Fun Facts
Holds the record for the actor
with the most leading parts - 142. In all but 11 films he played the leading
part.
He made several films early in his career as a "singing" cowboy. His
singing voice was supplied by a singer hidden off camera.
Born at 1:00pm-CST.
Most published sources refer to Wayne's birth name as Marion Michael Morrison.
His birth certificate, however, gives his original name as Marion Robert
Morrison. According to Wayne's own statements, after the birth of his younger
brother in 1911, his parents named the newborn Robert Emmett and changed
Wayne's name from Marion Robert to Marion Michael.
In the comic Preacher, his ghost appears in several issues, clothed in his
traditional gunfighter outfit, as a mentor to the hero of the series, Jesse
Custer.
Great-uncle of boxer/actor Tommy Morrison, aka "The Duke."
An entry in the logbook of director John Ford's yacht "Araner",
during a voyage along the Baja peninsula, made a reference to one of Wayne's
pranks on Ward Bond "Caught the first mate [Wayne] pissing in [Ward]
Bond's flask this morning - must remember to give him a raise."
He and his drinking buddy, actor Ward Bond frequently played practical jokes on
each other. In one incident, Bond bet Wayne that they could stand on opposite
sides of a newspaper and Wayne wouldn't be able to hit him. Bond set a sheet of
newspaper down in a doorway, Wayne stood on one end, and Bond slammed the door
in his face, shouting "Try and hit me now!" Wayne responded by
sending his fist through the door, flooring Bond (and winning the bet).
His favorite drink was Sauza Commemorativo Tequila, and he often served it with
ice that he had chipped from an iceberg during one of his voyages on his yacht,
"The Wild Goose.".
The evening before a shoot he was trying to get some sleep in a Las Vegas
hotel. The suite directly below his was that of Frank Sinatra (never a good
friend of Wayne), who was having a party. The noise kept Wayne awake, and each
time he made a complaining phone call it quieted temporarily but each time
eventually grew louder. Wayne at last appeared at Sinatra's door and told Frank
to stop the noise. A Sinatra bodyguard of Wayne's size approached saying,
"Nobody talks to Mr. Sinatra that way." Wayne looked at the man,
turned as though to leave, then backhanded the bodyguard, who fell to the
floor, where Wayne knocked him out by crashing a chair on top of him. The party
noise stopped.
He was a member of the Sigma Chi Fraternity.
His spoken word RCA Victor album "America: Why I Love Her" became a
suprise best-seller, and Grammy nominee, when it was issued in 1973. Re-issued
again, in the wake of September 11, 2001, it became a best-seller all over
again.
He once made a cameo appearance on "The Beverly Hillbillies"(1962)
and when asked how he wanted to be paid, replied, "Give me a fifth of
bourbon - that'll square it."
Among his favorite leisure activities were playing bridge, poker, and chess.
Inducted into the Hall of Great Western Performers of the National Cowboy and
Western Heritage Museum in 1974.
Because his on-screen adventures involved the slaying of a slew of Mexicans,
Native Americans and Japanese, he has been called a racist by his critics. They
believe this was strengthened by a Playboy Magazine interview in which he
suggested that blacks were not yet qualified to hold high public office because
"discrimination prevented them from receiving the kind of education a
political career requires". Yet all of his three wives were of Latin
descent.
Just on his sheer popularity and his prominent political activism, the
Republican party in 1968 supposedly asked him to run for President of the USA,
even though he had no previous political experience. He turned them down
because he did not believe America would take a movie star running for the
President seriously. He did support Ronald Regan's run for governor of
California, though.
Pictured on a 37¢ USA commemorative stamp in the Legends of Hollywood series,
issued 9 September 2004. The first-day ceremonies were held at Grauman's
Chinese Theatre in Hollywood.
While making The Barbarian and the Geisha(1958), he apparently became so
enraged with director John Huston (who was something of a tough guy himself and
was nearly as tall as Wayne but not as massive) that he throttled and punched
him out. It is unknown what Huston did to earn the beating, but the director
was known to have a mean streak. Wayne later re-enacted the incident for Peter
Bogdanovitch, who was
somewhat terrified to be used as a substitute for Huston.
Eagerly sought the role of Gen. George S. Patton in Patton (1970), but
was turned down by the producer.
