John Wayne ~ Biography

"When I started, I knew I was no actor and I went to work on this Wayne thing," he once recalled. "It was as deliberate a projection as you'll ever see. I figured I needed a gimmick, so I dreamed up the drawl, the squint and a way of moving that meant to suggest I wasn't looking for trouble, but would just as soon throw a bottle at your head as not. I practiced in front of a mirror."

His entrance into films was as fortuitous as any made by a young fellow who grew up near the Hollywood badlands. But the Wayne saga actually started much farther east, in the small town of Winterset, Iowa, where he was born May 26, 1907, and was named Marion Michael Morrison.

John Wayne's father, Clyde L. Morrison, married Mary Brown, and was the owner of a drugstore. When Marion was 6 years old, his family moved to Southern California as his father was suffering from ill health. Once there, they settled and began homesteading with a farm of 80 acres. The family then moved and settled in Glendale, where Mr Morrison Snr again opened a pharmacy. As a young boy, John Wayne would rise at 4am, to deliver newspapers. He would then go to school and football practice. After school he would then deliver orders from the store. Because the pharmacy was in the same building as a theatre, John Wayne was able to go to the movies 4 or 5 times a week, free of charge.

When he was 7, John Wayne had learned about horses and played cowboy. In Glendale, he saw movies being made at the Triangle Studios, where they often shot outdoor scenes. The link between horse and camera was yet to be forged, but the influences were there from the beginning. Along the way he had acquired the nickname "Duke." It came from an Airedale terrier he had had as a young boy.

John Wayne worked as truck driver, fruit picker, soda jerk and ice hauler and was an honour student and a member of an outstanding football team at high school. His athletic talents brought him a football scholarship at the University of Southern California, but in his second year he broke an ankle and dropped out.

While he was still at school, he got a job, as other football players did, as a scenery mover at Fox Films. John Ford was attracted to the youth's hulking physique and made him a "fourth-assistant prop boy." When Mr. Ford was making a submarine film on location in the channel off Catalina Island, the regular stuntmen refused to go into the water because of rough seas. Mr. Ford asked the prop boy if he would. He did, immediately, and became part of the Ford team.

In early films John Wayne was given credits as Michael Burn and Duke Morrison. Raoul Walsh, (Director of "The Big Trail") thought Marion to sissy a name for a western hero. John Wayne was born.

He lived with his third wife, Pilar Palette Wayne, who was born in Peru, in an 11-room, seven-bathroom, $175,000 house in Newport Beach, California, where he had a 135-foot yacht. He also owned cattle ranches in Stanfield and Springerville, Arizona.

Mr. Wayne's first two marriages, to Josephine Saenz and Esperanzo Bauer, also Latin Americans, ended in divorces.
His last, long time companion was Pat Stacey.
His seven children from his marriages are,
Michael Wayne. Born November 23, 1934.
Toni Wayne. Born 1936 / Died Dec. 2000
Patrick Wayne. Born July 15, 1939.
Melinda Wayne. Born 1940.
Aissa Wayne. Born 1956.
John Ethan Wayne. Born 1962.
Marisa Wayne. Born 1966.
His children produced him with more than 15 grandchildren.

John Wayne died 11 June 1979, Los Angeles, California, from cancer.

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