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John
Wayne (May 26, 1907 – June 11, 1979), nicknamed
"Duke," was an Irish-American film actor whose
career spanned the evolutionary phase of American
cinema, appearing in silent movies and "talkies"
alike. He remains, by many accounts, the most
popular star in the history of American film.
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Life and career
He was
born Marion Robert Morrison in Winterset, Iowa, but
the name became Marion Michael Morrison when his
parents decided to name their next son Robert. His
family moved to Glendale, California in 1911; it was
neighbors in Glendale who started calling him "Big
Duke," because he never went anywhere without his
Airedale dog, who was Little Duke. He preferred
"Duke" to "Marion," and the name stuck for the rest
of his life.
After
nearly gaining admission to the U.S. Naval Academy,
he attended the University of Southern California,
where he was a member of 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 he was too terrified of Jones' reaction to
reveal the actual cause of his injury.
While
at the university, Wayne began working around the
local film studios. Western star Tom Mix got him 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. His first starring role was in the movie
The Big Trail; it was the director of that movie,
Raoul Walsh, who gave him the stage name "John
Wayne," after Revolutionary War general "Mad
Anthony" Wayne.
His
friendship with Ford led them to work together on
films which featured some of Wayne's most iconic
roles. Beginning with three minor parts in 1928,
Wayne would appear in over twenty of Ford's films in
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).
Wayne
appeared in many strong masculine ("macho") roles in
western films and war films, but he also had a
down-to-earth sense of humour which allowed him to
appear in a pink bunny suit for an episode of Rowan
and Martin's Laugh-In, as well as in comedy movies.
According to the Internet Movie Database Wayne
played the male lead in 142 of his film appearances,
an as yet unsurpassed record. One of Wayne's best
roles was ironically in one of the few films he made
that wasn't a Western or war picture. The film was
The High And The Mighty released in 1954. The movie
was directed by William Wellman and based on a novel
by Ernest K. Gann. Wayne played the co-pilot of a
plane that develops serious engine problems in
flight. His portrayal of the heroic airman won
widespread acclaim. Sadly, this film has not been
seen for many years due to lawsuits and copyright
issues with Wayne's estate. The film co-starred
Robert Stack and Jan Sterling.
Although appearing in many war films and frequently
being eulogized as an "American hero," Wayne never
served in the Armed Forces, although he made an
effort to, and he was greatly patriotic. Between
1940, when the military draft was reinstated and the
end of World War II in 1945, he remained in
Hollywood and made 21 movies. (Among them was Cecil
B. DeMille's Reap the Wild Wind (1942), in which he
portrayed one of the few less-than-honorable
characters in his career.) He was of draft age (34)
at the time of Pearl Harbor in 1941, but asked for
and received a deferral for family dependency, a
classification of 3-A. This was later changed to a
deferment in the national interest, 2-A.
Despite
his prolific output John Wayne won only a single
Best Actor Oscar, for the 1969 movie True Grit. He
received a nomination for Best Actor in Sands of Iwo
Jima, and another as the producer of Best Picture
nominee The Alamo, which he also directed. His
production company was called Batjac, taken from the
name of the fictional shipping company in The Wake
of the Red Witch. In 1973, he released a
best-selling spoken word album titled America, Why I
Love Her, that was nominated for a Grammy, and
re-released with similar success in 2001.
John
Wayne died of stomach cancer on June 11, 1979 in
Newport Beach, California, and was interred in the
Pacific View Memorial Park cemetery in Corona del
Mar, Orange County, California. Some trace his
cancer back to his work in The Conqueror, filmed
about 100 miles downwind of Nevada nuclear-weapons
test sites. However, it should also be noted that
until 1964 Wayne was a chain smoker, which was more
likely to have caused his cancer. Other actors who
worked on that movie and later died of cancer were
also heavy smokers, including Dick Powell, Agnes
Moorehead and Susan Hayward.
Wayne
was married three times; to Josephine Alicia Saenz,
Esperanza Baur, and Pilar Palette. He had four
children with Josephine, three with Pilar, most
notably Patrick Wayne. All but one of his children
went on to have minor Hollywood careers.
He is
the most celebrated utterer, and apocryphal coiner,
of the tmesis "ri-goddamn-diculous."
John Wayne in memoriam
There
is an airport named after him, John Wayne Airport,
in Orange County, California.
John
Wayne was entered into the Hall of Great Western
Performers of the National Cowboy and Western
Heritage Museum in 1974.
John Wayne in modern pop culture
Wayne
is mentioned in the Paula Cole song Where Have All
the Cowboys Gone (lyrics) from the 1996 album "This
Fire". In the song, sung from the female point of
view, the singer is both: wanting a man, or men,
that act like they did in the John Wayne Westerns
("Where is my John Wayne"), and at the same time
making fun of, both the men of today, and the
falseness of the men in the movies.
In a
very uncomplimentary light in the Public Enemy song
Fight the Power (lyrics), from the 2002 album "Revolverlution".
The lyrics state that Elvis Presley was an evil
racist, then seems to lump Presley and Wayne
together. Since Wayne married three Hispanic women
and had many black friends such as Sammy Davis Jr,
it does not appear he was racist.
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URL of Original Article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Wayne
Date Article Copied:
July 11, 2005
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