"I would like to be remembered, well...the Mexicans have a phrase, 'Feo, fuerte y formal'. Which means; he was ugly, strong and had dignity." (Time Magazine interview, 1969)
American actor (1907-1979). Possibly the biggest
Hollywood movie star of all time. Born
Marion Michael Morrison in
Winterset, Iowa, his family moved to the
Mojave Desert in
California because his
pharmacist father had a
lung condition that was upset by harsh
Iowa winters. When the family's
ranch failed, the Morrisons moved to
Glendale, where Marion was a good
student and a
star football player.
He attended
USC on a
football scholarship and got a job as a
prop man with
Western actor
Tom Mix. He soon became friends with director
John Ford and started appearing in
bit parts. His first
movie was "
Brown of Harvard," and his first featured role was in "
Men Without Women." Over 70
cheap movies followed before Morrison -- now going by the
stage name John Wayne -- had his
break-through role as the
Ringo Kid in "
Stagecoach."
After that, the
Duke was the
lead actor in over 140 different movies. I ain't giving you the whole list, but here's a selection: "
Reap the Wild Wind," "
The Flying Tigers," "
The Fighting Seabees," "
Flame of Barbary Coast," "
They Were Expendable," "
Angel and the Badman," "
Fort Apache," "
Red River," "
The Fighting Kentuckian," "
She Wore a Yellow Ribbon," "
Sands of Iwo Jima" (which he got an
Oscar nomination for), "
Rio Grande," "
The Flying Leathernecks," "
The Quiet Man" (he was also the
second unit director), "
Hondo," "
Blood Alley" (which he co-directed), "
The Conqueror" (yes, playing
Genghis Khan), "
The Searchers," "
The Barbarian and the Geisha," "
Rio Bravo," "
The Horse Soldiers," "
The Alamo" (which he directed), "
The Comancheros" (which he co-directed), "
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance," "
Hatari!," "
How the West Was Won," "
The Longest Day," "
McLintock!," "
Donovan's Reef," "
The Greatest Story Ever Told," "
The Sons of Katie Elder," "
The War Wagon," "
El Dorado," "
The Green Berets" (which he directed), "
Hellfighters," "
True Grit" (which he won an
Academy Award for),
Chisum," "
Rio Lobo," "
The Train Robbers," "
Big Jake" (which he co-directed), "
Cahill: United States Marshall," "
McQ," "
Brannigan," "
Rooster Cogburn," and his last movie, "
The Shootist." Wow, that's a hell of a lot of movies!
Yes, he was a staunch
Republican and an even stauncher
hawk. Yes, he was one hell of a
racist motherfucker. Yes, he's best known as a
cowboy actor, but he also played
soldiers,
cops, and
firefighters. He acted in
romances and
comedies galore. He appeared on "
Laugh-In" dressed in a
pink bunny suit. He played a
villain in "
The Searchers", which you desperately need to go rent now if you've never seen it before.
The 6'4" Wayne loved to go
fishing and
traveling. He also enjoyed playing
poker 'til late at night and was fond of the
hooch. He also owned a genuine
minesweeper, called the
Blue Goose II, from
World War II, which he used as a private
yacht. He did nearly all of his own
stunts. Though his
acting abilities were derided by
critics, most other actors expressed
admiration for his
talent and
professionalism. Without him, I doubt the
Western would still exist as an
art form.
Wayne had a
cancerous lung removed in 1963, had
open-heart surgery in 1978, had his
stomach removed in 1979, and finally died of
cancer later that same year.
He also made several
posthumous appearances in
Garth Ennis' "
Preacher"
comic book as renegade preacher
Jesse Custer's ghostly mentor.
Massive research from the Internet Movie Database (www.imdb.com)