John Wayne - Iconic status

In his own lifetime, John Wayne rose beyond the typical recognition for a famous actor to that of an enduring icon that symbolized and communicated a particular image of American values and ideals. By his mid-career, Wayne developed a larger-than-life image based on a composition of many of the fictional characters he portrayed in movies. To maintain this image, Wayne selected roles that would not compromise his off-screen image. In his last film The Shootist (1976), Wayne refused to allow his character to shoot a man in the back as was originally scripted with the justification that John Wayne had never shot anyone in the back.[2] While some actors can become stereotyped as they get strongly associated with their more popular roles, these actors rarely become off-screen icons as Wayne had become through the managing of his public image to communicate a set of values and ideals and even shape public opinion.

Wayne's rise to a quintessential icon of a patriotic war hero began to take shape five years after World War II when Sands of Iwo Jima (1949) was released and for which Wayne got a Best Actor nomination. His footprints at Grauman's Chinese theater in Hollywood were laid in cement that contained sand from Iwo Jima ^{[citation needed]}. His status grew so large and legendary that when Japanese Emperor Hirohito visited the United States in 1975 he asked to meet John Wayne.

Wayne used his iconic status of a patriotic war hero to support right-wing US government causes, including rallying support during the Vietnam War where he contributed his acting and co-direction to the box-office hit The Green Berets (1968) (although the film was critically panned for its highly idealized, fictionalized depiction of war. [3]). While the general public and many in the military have maintained a positive view of the John Wayne image, there are many who found this image to be misleading if not despised especially after personally experiencing war firsthand. In an interview, Oliver Stone credited his own gung-ho patriotic enlistment to fight in the Vietnam War to being inspired by the "John Wayne image of America", although he came home a decorated veteran, he also had become an embittered anarchist, eventually creating Platoon, a movie that starkly counters the heroic and patriotic images idealized by the John Wayne icon and the The Green Berets. [4]. In an article, William Manchester, recounted when John Wayne came dressed up as cowboy to visit him and other World War II soldiers recuperating at a naval hospital in Hawaii. Wayne was greeted with silence and then subsequently booed off the stage for he had become "a symbol of a fake machismo [they] had come to hate". ^[9][5] Nonetheless, Wayne was a popular visitor to the war zones in both World War II and the Vietnam War. By the 1950s, perhaps in large part due to the film Sands of Iwo Jima, Wayne had become an icon to the U.S. Marine Corps, despite his actual lack of military service. His name is attached to various pieces of gear (such as the P-38 "John Wayne" can-opener, so named because "it can do anything"), and C-Ration crackers are called "John Wayne crackers" because presumably only someone as tough as Wayne could eat them. Wayne's iconic status to the military, as in the civilian world, supersedes the facts of his actual life.

Since John Wayne never served in the military, nor was a war hero, it is left as a matter of opinion as to whether it was appropriate for John Wayne to project such an image of himself to support various government causes. However, it is beyond opinion that there are many people enamored by the fictional composite character called John Wayne, and that this image of John Wayne remains an enduring icon of the rugged, patriotic hero.

John Wayne - Marriage

Wayne was married three times, always to Spanish-speaking brides; to the late Josephine Alicia Saenz, Esperanza Baur(deceased), and Pilar Palette. He had four children with Josephine and three with Pilar, most notably producer, the late Michael Wayne, actor Patrick Wayne, and daughter Aissa Wayne who practices law in California. One of his grandsons(eldest son of daughter Melinda's seven children) is a Catholic Priest, Fr.Matt Munoz who said his first Mass at St. Edward the Confessor in Dana Point, CA.

His romance with Josie Saenz began when he was a college student and continued for seven years before their marriage. Miss Saenz was 15 or 16 at their first meeting at a dance at Balboa Pavilion. The daughter of a successful California businessman, Josie resisted considerable opposition from her family to maintain her relationship with Wayne.

In the years prior to his death, Wayne was romantically involved with his former secretary Pat Stacy.^[8]. She died of lung cancer in 1995, at the age of 57.

