About the Duke
With the name Marion Robert Morrison written on his birth certificate, John Wayne was born on May 26, 1907 in Winterset Iowa, to Clyde and Mary Morrison. The future actor's name was changed after his brother, Robert, was born to Marion Michael. The family moved to Southern California after his father developed a lung condition that required a warmer climate. The family tried ranching in the Mojave Desert. The ranch ended up failing, and the family moved again to Glendale, CA, where he had an Airdale named "Duke," it's no coincidence, John Wayne's latter nickname came from his childhood pet.
Academically sound and good at football, John Wayne was well rounded in school. He dreamed of going to the U.S. Naval Academy, but wasn't accepted, so instead he took a football scholarship to USC in 1925-7. He became conected to the acting world by taking a job as a prop-man in exchange for football tickets. He became close friends with director John Ford while working on set and started appearing in bit parts on movies, billed as John Wayne.
His first feature film was Men Without Women (1930), and after more than seventy low-budget western and adventure films, it seemed his career was stuck in the proverbial rut. Until his buddy Ford casted him in Stagecoach (1939), the movie that really set off his career as an actor. After that he was noticed in the "acting world" but still was a "B" actor.
In the early 1940s, when a lot of the other actors were serving in WWII, there were more openings for the Duke in the movie industry. During this time he made some very good films, such as: The Spoilers, The Long Voyage Home, The Shepherd of the Hills, The Wake of the Red Witch, Three Godfathers, Red River, Fort Apache, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, and the movie for which he would get the first of his two Oscar nominations, The Sands of Iwo Jima. He appeared in nearly 250 movies, many of them of epic proportions.
In 1944 he helped found the Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Ideals, a right-wing political organization, later becoming its President. His conservative political stance was reflected in The Alamo(1960), which he produced, directed and starred in. His patriotic stand was also enshrined in The Green Berets(1968) which he co-directed and starred in.In 1963 Wayne was diagnosed with lung cancer. Half of his lung was removed in September of '64, and later he boasted about having "licked the Big C." His health problems sadly did not end there, in March 1978 there was heart valve replacement surgery; and in January 1979 his stomach was removed.
His first, (and only) Oscar was given to him for his outstanding performance in True Grit (1969) as the one-eyed Rooster Cogburn when he was 62 years old.
The Shootist, became John Wayne's last film, for the cancer struck again. On June 11, 1979 our hero passed away. Flags were flown half-mast around the country to honor our western idol. The same year, a Congressional Gold medal was struck in his honor.
GOD BLESS JOHN WAYNE!