."<ref>John Wayne: Prophet of the American Way of Life; Emmanuel Levy, Jay Levy, 1988</ref>

Howard Hawks, who directed him in five films, felt that after losing one of his lungs, Wayne became a much better actor. Hawks explained: "Because of the lung Wayne lost, he reads his lines differently. He pauses in the strangest places simply because he hasn't got the breath he used to have. This device is terribly effective, because you keep your eyes on him and wait for him to finish, because you don't know what's coming next." Raoul Walsh noted: "Wayne underacts, and it's mighty effective, not because he tries to underactTemplate:Mdashit's a hard thing to do if you tryTemplate:Mdashbut because he can't overact."<ref>John Wayne: The Life and the Legend; Scott Eyman, 2015</ref>

Despite his popularity at the box office, Wayne was often criticized for playing the same type of character during most of his career. In a 1969 interview with Roger Ebert, Wayne remarked: "Of course, they give me that John Wayne stuff so much, claim I always play the same role. Seems like nobody remembers how different the fellows were in The Quiet Man or Iwo Jima, or Yellow Ribbon, where I was 35 playing a man of 65. To stay a star, you have to bring along some of your own personality. Thousands of good actors can carry a scene, but a star has to carry the scene and still, without intruding, allow some of his character into it."<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Gene Hackman said that Wayne "was one of the best actors ever. You must admire how really good he was as an actor, in command of the scene and with such great charisma."<ref>Price, Michael H., Hackman's 30-Year Love Affair With Acting, Deseret News, August 11, 1992. https://www.deseret.com/1992/8/11/18999047/hackman-s-30-year-love-affair-with-acting</ref>

Awards, celebrations, and landmarks

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File:How the West Was Won premiere photo.jpg
Irene Dunne, Wayne, Rosalind Russell and James Stewart at How the West Was Won premiere, 1962

Wayne's enduring status as an iconic American was formally recognized by the U.S. government in the form of the two highest civilian decorations. On his 72nd birthday on May 26, 1979, Wayne was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal. Hollywood figures and American leaders from across the political spectrum, including Maureen O'Hara, Elizabeth Taylor, Frank Sinatra, Mike Frankovich, Katharine Hepburn, General and Mrs. Omar Bradley, Gregory Peck, Robert Stack, James Arness, and Kirk Douglas, testified to Congress in support of the award. Robert Aldrich, president of the Directors Guild of America, made a particularly notable statement:

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Wayne was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom on June 9, 1980, by President Jimmy Carter. He had attended Carter's inaugural ball in 1977 "as a member of the loyal opposition", as he described it. In 1998, he was awarded the Naval Heritage Award by the US Navy Memorial Foundation for his support of the Navy and military during his film career. In 1999, the American Film Institute named Wayne 13th among the Greatest Male Screen Legends of classic Hollywood cinema.

In the essay "John Wayne: A Love Song", Joan Didion recalls the first time she saw Wayne in a movie: "it was there, that summer of 1943 while the hot wind blew outside, that I first saw John Wayne. Saw the walk, heard the voice. Heard him tell the girl in a picture called War of the Wildcats that he would build her a house, 'at the bend in the river where the cottonwoods grow.' As it happened I did not grow up to be kind of woman who is the heroine in a Western, and although the men I have known have had many virtues and have taken me to live in many places I have come to love, they have never been John Wayne, and they have never taken me to that bend in the river where the cottonwoods grow. Deep in that part of my heart where the artificial rain forever falls, that is still the line I want to hear... When John Wayne rode through my childhood, and perhaps through yours, he determined forever the shapes of certain of our dreams. It did not seem possible that such a man could fall ill, could carry within him that most inexplicable and ungovernable of diseases."<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Template:Quote box Various public locations are named in honor of Wayne, including the John Wayne Airport in Orange County, California, where a Template:Convert bronze equestrian statue of him stands at the entrance;<ref name="LAT 2019-02-31">Template:Cite news</ref> the John Wayne Marina<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> for which Wayne bequeathed the land, near Sequim, Washington; John Wayne Elementary School (P.S. 380) in Brooklyn, New York, which boasts a Template:Convert mosaic mural commission by New York artist Knox Martin<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> entitled "John Wayne and the American Frontier";<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and over Template:Convert named the "John Wayne Pioneer Trail" in Washington's Iron Horse State Park. A larger-than-life-sized bronze statue of Wayne atop a horse was erected at the corner of La Cienega Boulevard and Wilshire Boulevard in Beverly Hills, California, at the former offices of the Great Western Savings and Loan Corporation, for which Wayne had made a number of commercials. In the city of Maricopa, Arizona, part of Arizona State Route 347 is named John Wayne Parkway, which runs through the center of town.

