John Wayne

Marion Morrison or John Wayne was born on May 26, 1907 in Winterset Iowa. Wayne did well in school in Southern California and attended USC on a football scholarship. Tom Mix found Wayne a job as a prop man and Wayne became close friends with director John Ford. He stated doing bit parts and his debut film was Men without Women in 1930. His career was stuck in a rut with low-budget westerns until Ford cast Wayne in Stagecoach in 1939.
After Stagecoach Wayne appeared in 250 movies and many were epic. He was in a radio series The Three Sheets to the Wind in 1943 and in 1944 he founded the motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation for American Ideas. He starred in The Alamo (1960) which he also directed. He was patriotic in The Green Berets in 1968 which he also directed.
In 1964 Wayne's film career was slowed due to a cancerous left lung being removed. He had heart valve replacement surgery in 1978 and in 1979 his stomach was removed.
Wayne received a best actor nomination for Sands of Iwo Jima in 1949 and received the Oscar for his role as Rooster Coburn in True Grit (1969). Wayne also received honors for his roles in Fort Apache (1948), She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949) and Rio Grande (1950). Fans have loved Wayne in North to Alaska (1960), The Comancheros (1961) and The Longest Day in 1962. He is impressive in the 1967 The War Wagon and Hellfighters in 1968.
His trademark voice and catlike walk are symbols and his movies reflect traditional standards. The majority of his movies are WWII and westerns. He played the foremost part in about 142 movies and is classified Empire Magazine's The Top 100 Movie Stars of All Time at #16. In 1972 he made The Cowboys, Rooster Cogburn in 1975 with Katharine Hepburn and The Shootist in 1976.
Wayne's final public appearance was in 1978 when he presented the Best Picture Oscar. Wayne was a heavy smoker and when he died of lung cancer, his son refused to license any footage of his father smoking. He passed away on June 11, 1979 and left behind Pilar Wayne and three children, Esperanza Baur, and Josephine Alicia Saenz plus four children.