John Wayne - Political Office

Due to his enormous popularity, and his status as the most famous Republican star in Hollywood, wealthy Texas backers of the Republican Party asked Wayne to run for national office in 1968 as had his friend and fellow actor, Sen. George Murphy. He declined, joking that he did not believe the public would seriously consider an actor in the White House. He did support his friend Ronald Reagan's runs for Governor of California in 1966 and 1970, however. In 1968 Wayne was also reportedly asked to be conservative Democratic governor George Wallace's running mate in the presidential election; Wayne's response made headlines: "Wayne Wallace VP? Wayne Says 'B------t!'" (Films in Review, May, 1977).

John Wayne - Illness

In 1964, Wayne was diagnosed with lung cancer, and underwent surgery to remove his entire left lung and two ribs. Despite rumors that the cancer was caused by filming The Conqueror in Utah where the US government had tested nuclear weapons (following which some of the cast and crew developed cancer), Wayne himself believed his five-pack-a-day cigarette habit was the cause.

Due to his enormous popularity, and his status as the most famous Republican star in Hollywood, wealthy Texas backers of the Republican Party asked Wayne to run for national office in 1968 as had his friend and fellow actor, Sen. George Murphy. He declined, joking that he did not believe the public would seriously consider an actor in the White House. He did support his friend Ronald Reagan's runs for Governor of California in 1966 and 1970, however. In 1968 Wayne was also reportedly asked to be conservative Democratic governor George Wallace's running mate in the presidential election; Wayne's response made headlines: "Wayne Wallace VP? Wayne Says 'B------t!'" (Films in Review, May, 1977).

Wayne was married three times, always to Spanish-speaking brides; to the late Josephine Alicia Saenz, Esperanza Baur(deceased), and Pilar Palette. He had four children with Josephine and three with Pilar, most notably producer, the late Michael Wayne, actor Patrick Wayne, and daughter Aissa Wayne who practices law in California. One of his grandsons(eldest son of daughter Melinda's seven children) is a Catholic Priest, Fr.Matt Munoz who said his first Mass at St. Edward the Confessor in Dana Point, CA.

His romance with Josie Saenz began when he was a college student and continued for seven years before their marriage. Miss Saenz was 15 or 16 at their first meeting at a dance at Balboa Pavilion. The daughter of a successful California businessman, Josie resisted considerable opposition from her family to maintain her relationship with Wayne.

In the years prior to his death, Wayne was romantically involved with his former secretary Pat Stacy.^[8]. She died of lung cancer in 1995, at the age of 57. In March 1978 Wayne underwent open-heart surgery to repair an artery damaged by a bout of pneumonia four years previously. Although he recovered, at Christmas 1978 he fell ill again, and in January of the following year underwent a nine-hour operation to remove his stomach, which was entirely cancerous.

John Wayne - Acting career, production company

After two years working as a prop man at the William Fox Studios for $35 a week, his first starring role was in the 1930 movie The Big Trail; the director of that movie, Raoul Walsh, (who "discovered" Wayne) gave him the stage name "John Wayne", after Revolutionary War general "Mad Anthony" Wayne. His pay was raised to $75 a week. He was tutored by the studio's stuntmen in riding and other western skills.^[4]

The Big Trail, the first "western" epic sound motion picture, established his screen credentials, although it was a commercial failure. Nine years later, his performance in the 1939 film Stagecoach made him a star. In between, he made westerns, most notably at Monogram Pictures, and serials for Mascot Studios, including a modernized version of The Three Musketeers (1933). In this same year, Wayne had a small part in Alfred E. Green's succes de scandale Baby Face.^[5]

Beginning in 1928, Wayne appeared in more than twenty of John Ford's films over the next 35 years, including Stagecoach (1939), She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949), The Quiet Man (1952), The Searchers (1956), The Wings of Eagles (1957), and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962).

According to the Internet Movie Database, Wayne played the male lead in 142 of his film appearances. One of Wayne's most praised roles was in The High and the Mighty (1954), directed by William Wellman and based on a novel by Ernest K. Gann. His portrayal of a heroic airman won widespread acclaim.

In 1949 Robert Rossen, the director of All the King's Men, offered the starring role to Wayne. Wayne refused, finding the script of the projected film to be un-American in many ways. Broderick Crawford, who eventually took the role, won the 1949 Oscar for best male actor, beating out Wayne, who had been nominated for his role in The Sands of Iwo Jima.