In 2006, friends of Wayne and his former Arizona business partner, Louis Johnson, inaugurated the "Louie and the Duke Classics" events benefiting the John Wayne Cancer Foundation<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and the American Cancer Society.<ref name=OlsonJ-GL-2006-10>Olson, Jim. – "Louie and the Duke Classics 2006" Template:Webarchive. – Grande Living. – October 2006. – (Adobe Acrobat *.PDF document).</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The weekend-long event each fall in Casa Grande, Arizona, includes a golf tournament, an auction of John Wayne memorabilia, and a team roping competition.<ref name=OlsonJ-GL-2006-10 />

Several celebrations took place on May 26, 2007, the centennial of Wayne's birth. A celebration at the John Wayne birthplace in Winterset, Iowa, included chuck-wagon suppers, concerts by Michael Martin Murphey and Riders in the Sky, a Wild West Revue in the style of Buffalo Bill's Wild West show, and a Cowboy Symposium with Wayne's costars, producers, and costumers. Wayne's films ran continuously at the local theater. Ground was broken for the new John Wayne Birthplace Museum and Learning Center at a ceremony consisting of over 30 of Wayne's family members, including Melinda Wayne Muñoz, Aissa, Ethan, and Marisa Wayne. Later that year, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and First Lady Maria Shriver inducted Wayne into the California Hall of Fame, located at the California Museum in Sacramento.<ref>Wayne inducted into California Hall of Fame Template:Webarchive California Museum. Retrieved March 11, 2010.</ref>

In 2016, Republican assemblyman Matthew Harper proposed marking May 26 as "John Wayne Day" in California.<ref name="JohnWayneday">Template:Cite news</ref> This resolution was struck down by a vote of 35 to 20, due to Wayne's views on race and his support of controversial organizations such as the John Birch Society and the House Un-American Activities Committee.<ref name="JohnWayneday"/><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

American icon

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File:Lucille Ball John Wayne 1955.JPG
With Lucille Ball in I Love Lucy, 1955

Wayne rose beyond the typical recognition for a famous actor to that of an enduring icon who symbolized and communicated American values and ideals.<ref>Richard McGhee. John Wayne: Actor, Artist, Hero (1999), p. 135.</ref> Using the power of communication through silent films and radio, Wayne was instrumental in creating a national culture from disparate areas of the US, and made the creation of a national hero possible.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> By the middle of his career, Wayne had developed a larger-than-life image, and as his career progressed, he selected roles that would not compromise his off-screen image.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Wayne embodied the image of strong American masculinity and rugged individualism in both his films and his life.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> At a party in 1957, Wayne confronted actor Kirk Douglas about the latter's decision to play the role of Vincent van Gogh in the film Lust for Life, saying: "Christ, Kirk, how can you play a part like that? There's so goddamn few of us left. We got to play strong, tough characters. Not these weak queers."<ref>Scott Eyman. John Wayne: The Life and Legend. (2014), p. 293.</ref> However, actor Marlon Brando was notably critical of Wayne's public persona and of the cultural insensitivity of Wayne's characters, arguing on The Dick Cavett Show that, "We [Americans] like to see ourselves as perhaps John Wayne sees us. That we are a country that stands for freedom, for rightness, for justice," before adding that "it just simply doesn't apply."<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Wayne's rise to being the quintessential movie war hero began to take shape four years after World War II, when Sands of Iwo Jima (1949) was released. His footprints at Grauman's Chinese theater in Hollywood were laid in concrete that contained sand from Iwo Jima.<ref>Endres, Stacey and Robert Cushman. Hollywood at Your Feet. Beverly Hills: Pomegranate Press, 1993 Template:ISBN.</ref> His status grew so large and legendary that when Japanese emperor Hirohito visited the United States in 1975, he asked to meet John Wayne, the symbolic representation of his country's former enemy.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Likewise when Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev visited the United States in 1959, he made two requests: to visit Disneyland and meet Wayne.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

File:John Wayne in The Big Trail (1930).jpg
Wayne in The Big Trail (1930)