Addressed the Republican National Convention in 1968.
During the filming of The Undefeated(1969), he fell from his horse and
fractured three ribs. He couldn't work for almost two weeks. Then he tore a
ligament in his shoulder and couldn't use one arm at all. The director, Andrew
V. McLaglen, could only film him from an angle for the rest of the picture. His
only concern throughout was not to disappoint his fans, despite being in
terrible pain.
Of his many film roles, his personal favorite was that of Ethan Edwards from The
Searchers(1956). Wayne even went so far as to name his son Ethan after that
character.
In 1973 Clint Eastwood wrote to Wayne, suggesting they star in a western
together. Wayne wrote back an angry response criticizing the revisionist style
and violence of Eastwood's latest western, High Plains Drifter(1973).
Consequently Eastwood did not reply and no film was made.
After seeing Wayne's performance in Red River (1948), directed by rival
director Howard Hawks, John
Ford is quoted as saying, "I never knew the big son of a bitch could
act."
Wore a toupee in every film from Wake of
the Red Witch(1948) onwards. For some scenes towards the end of The
Wings of Eagles(1957) he left it off in order to play his character in
later life. Wayne's hairpiece can be seen to fall off during a fight scene in North
to Alaska (1960).
During his right-wing political rants in the late 1960s and early
1970s, students opposed to his political stances would often walk out of or
boycott university film classes that screened his films.
Following his retirement from making movies in 1976, Wayne received thousands
of letters from fans who accused him of selling out by advertising insurance in
television commercials. Wayne responded that the six-figure sum he was offered
to star in the advertisements was too good to refuse.
The fact that all three of his wives were Latin American surprised
Hollywood; this was the only "non-American" aspect in his life.
"I have never been conscious of going for any particular type," Wayne
said in response to a challenge from the press, "it's just a
happenstance."
Wayne's westerns were full of action but usually not excessively violent.
"Fights with too much violence are dull," claimed Wayne, insisting
that the straight-shooting, two-fisted violence in his movies have been
"sort of tongue-in-cheek." He described the violence in his films as
"lusty and a little humorous," based on his belief that "humor
nullifies violence." His conservative taste deplored the increasing
latitude given to violence and sex in Hollywood. In the 1960s he launched a campaign
against what he termed "Hollywood's bloodstream polluted with perversion
and immoral and amoral nuances." Most of his westerns steered clear of
graphic violence.
While visiting the troops in Vietnam in June 1966, a bullet struck Wayne's
bicycle. Although he was not within a hundred yards of it at the time, the
newspapers reported he had narrowly escaped death at the hands of a sniper.
During the Vietnam War he was highly critical of teenagers who went to Europe
to dodge the draft, calling them "cowards", "traitors" and
"communists".
Had plastic surgery to remove the lines around his eyes during the 1960s.
Pillar Wayne wrote in her book "My Life with The Duke": "Duke
always said family came first, career second, and his interest in politics
third. In fact, although he loved the children and me, there were times when we
couldn't compete with his career or his devotion to the Republican Party."
After Death
Although it has often been written that Wayne was dying of cancer when he made The Shootist(1976), his final film, this is not actually true. Following the removal of his entire left lung in 1964, he was cancer-free for the next 12 years. It wasn't until Christmas 1978 that he fell seriously ill again, and in January of the following year the cancer was found to have returned.
On 9 June 1979, the Archbishop of Panama arrived at the hospital and baptized Wayne into the Roman Catholic Church. Wayne was given a Catholic funeral service, but his grave went unmarked until 1999 when he finally received a headstone.
On 11 June 1979, the flame of the Olympic Torch at the Coliseum in Los Angeles was lit to honor his memory. It remained lit until the funeral four days later.
The inscription on the Congressional Gold Medal awarded to him in 1979 reads, simply, "John Wayne, American."
Wayne was buried in secret and the grave went unmarked until 1999, in case Vietnam War protesters desecrated the site. Twenty years after his death he finally received a headstone made of bronze which was engraved with a quotation from his infamous Playboy interview.
Fittingly, Wayne was buried in Orange County, the most Republican district in the United States. The conservative residents admired Wayne so much that they named their international airport after him. It is about four miles from the cemetery where he is buried.
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