The Duke!
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John Wayne (Marion Robert Morrison) was born on May 26, 1907 in Winterset Iowa. Morrison attended the University of Southern California with a football scholarship. There he played on the freshman Trojan football squad. He also pledged the Sigma Chi fraternity. Throughout college Morrison worked behind the scenes at a movie studio, where he learned about acting from John Ford. After small parts in movies, in 1929 Morrison got the lead role in an epic western, The Big Trail. From this movie Morrison recieved the legendary name John Wayne(which I will call him from now on)! Throught his career, John Wayne made many movies and became very successful. Later in his carrer John Wayne was found to have cancer in his lung, which later had to be removed. Clearly evoking his reputation as a hero who could do in the bad guys even Cancer. Ironicly John's last movie in 1976, The Shootist was about a gunslinger dommed by "a cancer". In 1978 John underwent heart surgery and bounced back. Later in January 1979, gall bladder surgery revealed a cancerous stomac, which had to be removed. After this event President Jimmey Carter pushed Congress to approve a bill to give a gold congressional medal honoring "John Wayne-American". On June 11, 1979, John Wayne's tragic death shattered the hearts of many Americans. Our hero is gone but he still lives today in our hearts.
For more information use
Riggin, Judith M. John Wayne: A Bio-Bibliography. Green Wood Press, New York, 1992
Mclellan, Dennis. True Duke, By the Book. Los Angeles Times September 19, 1995 E1.
Copyright 1995 The Times Mirror Company Los Angeles Times September 19, 1995, Tuesday, Orange County Edition SECTION: Life & Style; Part E; Page 1; View Desk HEADLINE: TRUE DUKE, BY THE BOOK; BIOGRAPHY: JOHN WAYNE'S LIFE STORY GETS THE 'SERIOUS' TREATMENT IN A NEW WORK BY TWO UNIVERSITY PROFESSORS. BYLINE: By DENNIS McLELLAN, TIMES STAFF WRITER BODY: When Nikita Khrushchev made his historic visit to the United States in 1959, the Soviet premier made two requests upon arriving in California. One was to visit Disneyland, that fantasy-inspired mecca of American capitalism; the other was to meet John Wayne. Security concerns prevented Khrushchev from meeting Mickey Mouse, but the world's most powerful Communist did get to meet one of America's most outspoken anti-Communists. For years, write the authors of a new John Wayne biography, the Soviet premier had enjoyed pirated copies of John Wayne movies. And at a Hollywood gathering, a beaming Khrushchev took Wayne by the arm and walked him over to the bar. "I am told," Khrushchev said through his translator, "that you like to drink and that you can hold your liquor." "That's right," Wayne drawled, as he and Khrushchev went on to compare the virtues of Russian vodka and Mexican tequila, then proceeded to match each other shot for shot. Three months later, a large crate arrived at Wayne's Beverly Hills office. The actor roared with laugher when he opened it to find several cases of the finest Russian vodka and a note: "Duke, Merry Christmas. Nikita." Wayne reciprocated by sending Khrushchev a couple of cases of Sauza Conmemorativo tequila signed, "Nikita. Thanks. Duke." That a world leader -- and a Communist at that -- would seek out a meeting with John Wayne underscores the worldwide popularity of a man who remained Hollywood's top box-office draw longer than any other actor and whose cowboy/soldier screen image is one of the most enduring American icons of the 20th Century. In the process of starring in more than 150 movies in a 50-year career, Wayne became an outspoken defender of the American way of life -- particularly during the 1960s, when the concept of mom, apple pie and, well, John Wayne, were out of favor. It's that combination of superstar, conservative political figure and American icon that prompted two university history professors to write a "serious" biography of the craggy-faced movie legend who lived his last 14 years in a bay-front home in Newport Beach. "John Wayne: American" by Randy Roberts and James S. Olson (Free Press; $27.95), weighing in at a hefty 738 pages, provides a detailed chronicle of the larger-than-life man President Jimmy Carter eulogized in 1979, after cancer dealt Duke a fatal blow, by saying: "In an age of few heroes, he was the genuine article." Kirkus Review calls the book "very likely to be the definitive Wayne biography for years to come"; less enthusiastic is the New York Times, taking the good professors to task for writing about "their man with the devotion and indulgence of the doting parents he never had," and for not being above serving up typical celebrity bio "dish" such as Wayne loved to shop, liked mashed potatoes and was "fastidiously clean, well-groomed and had great taste in clothes." In what Entertainment Weekly calls "a remarkably lively and sympathetic portrayal of a complex and fascinatingly flawed man," Roberts and Olson offer up a Wayne who was "loyal to alcohol, steak, cigarettes, and, most of all, friends" -- a man's man who felt at best in the company of pals like director John Ford and actor Ward Bond. Hollywood's biggest celluloid war hero of all time, however, never escaped his guilt over avoiding military service during World War II. At a time when Clark Gable, Henry Fonda, Jimmy Stewart and other leading men enlisted, Wayne did not. A series of deferments, including one in which he was "deferred in support of national health, safety, or interest," kept him safely at home where he would star in 13 pictures between Pearl Harbor and Hiroshima. When he was not working, the authors write, "the absence of a uniform gnawed at his self-respect and sense of manhood." After the war, according to Roberts and Olson, he attempted to atone for his lack of a war record by becoming an outspoken "superpatriot." "In all the biographies I've written, I've always been interested in ones that intersect with national concerns, that have some sort of political aspect to them," Roberts, a professor of history at Purdue University, said in a phone interview. "To me, John Wayne is a movie star, yes, but his image and own personality far transcended the movies. He became a controversial political figure as well."
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