He rode a horse to school, swam in irrigation ditches and worked alongside his father clearing sagebrush on their California farm land to plant crops, but John Wayne’s destiny was Hollywood, and it was there that he developed and nurtured his reputation as a western and military film hero and American icon.
Marion Roberts Morrison
According to the Ronald L. Davis book Duke, on May 26, 1907, the legendary actor, John Wayne, was born in Winterset, Iowa to Clyde and Mary Alberta Morrison. He was named Marion Roberts Morrison after his grandfather, Marion Mitchell Morrison, who fought in the Civil War, but nicknamed “Duke” after the family's Airedale terrier who followed him everywhere.
The Morrison family moved to Earlham in 1910 where Clyde Morrison owned a pharmacy. In 1914, the family moved again, this time to Lancaster, California. Wayne played football for the Glendale High School team. He also applied to the U.S. Naval Academy, but was turned down. He enrolled instead with the University of Southern California where he played football until he was injured and lost his scholarship.
Work with the Film Studios
As soon as he left college, Wayne started working in the props department at the local film studios. Fox Film Corporation hired him for $75 a week to play bit parts under the name Duke Morrison. He was offered his first starring role in 1930s The Big Trail.
Studio executives changed his name to John Wayne. Recognizing his potential as a Hollywood hero, they also raised his pay to $105 a week. The Big Trail was the first wide-screen movie, but most theaters where unequipped to handle the size of the picture. The film was a financial failure and this failure had a substantial impact on Wayne's career. Wayne returned to playing bit parts, appearing in over eighty “horse operas” in a span of nine years.
The Big Break in Hollywood Films
John Ford’s popular 1939 Stagecoach provided Wayne with a chance to showcase his refined acting skills and gave him a new start in Hollywood. Remarkably, John Ford was unable to finance the movie with Wayne as top-billing and Claire Trevor was given this position, but his years in horse operas proved to be more of a boost than he anticipated as movie-goers recognized Wayne as the true star of the film.
Seven Sinners and Shepherd of the Hills
In 1940, Wayne starred in the Universal film Seven Sinners with Marlene Dietrich, a woman he later described as "the most intriguing woman I've ever known," according to the Ronald L. Davis biography Duke: The Life and Image of John Wayne. Wayne plays an American naval officer in the film and Dietrich, of course, plays the seductress. The film was considered a vehicle for Dietrich, though it helped Wayne's career tremendously. It was also the start of an affair between Wayne and Dietrich.
Wayne's next film was The Shepherd of the Hills, which is based on the Harold Bell Wright bestseller. This film was Wayne's first in technicolor. According to the Davis biography, Wayne felt the movie was the best he had ever seen "before the studio heads took over the editing of the film and ruined it."
Wayne and Dietrich then starred in The Spoilers, a 1942 film about the Klondike gold rush, which included a spectacular fight scene between Wayne and Randolph Scott.
World War II
According to the Davis biography, Wayne would have been exempt from military service and the draft because he had four children at the start of World War II, but he tried to enlist and was rejected due to numerous injuries he received during the filming of his early western movies. He had also developed an inner ear problem during underwater filming scenes while making the film Reap the Wild Wind, which was Paramount's most popular film released in 1941, but a tremendous physical strain on John Wayne.
Continued Work With John Ford
During WWII, John Ford served in a Field Photographic Unit for the Office of Strategic Services. According to biographer Ronald L. Davis, Wayne contacted Ford and asked if he could join his outfit, but Wayne was urged to support the war effort through films, though he claimed to feel embarrassed by the fact that he could not serve in the military.
Wayne starred in twenty more John Ford movies, including She Wore a Yellow Ribbon and The Quiet Man, and the 1956 western The Searchers, which is believed to be Wayne’s most powerful acting performance. He was awarded an Oscar for his performance in 1969s True Grit, which has since been remade in 2010. Wayne was also nominated for an Oscar for his performance in the 1949 movie The Sands of Iwo Jima.
Movie Director and Producer
Wayne eventually moved into directing and producing and started a number of film studios, including Batjac, named after the fictional shipping company in The Wake of the Red Witch with Gail Russell. He produced twenty films and directed five, including the 1960 film The Alamo, which brought him another Oscar nomination.
Family Life
John Wayne met Josephine Alicia Saenz while he was still a student at the University of Southern California, but her parents disapproved of their relationship because Wayne's parents were in the process of a divorce and they were not Catholic. Nevertheless, Wayne and Saenz were married on June 24,1933.
Wayne's affair with Marlene Dietrich may have been the cause of the 1945 divorce between Wayne and Josephine Alicia Saenz, but he did meet his second wife, Esperanza Bauer, while on vacation with Saenz and married Bauer a year after his divorce. Wayne was deeply depressed after the divorce and said to be tortured with guilt because he was "unavailable to his children." Wayne and Saenz have four children together, including: Michael Wayne, film producer and founder of the John Wayne Cancer Institute; Mary Antonia "Toni" Wayne LaCava; Patrick Wayne, Hollywood actor and Chairman of the John Wayne Cancer Institute; and Melinda Wayne Munoz.
John Wayne married Esperanza "Chata" Bauer in 1946. Bauer tried to shoot Wayne in a drunken rage after accusing him of having an affair with actress Gail Russell and they divorced in November of 1954.
He then married Pilar Pallete in November of 1954. John and Pilar Wayne had three children--attorney and author Aissa Wayne, actor John Ethan Wayne, and actress Marisa Wayne. At the time of his death, Wayne had twenty-four grandchildren.
Politics and Awards
Wayne once claimed to have been a Socialist during his Sophomore year in college, though in later years he was clearly a conservative Republican and spoke critically of Socialism in interviews. He was also vocal about his anti-communist beliefs and a supporter of the actions of the House Un-American Activities Committee. In 1944, he participated in the creation of the Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Ideals and served as their president in 1947.
Final Days
Wayne was a chain-smoker from the time he was a teen and long before cigarette companies warned of the dangers. He had one of his lungs removed in 1963, but died fifteen years later from stomach cancer on June 11, 1979. He was enrolled in a cancer vaccine study at the time of his death at the UCLA Medical Center. He is buried in the Pacific View Memorial Park Cemetery in Corona del Mar.
National Recognition of John Wayne as an American Icon
Wayne appeared in more than 171 films. In their book John Wayne: American, Randy Roberts and James Olson explain: "There was something about the man that drew friend and foe like a magnet." On May 26, 1979, Wayne received the Congressional Gold Medal in recognition of his status as an American Icon. General Omar Bradley and many famous Hollywood actors and actresses, including Frank Sinatra and Elizabeth Taylor, testified to Congress as to why Wayne deserved this prestigious award. In 1980, President Jimmy Carter posthumously awarded John Wayne the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
The John Wayne Cancer Foundation
The John Wayne Cancer Foundation continues to pay tribute to this brave and compassionate man through awareness and education programs and support groups. The Foundation also supports the John Wayne Cancer Institute, which conducts clinical and laboratory cancer research.
Sources:
- Davis, Ronald L. Duke: The Life and Image of John Wayne. University of Oklahoma Press. Norman, Oklahoma: 1998.
- “John Wayne.” Official Website of Biography.com.
- Roberts, Randy, and Olson, James. John Wayne: American. Simon & Schuster. New York: 1995.
- The John Wayne Cancer Foundation
- The John Wayne Cancer Institute.
Darla Sue Dollman - Darla Sue Dollman, BA, MFA, has expertise in classic films, the Old West, boating, and animals.
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