JOHN WAYNE AN AMERICAN HERO OF FILM
Few
actors embody the heroic spirit like John Wayne, whose career starring
in westerns and war movies made him the ultimate American icon. Born
in Winterset, Iowa, as Marion Michael Morrison, "Duke" (the nickname
was after a pet Airedale) started his career as a bit actor in westerns.
Working as a prop boy, he caught the eye of director John Ford who,
in 1930, suggested to Raoul Walsh that he get John Wayne to star in
The Big Trail. The picture didn't succeed, and John Wayne continued
struggling for most of the decade, until Ford cast him in Stagecoach
(1939) and made him a star.
The Complete John Wayne Movies List (CLICK
HERE) |
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 Ironically, the man who spent the war years portraying tough soldiers was exempt from service due to inner ear problems, but his imposing physique and strength on the big screen in movies like The Flying Tigers (1942), Sands of Iwo Jima (1949), for which he was nominated for an OscarŽ, and Back to Bataan (1945) helped keep America's spirit up during World War II and in the hard days of adjustment afterward.
So huge was the myth Wayne created in these roles that when the defeated
Japanese Emperor Hirohito visited the U.S. in 1975, he asked to meet
Wayne. |
Howard Hawks picked Wayne up as well in Rio Bravo (1959), and though
John Wayne made many, many more films, some quite good, many believe
Ford's The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence (1962) to have been John Wayne's
final great film. Wayne finally won the Academy AwardŽ in 1969 for
True Grit, though that was seen as more of a lifetime achievement
award than an award for that particular role, which was clearly not
his best acting or vehicle. John Wayne's last role, playing a dying
gun slinger just coming to terms with his legend in The Shootist (1976),
was an appropriate elegy for the man, the actor, and the icon. John
Wayne died of cancer in June of 1976, a month after President Jimmy
Carter and Congress authorized a special medal honoring him.
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Though
his popularity was unquestioned, it was some time before John Wayne
was recognized as an accomplished actor. John Wayne was famous for
saying, "I don't act. I react." Again, it was John Ford who helped
John Wayne rise to the next level, in Fort Apache (1948) and particularly
in She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949).
After finishing the latter film, John Wayne told an interviewer that
John Ford "sent me a cake...that said, 'You're an actor now.'" Unfortunately,
John Wayne spent most of the 50's making cliched westerns and forgettable
action movies, which brought in audiences solely on John Wayne's clout.
John Ford rescued John Wayne again in 1956, with The Searchers, one
of Ford's all-time best films and one of John Wayne's most outstanding
performances. |
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