John Wayne won a Best Actor Oscar in True Grit (1969). Wayne was also nominated for Best Actor in Sands of Iwo Jima, and as the producer of Best Picture nominee The Alamo, one of two films he directed. The other was The Green Berets (1968), the only major film made during the Vietnam War to support the conflict.^[6]

The Searchers continues to be widely regarded as perhaps Wayne's finest and most complex performance. In 2006 Premiere Magazine ran an industry poll in which his portrayal of Ethan Edwards was rated the 87th greatest performance in film history. He named his youngest son Ethan after the character.

The poster for The Quiet Man.

Wayne was known for his right-wing, conservative ideals. He took part in creating the Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Ideals in 1943, and was elected president of that organization in 1947. He was an ardent anti-communist, and vocal supporter of HUAC and the blacklisting of actors and actresses who were accused of being sympathetic to or being Communists. In 1951 he made the hugely controversial Big Jim McLain to show his support for McCarthyism. That same year he sought to have the anti-McCarthyism western allegory High Noon banned, and was instrumental in having its screenwriter, Carl Foreman, blacklisted from Hollywood. He later made Rio Bravo as a right-wing response.

In an interview with Playboy magazine in 1971, Wayne made numerous racist remarks about black people and Native American Indians. When asked about the subject of black people making strides towards equality in the U.S, he stated that he believed in "white supremacy" until blacks were educated enough to take a more prominent role in American society.^[7]

Batjac, the production company co-founded by Wayne, was named after the fictional shipping company in The Wake of the Red Witch.

John Wayne - Early life and college

John Wayne was born Marion Robert Morrison in Winterset, Iowa, but his name was changed to Marion Michael Morrison when his parents decided to name their next son Robert. His family was Presbyterian; father Clyde Leonard Morrison was of Irish and Scottish descent and the son of an American Civil War veteran while mother Mary Alberta Brown was of Scots-Irish descent. Wayne's family homesteaded in Palmdale, California where Wayne rode his horse to school and then moved to Glendale, California in 1911; it was local firemen at the firehouse that was on his way to school in Glendale who started calling him "Little Duke" because he never went anywhere without his Airedale Terrier dog, Big Duke. ^[1]

Duke Morrison's early life was marked by poverty; his father, a pharmacist, was a man who did not manage money well. Duke was a good and popular student. Tall from an early age, he was a star football player for Glendale High School and was recruited by the University of Southern California.^[2] As a teen, Wayne worked in an ice cream shop for an individual who shoed horses for local Hollywood studios.

Wayne applied to the U.S. Naval Academy, but was not accepted. He instead attended the University of Southern California majoring in pre-law, where he was a member of the Trojan Knights and joined the Sigma Chi Fraternity. Wayne also played on the USC football team under legendary coach Howard Jones. A surfing injury curtailed his athletic career; however, Wayne would later note he was too terrified of Jones' reaction to reveal the actual cause of his injury. He lost his athletic scholarship and with no funds was unable to continue at USC.^[3]

While at the university, Wayne and Ward Bond began working at a film studio recommended by their USC Coach. 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, establishing a long friendship with director John Ford. During this period, Wayne appeared (albeit without credit) with his USC teammates as one of the featured football players in Ford's film Salute. That same year (1929) he received his first screen credit, as Duke Morrison, in Words and Music. He would not receive billing again for several pictures, but his next billed role would be a starring one and it would be under the name for which he now famous -- John Wayne.

John Wayne - The Biography

John Wayne (May 26, 1907 – June 11, 1979), born Marion Robert Morrison, popularly known as "Duke," was an iconic, Academy Award winning, American film actor whose career began in silent movies in the 1920s. He was a major star from the 1940s to the 1970s. He is famous for his distinctive voice and walk. He featured heavily in Westerns and World War II epics, but he also made a wide range of films from various genres, biographies, romantic comedies, police dramas, and more. He epitomized a rugged individualistic masculinity, and has become an enduring American icon. In 1999, the American Film Institute named Wayne among the Greatest Male Stars of All Time, ranking at No. 13. A Harris Poll released in 2007 placed Wayne at No. 3 among America's favorite film stars, the only deceased star on the list and the only one who had appeared on every year's version of the poll.