John Wayne

Known for ActingBorn 1907-05-26Died 1979-06-11Winterset, Iowa, USA

Marion Mitchell Morrison (born Marion Robert Morrison) (May 26, 1907 – June 11, 1979), known professionally as John Wayne and nicknamed Duke, was an American actor and filmmaker. An Academy Award-winner for True Grit (1969), Wayne was among the top box office draws for three decades. Born in Winterset, Iowa, Wayne grew up in Southern California. He was president of Glendale High class of 1925. He found work at local film studios when he lost his football scholarship to the University of Southern California as a result of a bodysurfing accident. Initially working for the Fox Film Corporation, he appeared mostly in small bit parts. His first leading role came in Raoul Walsh's The Big Trail (1930), which led to leading roles in numerous B movies throughout the 1930s, many of them in the Western genre. Wayne's career took off in 1939, with John Ford's Stagecoach making him an instant star. He went on to star in 142 pictures. Biographer Ronald Davis said, "John Wayne personified for millions the nation's frontier heritage. Eighty-three of his movies were Westerns, and in them, he played cowboys, cavalrymen, and unconquerable loners extracted from the Republic's central creation myth." Wayne's other well-known Western roles include a cattleman driving his herd north on the Chisholm Trail in Red River (1948), a Civil War veteran whose young niece is abducted by a tribe of Comanches in The Searchers (1956), and a troubled rancher competing with a lawyer for a woman's hand in marriage in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962). He is also remembered for his roles in The Quiet Man (1952), Rio Bravo (1959), and The Longest Day (1962). In his final screen performance, he starred as an aging gunfighter battling cancer in The Shootist (1976). He appeared with many important Hollywood stars of his era, and his last public appearance was at the Academy Awards ceremony on April 9, 1979.Read more

Movies & web series

Battleground

Movie Tough Guys

Showbiz Goes to War

Raquel!

John Wayne on Film

Girls Demand Excitement

Cheer Up and Smile

Words and Music

Spécial cinéma

Going Hollywood: The '30s

Atomic People

The 10 from Texas

Running Hollywood

Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch

Cinépanorama

John Wayne's 'The Alamo'

Hollywood

That's Action

Hooray for Hollywood

Edith Head: The Paramount Years

The Selling of the Pentagon

V.I.P. Schaukel

1939: Hollywood's Greatest Year

Remembering Gene Wilder

La Classe américaine

Western von gestern

Memo for Joe

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance

Clint Eastwood: The Last Legend

I Love Lucy

Rio Bravo

Good-bye, My Lady

Three Girls Lost

The Deceiver

The Jack Benny Program

The Searchers

It's Showtime

Casablanca

John Wayne: Cowboys & Demons

The Longest Day

The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson

Breakdown: 1975

Hollywood and the Stars

Tonight Starring Jack Paar

El Dorado

Three Lives

The Shootist: The Legend Lives On

Stagecoach