Wayne john biography

His second wife was Esperanza Diaz Ceballos Morrison — Wayne was the recipient of many awards during his career, including an Oscar for his role as the hard-drinking, one-eyed, tough law man in True Grit and an Academy Award nomination for his playing of the career marine in Sands of Iwo Jima Plagued by various illnesses during the last few years of his life, he publicly announced his triumph over lung cancer in But a form of that disease eventually claimed his life on June 11, Davis, Ronald L.

Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, Levy, Emanuel. Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press, Roberts, Randy, and James S. John Wayne: American. New York : Free Press, Garden City, NY: Doubleday, After an undistinguished football career at the University of Southern California, Wayne entered the movie world changing props for Fox studio before playing roles in a number of unremarkable films.

It was not until the film Stagecoach that Wayne gained star status in Hollywood. Stagecoach marked the first of his many successful collaborations wayne john biography director John Ford and contributed to the long association of John Wayne with Western films. While many of Hollywood's leading men, such as Clark GableHenry Fondaand Jimmy Stewartentered the armed forces, Wayne chose to advance his career at home.

The dearth of leading men allowed Wayne's star to rise during the war. Although apologists for Wayne claim that he could not enlist due to an old football injury, family obligations, or his age, many of Hollywood's royalty in similar circumstances gave up their crowns to serve their country. It is with no small amount of irony, therefore, that the other major impact of WWII on Wayne's career was that it allowed him to cultivate an image of himself as the embodiment of the American fighting man on screen.

His cocksure walk and menacing aura crafted in Western roles combined with the values of self-sacrifice and necessary violence to sanitize his image of the American soldier. However, the apogee of Wayne's idealized military character came in the film, Sands of Iwo Jima.

Wayne john biography

Stryker whose courage and discipline guide his men though the brutal landings at Tarawa and Iwo Jima. General Douglas A. Macarthur told Wayne, "you represent the American serviceman better than the American serviceman himself". Slotkin, p. The attitudes of many Vietnam combatants reveal the impact of Wayne's characterizations on American perceptions of the military.

Cultural historian Richard Slotkin even suggests that many Vietnam servicemen suffered from a "John Wayne syndrome" that left them feeling guilty at their inability to recreate the heroics of Wayne's WWII characters Slotkin, p. Wayne carried his bellicose, patriotic screen persona into the public arena with right-wing political activism.

He made frequent calls for a harder line against communists at home and abroad, and backed up his rhetoric by joining the Hollywood witch-hunt against communists in the s. Wayne also made hawkish statements in support of the Vietnam War. Wayne melded his political views with his heroic military persona in the film, The Green Berets. Though released after the Tet Offensive when popular support for the war was rapidly waning, the movie unashamedly regurgitates official government claims about communist barbarity and American altruism.

Wayne's character, Colonel Mike Kirby, displays compassion and sympathy toward the South Vietnamese while maintaining a steely determination to vanquish the enemy, reminiscent of his John Stryker character. Despite its crude and simplistic nature, the film found a ready audience among America's "silent majority" and became one of Wayne's most commercially successful films.

By the time of his death in JuneWayne's outspoken political views earned him almost as many detractors as fans. But in a Harris poll, the American people named him their all-time favorite male actor Davis, p. For many, his name remains synonymous with a set of values such as honor, duty, patriotism, and strength. Without exception, his military roles displayed these qualities.

For over forty years, they offered a superlative image of the American military and in particular, had a profound impact on how America viewed the WWII serviceman. Today, WWII veterans are routinely lauded as the "greatest generation. Kovic, Ron. Born on the Fourth of July. New York : McGraw-Hill, Levy, Emmanuel. Roberts, Randy; and James S. Slotkin, Richard.

New York: Atheneum, Wills, Garry. American actor John Wayne played characters who typically exuded decisiveness, virility, and an American "can-do" spirit in over 75 films. The family's circumstances were moderate. The family moved to California in His parents were divorced in From the age of 12 he was forced to help support himself. He did so with a variety of odd jobs, including stints as a delivery boy and as a trucker's helper.

