John Wayne may be the best known of all of the American actors. For many, he typifies the concept of being an American. His bold swagger and take charge ways are valued held highly by many Americans. This is also the same values that cause many non-Americans to have contempt and hatred for our country.
John Wayne had 181 acting credits spanning 50 years from 1926 to 1976. In those early years of Wayne’s career, he met a real western lawman who had come to Hollywood to try and sell his story. That man, from whom John Wayne learned to act like a cowboy was none other than Wyatt Earp.
Wyatt Earp is such an icon of the western movie genre that a review of IMDB shows no less than 56 movies portraying characters spanning from the 1930’s all the way through the ought teens including the masterful Tombstone (1993). To sum up, John Wayne could not pick a better cowboy to learn from.
John Wayne’s Career
Wayne went to USC on a football scholarship and began working in Hollywood. During The Big Trail (1930), wagon train western Raoul Walsh met a handsome prop boy by the name of Marion Morrison and renamed him, John Wayne, after Revolutionary War general Mad Anthony Wayne. The name came because Walsh was reading a book about Mad Anthony Wayne at the time. I guess we can all be glad he wasn’t reading about the Swamp Fox – Francis Marion.
About 84 of Wayne’s movies were westerns of some type. These movies ranged from playing a singing cowboy in Riders of Destiny (1933 ) to his final film where he played an aging gunfighter with cancer in The Shootist (1976). In-between he played every kind of cowboy from the driver in The Searchers (1956), to mad in Red River (1948), and comedic in McLintock! (1963).
I believe it would be safe to say he made movies about being in every branch of the service (maybe not Coast Guard). In movies, he flew planes of every size and description and drove every type of boat and ship.
Wayne was a lifelong Republican and a war hawk even supporting the Vietnam War. However, during World War II he made the choice, not to enter service because it might affect his career. Wayne died in 1979, from cancer. That same year a Congressional Gold Medal was struck in his honor.
A controversial figure in life but a hell of an actor. Through his acting, he set the bar for manliness.
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