John performed well academically at Glendale High School, where he was also a star football player. He was eventually recruited by the University of Southern California (USC), where he became a member of the Trojan Knights and joined the Sigma Chi Fraternity.
While at USC, John began working for film studios in bit parts, as well as working a two-year stint as a prop man at William Fox Studios, for which he received $35 a week. In 1931, John appeared in Columbia Pictures' Maker of Men, which starred Richard Cromwell and Jack Holt.
John’s first starring role came in 1930, in the first western epic sound motion picture, The Big Trail. The director, Raoul Walsh, gave John his stage name, John Wayne, in honor of Revolutionary War general Mad Anthony Wayne.
Although The Big Trail marked John’s first starring role, it was not a commercial success, and his breakthrough project did not arrive until nine years later, in John Ford’s 1939 film Stagecoach. He would go on to appear in over twenty more of John Ford’s films, including She Wore a Yellow Ribbon in 1949, The Quiet Man in 1952, The Searchers in 1956, The Wings of Eagles in 1957, and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance in 1962, starring along with James Stewart, John Carradine, and Lee Marvin.
In 1969, John won a Best Actor Oscar for his performance in True Grit when he starred along with Glen Campbell, Robert Duvall, and Dennis Hopper. He was also nominated for Best Actor in Sands of Iwo Jima, and as the producer of Best Picture nominee The Alamo, starring Richard Widmark and Frankie Avalon, one of two films he directed.
In addition to film, John also made numerous television appearances on such shows as Gunsmoke in 1955; I Love Lucy in 1955, with Lucille Ball and Desi Arnez; The Jack Benny Program in 1960; The Dean Martin Show in 1965 and 1966; The Lucy Show in 1966; The Beverly Hillbillies in 1967, with Buddy Ebson; Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In in 1972 and 1973; and Maude, with Bea Arthur in 1974.
As a conservative, John contributed to the creation of the Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Ideals, and also served as its president. He was also an active anti-communist, supporting the HUAC and the blacklisting of actors who were Communist sympathizers.
John was diagnosed with lung cancer in 1964, forcing him to have his left lung and two ribs removed. He was rumored to have contracted the illness while filming The Conqueror in Utah, at a location contaminated with nuclear fallout from atomic testing. John did not agree with this theory, and thought his cancer was more likely attributed to smoking between three and five packs of cigarettes a day.
In 1968, the Republican Party asked John to run for President. He declined, but did support fellow actor and friend Ronald Reagan's runs for Governor of California in 1966 and 1970.
On June 11, 1979, John lost his life to stomach cancer. His oldest son, Michael, requested that John, who was Presbyterian, be baptized in hospital by the Archbishop of Panama and given a Catholic funeral service. John had been married three times – first to Josephine Alicia Saenz, then to Esperanza Baur, and lastly to Pilar Palette, all of whom were Spanish-speaking. He had a total of seven children.
John’s legacy as an American screen legend is evident through the John Wayne Airport, in Orange County, California; as well as the John Wayne Pioneer Trail in Washington State’s Iron Horse State Park.
YUDDY