A star football player on the Glendale High School team, he was accepted at the University of Southern California on a football scholarship. An accident ended his playing career and scholarship; without funds to support himself he left the university in after two years there. He had spent some wayne john biography while at college working at the Fox studio lots in Los Angeles as a laborer, prop boy, and extra.

While doing so he had met John Ford, the director, who took a shine to him and would over the years have a major impact on his career. A football drama with Jack Holt and Richard Cromwell. The Shadow of the Eagle. Texas Cyclone. Wayne in a supporting part. Two-Fisted Law. A boxing drama with George Bancroft and Wynne Gibson. Remade as Unmarried with Buster Crabbe in Wayne's role.

The Hurricane Express. Fred Allen [ b ]. Wayne's first starring role in a B-Western, the first of six that he would make for Warner Bros. That's My Boy. Roy William Neill. With Richard Cromwell and Dorothy Jordan. Another football drama with Wayne in a supporting role. The Big Stampede. Remade under original title in with Dick Foran. Haunted Gold.

Mack V. The Telegraph Trail. Wayne's first film with Yakima Canutt. A clip of this film was used in Footlight Parade The Three Musketeers. With Creighton Chaney. A chapter serial set in the Arabian desert. Very loosely adapted from the Dumas novel. Later re-edited into a feature entitled Desert Command. Central Airport. William Wellman.

Wayne in an unbilled bit, and his first on-screen death. Somewhere in Sonora. His Private Secretary. Archie Mayo. Boxing melodrama with Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. Wayne in small supporting role as a frightened boxer. Alfred E. This was the only time he appeared in a film with Stanwyck. The Man from Monterey. Wayne's first B-Western for Monogram, released as a "Lone Star Western", and the only one to present him as a singing cowboy with a dubbed singing voice.

Also his first teaming with George "Gabby" Hayes. Edwin L. Wayne wore a moustache in his bit part, which was cut from the final print. Wayne's last bit part. Aside from cameos, he would play the lead — or one of the leads — in all of his subsequent pictures. West of the Divide. Blue Steel. Filmed on location in Lone Pine, California.

Randy Rides Alone. Harry L. Rare villain role for Hayes. The Star Packer. The Trail Beyond. With Noah Beery, Sr. Also filmed under the novel's title in and The Lawless Frontier. Harry Fraser. Texas Terror. Rainbow Valley. The Desert Trail. Cullen Lewis. With Paul Fix. The Dawn Rider. Paradise Canyon. With Earle Hodgins and Yakima Canutt.

Wayne's last "Lone Star" Western for Monogram. Westward Ho. With Yakima Canutt. Shot on location in Lone Pine. Wayne's first film for Republic Pictures. The New Frontier. Not to be confused with the film Wayne made entitled New Frontier no "the". Lawless Range. The Oregon Trail. Scott Pembroke. The Lawless Nineties. Joseph Kane.

King of the Pecos. The Lonely Trail. A post-American Civil War yarn about carpetbaggers. Winds of the Wasteland. Hulu sometimes presents a colorized version entitled Stagecoach Run. Sea Spoilers. David Howard. California Straight Ahead! Arthur Lubin. I Cover the War. Idol of the Crowds. Born to the West original title Hell Town reissue title.

Charles Barton. With Johnny Mack Brown. Based on the novel of the same name by Zane Grey. Previously filmed in with Jack Holt in the Wayne role. Pals of the Saddle. George Sherman. The first of eight films Wayne did in Republic's "Three Mesquiteers" series. Overland Stage Raiders. Louise Brooks ' final film appearance. Santa Fe Stampede. Red River Range.

Filmed on location in Monument Valley. This is the film that boosted Wayne into major stardom. The Night Riders. Film debut of Phyllis Isley, later known as Jennifer Jones. Jim Smith. Settling in Glendale, California, Wayne received his distinctive nickname "Duke" while living there. He had a dog by that name, and he spent so much time with his pet that the pair became known as "Little Duke" and "Big Duke," according to the official John Wayne website.