In the Motion Picture Herald Top Ten Money-Making Western Stars poll, Wayne was listed in 1936 and 1939.<ref>Phil Hardy The Encyclopedia of Western Movies, London, Octopus, 1985, Template:ISBN</ref> He appeared in the similar Box Office poll in 1939 and 1940.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> While these two polls are really an indication only of the popularity of series stars, Wayne also appeared in the Top Ten Money Makers Poll of all films from 1949 to 1957 and 1958 to 1974, taking first place in 1950, 1951, 1954, and 1971. With a total of 25 years on the list, Wayne has more appearances than any other star, surpassing Clint Eastwood (21) who is in second place.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Wayne is the only actor to appear in every edition of the annual Harris Poll of Most Popular Film Actors, and the only actor to appear on the list after his death. Wayne was in the top 10 in this poll for 19 consecutive years, starting in 1994, 15 years after his death.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Mylène Demongeot declared in a 2015 filmed interview: "Gary Cooper was sublime, there I have to say, now he, was part of the stars, Gary Cooper, Cary Grant, John Wayne, those great Americans who I've met really were unbelievable guys, there aren't any like them anymore."<ref name=":02">Template:Cite newsTemplate:Cbignore</ref>

John Wayne Cancer Foundation

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The John Wayne Cancer Foundation was founded in 1985 in honor of John Wayne, after his family granted the use of his name (and limited funding) for the continued fight against cancer.<ref name="jwcf">Template:Cite web</ref> The foundation's mission is to "bring courage, strength, and grit to the fight against cancer".<ref name="jwcf"/> The foundation provides funds for innovative programs that improve cancer patient care, including research, education, awareness, and support.<ref name="jwcf"/>

Dispute with Duke University

[edit]

Newport Beach, California-based John Wayne Enterprises, a business operated by Wayne's heirs, sells products, including Kentucky straight Bourbon, bearing the "Duke" brand and using Wayne's picture. When the company tried to trademark the image appearing on one of the bottles, Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, filed a notice of opposition. According to court documents, Duke has tried three times since 2005 to stop the company from trademarking the name. The company sought a declaration permitting registration of their trademark. The company's complaint filed in federal court said the university did "not own the word 'Duke' in all contexts for all purposes." The university's official position was not to object provided Wayne's image appeared with the name.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> On September 30, 2014, Orange County, California federal judge David Carter dismissed the company's suit, deciding the plaintiffs had chosen the wrong jurisdiction.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Filmography

[edit]

Template:Main

File:John Wayne Publicity Photo 1952.jpg
Wayne portrait from 1952
File:John Wayne portrait.jpg
Screenshot from Rio Bravo (1959)
File:John Wayne in The Longest Day trailer.jpg
Wayne portraying Lt. Colonel Benjamin H. Vandervoort in The Longest Day (1962)

Between 1926 and 1977, Wayne appeared in over 170 films. According to Quigley Polling, John Wayne was named the top money maker (as of 2005).<ref>"John Wayne All Time Top Money-Making Star." PR Newswire, February 24, 2005. Gale In Context: Biography, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A129166834/BIC?u=uiuc_uc&sid=bookmark-BIC&xid=0c91356d. Accessed December 14, 2021.</ref>

Missed roles

[edit]
  • Wayne turned down the lead role in the 1952 film High Noon because he felt the film's story was an allegory against blacklisting, which he actively supported. In a 1971 interview, Wayne said he considered High Noon "the most un-American thing I've ever seen in my whole life", and that he would "never regret having helped run screenwriter Carl Foreman [who was later blacklisted] out of the country".<ref name=davis/>Template:Rp
  • An urban legend has it that in 1955, Wayne turned down the role of Matt Dillon in the long-running television series Gunsmoke and recommended James Arness, instead. While he did suggest Arness for the part and introduced him in a prologue to the first episode, no film star of Wayne's stature would have considered a television role at the time.<ref>Barabas, S. Gunsmoke: A Complete History. McFarland (1990), pp. 63–4. Template:ISBN.</ref>
  • Terry Southern's biographer Lee Hill wrote that the role of Major T. J. "King" Kong in Dr. Strangelove (1964) was originally written with Wayne in mind, and that Stanley Kubrick offered him the part after Peter Sellers injured his ankle during filming; he immediately turned it down.<ref name=Hill>Lee Hill, A Grand Guy: The Life and Art of Terry Southern (Bloomsbury, 2001), pp.118–119</ref> While Sellers went on to play three other roles in the film, Slim Pickens played Kong.
  • In 1966, Wayne accepted the role of Major Reisman in The Dirty Dozen (1967), and asked Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer for some script changes, but eventually withdrew from the project to make The Green Berets. He was replaced by Lee Marvin.<ref>Eyman, S. John Wayne: The Life and Legend. Simon & Schuster (2014), p.78. Template:ISBN</ref>
  • Though Wayne actively campaigned for the title role in Dirty Harry (1971), Warner Bros. decided that at 63 he was too old, and cast the 41-year-old Clint Eastwood.<ref>Eyman (2014), p. 143.</ref>
  • In the early '70s, several years before the film was made, Wayne was offered the lead role in Michael Cimino's Heaven's Gate (1980), then under the title The Johnson County War. Wayne would later present the Best Picture prize to Cimino at the 1979 Oscars for The Deer Hunter (1978).<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
  • Director Peter Bogdanovich and screenwriter Larry McMurtry pitched a film in 1972 called The Streets of Laredo that would co-star Wayne along with James Stewart and Henry Fonda. They conceived it as a Western that would bring the final curtain down on Hollywood Westerns. Stewart and Fonda both agreed to appear in it, but after long consideration, Wayne turned it down, citing his feeling that his character was more underdeveloped and uninteresting than those of his co-stars, which was largely based on John Ford's recommendation after perusing the script. The project was shelved for some 20 years, until McMurtry rewrote and expanded the original screenplay co-written with Bogdanovich to make the novel and subsequent TV miniseries Lonesome Dove, with Tommy Lee Jones in Wayne's role and Robert Duvall playing the part originally written for Stewart in the extremely popular miniseries.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref><ref>Template:Cite video</ref>
  • Mel Brooks offered Wayne the role of the Waco Kid (eventually played by Gene Wilder) in Blazing Saddles (1974). After reading the script, Wayne declined, fearing the dialogue was "too dirty" for his family-friendly image, but told Brooks that he would be "first in line" to see the movie.<ref>Interview: Mel Brooks. Blazing Saddles (DVD). Burbank, California: Warner Brothers Pictures/Warner Home Video, 2004. Template:ISBN.</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
  • Steven Spielberg offered both Wayne and Charlton Heston the role of Major General Joseph Stilwell in the film 1941 with Wayne also considered for a cameo in it. After reading the script, Wayne decided not to participate due to ill health, but also urged Spielberg not to pursue the project. Both Wayne and Heston felt the film was unpatriotic. Spielberg recalled, "[Wayne] was really curious and so I sent him the script. He called me the next day and said he felt it was a very un-American movie, and I shouldn't waste my time making it. He said, 'You know, that was an important war, and you're making fun of a war that cost thousands of lives at Pearl Harbor. Don't joke about World War II'."<ref name="Wayne">Template:Cite web</ref>

Awards and nominations

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Academy Awards

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Year Work

Category

Result
1949 Sands of Iwo Jima Best Actor Template:Nom
1960 The Alamo Best Picture Template:Nom
1969 True Grit Best Actor Template:Won

Golden Globe Awards

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Year Work

Category

Result
1953 Template:N/A Henrietta Award (World Film Favorite – Male) Template:Won
1966 Template:N/A Cecil B. DeMille Award Template:Won<ref name="gg-cecil">Template:Cite web</ref>
1970 True Grit Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama Template:Won

Grammy Awards

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Year Work

Category

Result
1972 America, Why I Love Her Best Spoken Word Album Template:Nom<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Brass Balls Award

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In 1973, The Harvard Lampoon, a satirical paper run by Harvard University students, invited Wayne to receive The Brass Balls Award, created in his "honor", after calling him "the biggest fraud in history". Wayne accepted the invitation as a chance to promote the recently released film McQ, and a Fort Devens Army convoy offered to drive him into Harvard Square on an armored personnel carrier.<ref name=BryanTimes /><ref name="harvard">Template:Cite book</ref> The ceremony was held on January 15, 1974, at the Harvard Square Theater and the award was officially presented in honor of Wayne's "outstanding machismo and penchant for punching people".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Although the convoy was met with protests by members of the American Indian Movement and others, some of whom threw snowballs, Wayne received a standing ovation from the audience when he walked onto the stage.<ref name=BryanTimes>Template:Cite news</ref> An internal investigation was launched into the Army's involvement in the day.<ref name="harvard" />

Additional awards and honors

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See also

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References

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Explanatory footnotes

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Citations

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Sources

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Further reading

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