In high school, Wayne excelled in his classes and in many different activities, including student government and football. He also participated in numerous student theatrical productions. Winning a football scholarship to the University of Southern California, Wayne started college in the fall of He joined the Sigma Chi fraternity and continued to be a strong student.

Unfortunately, after two years, an injury took him off the football field and ended his scholarship. While in college, Wayne had done some work as a film extra, appearing as a football player in Brown of Harvard and Drop Kick Out of school, Wayne worked as an extra and a prop man in the film industry. He first met director John Ford while working as an extra on Mother Machree Walsh is often credited with helping him create his now legendary screen name, John Wayne.

Unfortunately, the western was a box office dud. For nearly a decade, Wayne toiled in numerous B movies, mostly westerns, for different studios. He even played a singing cowboy named Sandy Saunders among his many roles. During this time period, however, Wayne started developing his man of action persona, which would serve as the basis of many popular characters later on.

Working with Ford, he got his next big break in Stagecoach Wayne portrayed the Ringo Kid, an escaped outlaw who joins an unusual assortment of characters on a dangerous journey through frontier lands. During the trip, the Kid falls for a dance hall prostitute named Dallas Claire Trevor. The film was well-received by moviegoers and critics alike and earned seven Academy Award nominations, including one for Ford's direction.

The film was adapted from a play by Eugene O'Neill and follows the crew of a steamer ship as they move a shipment of explosives. Along with many positive reviews, the movie earned several Academy Award nominations. Around this time, Wayne made the first of several movies with German actress and famous sex wayne john biography Marlene Dietrich. The two appeared together in Seven Sinners with Wayne playing a naval officer and Dietrich playing a woman who sets out to seduce him.

Off-screen, they became romantically involved, though Wayne was married at the time. There had been rumors about Wayne having other affairs, but nothing as substantial as his connection to Dietrich. Even after their physical relationship ended, the pair remained good friends and co-starred in two more films, Pittsburgh and The Spoilers Wayne started working behind the scenes as a producer in the late s.

The first film he produced was Angel and the Badman Over the years, he operated several different production companies, including John Wayne Productions, Wayne-Fellows Productions and Batjac Productions. As a teen, Wayne worked in an ice cream shop for a person who shoed horses for local Hollywood studios. He was also active as a member of the Order of DeMolay, a wayne john biography organization associated with the Freemasonsthat he joined when he came of age.

He attended Wilson Middle School in Glendale. He played football for the champion Glendale High School team. Duke was a good student and popular, but had a bad reputation as a drinker. Tall from an early age, he played football for his high school in Glendale and was recruited by the University of Southern California USC. After nearly gaining admission to the U.

Wayne also played on the USC football team under legendary coach Howard Jones, however his football career and scholarship ended because of an 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 in the late s in films by director John Fordwayne john biography whom he established a longtime friendship.

Wayne's imposing presence and exaggerated mannerisms translated very effectively on the silent screen. Wayne's first starring role, at the recommendation of Ford, was in the epic Western, The Big Trail. During the next nine years, Wayne occupied himself in a number of B-Westerns and serials, such as Shadow of the Eagle and The Three Musketeers series, with occasional bit parts in larger productions such as Warner Brothers' Baby Face, starring Barbara Stanwyck.

But it was in roles that brought out his manliness that was to make Wayne a huge star with men and women, alike. Although appearing in many war films and frequently being eulogized as an "American hero," Wayne never served in the armed forces. Betweenwhen the military draft was reinstated, and the end of World War II inhe remained in Hollywood and made 21 movies.

He was of draft age 34 at the time of the Pearl Harbor attack inbut 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. His friendship with John Ford led them to work together on films that featured some of Wayne's most iconic roles. Wayne played the male lead in of his film appearances, an as-yet, unsurpassed record.

However, he also had a down-to-earth sense of humor that 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. One of Wayne's best roles was ironically in one of the few films he made that was not a Western or war picture, The High and the Mighty, released in