Movie Musings: Disney and More

John Wayne: “The Duke”

In 1949, John “The Duke” Wayne starred as Captain Nathan Cutting Brittles in the film She Wore a Yellow Ribbon. It was his the sixth of his 15 collaborations with director John Ford. His co-star in the film, Harry Carrey Jr. Carrey Jr. once said that the role of Nathan Brittles was “Wayne’s favorite role.” Throughout a 50-year-career in movies, John Wayne became far more than just a Hollywood actor, he became one of Hollywood’s most popular icons. His screen persona beautifully epitomizes the American Cowboy in western movies, and while not all of his movies were westerns, he always played men of courage on screen. He once said “A man’s got to have a code, a creed to live by, no matter his job.”

He was born Marion Robert Morrison on May 26th, 1907 in Winterset, Iowa. His father, Clyde, was a pharmacy clerk and his mother, Molly, was a former telephone operator who became a stay-at-home Mom. Four years later, she had a second boy which she decided to name Robert, and she switched her older son’s middle name from Robert to Mitchell. The family later moved from Winterset to Palmdale, California, and then Glendale, California where young Marion attended Glendale Union High School. His parents sadly had a rocky marriage because Molly was tough and not very affectionate woman. His father was all about the affection, and the move unfortunately strained the relationship even more. This made both him and his brother anxious, and their father tried to ease their anxieties by teaching them how to play football. It was also here that Marion convinced his parents to let him have a dog, and they gave him an Airedale Terrier which he named Duke. He later took a paper delivery job, and everyone at the local fire station, which was on his paper route began calling young Marion “Big Duke,” and the dog “Little Duke,” because they would never go anywhere without one another. The nickname stuck throughout the rest of his life.

In school, Duke was an exceptional student and was well-liked by the other students. Throughout his four years at Glendale Union High, he was either vice president or president of his class, and it was here that he also developed a love of drama, performing in plays varying from Henry VIII to The First Lady of the Land. Marion also took a job as a handbill deliverer for the Palace Grand Movie Theatre in Glendale, which is where he also developed a love of the movies. After graduating High School, he had hoped to join the Navy, but his application was denied. He got a football scholarship at USC, but during his sophomore year at the university his parents got divorced. His father remarried, and although his second wife was good to both him and his children, Wayne’s brother relocated to Long Beach, California with his mother, and Marion didn’t have very much contact with either of them after that. The USC football team caught the attention of many celebrities at the time, including Western star Tom Mix. Mix made a bargain with the team’s Coach Howard, giving players jobs at Fox Film’s Corporation in exchange for box seats, and when football season was over, Duke Morrison and one other player, got employed at Fox. Not long after their employment, Mix offered the two football players jobs as extras in his next Western movie, saying “I think there’s a future in pictures for both of you.”

  Duke Morrison ultimately decided to pursue a career as full-time movie star, and he began taking bit parts in B-movies. His first film appearance was in a silent film called Brown of Harvard (1926) where he played a Yale Football Player. His first starring role was in a film called The Big Trail (1930). Even though he had found work in movies, he continued as a prop boy who moved furniture at Fox. When he was moving furniture one day, a director named Raoul Walsh saw him and cast him in his first starring role on in a film called The Big Trail (1930). While on that film, Walsh was told by Fox chief Winfield Sheehan that Duke would need a different name. Without actually consulting Wayne, Walsh initially suggested “Anthony Wayne,” and Sheehan deemed that name “too Italian.”  Walsh then suggested John Wayne, and Sheehan agreed. 

John Wayne acted in almost 90 movies before landing his “big break” in the role of the Ringo Kid in Stagecoach (1939), which his first major collaboration with director John Ford. Tom Mix, who happened to be a friend of Ford’s, recommended Duke, and he hired him as an extra on the silent film Mother Machree (1927). (“Machree,” was also Ford’s first collaboration with Victor McLaglen, who would later co-star with Duke in The Quiet Man (1952)). “Stagecoach,” was a critical and commercial success, and even received an Academy Award Nomination for Best Picture.

Throughout his incredible career, John Wayne worked with hundreds of leading ladies who were both beautiful and talented, but often they were also strong-willed, sassy, and equally as courageous as he. The best example of that would have to be Maureen O’Hara. O’Hara worked with Wayne on five movies: Rio Grande (1950), The Quiet Man (1952), The Wings of Eagles (1957), McLintock! (1963), and Big Jake (1971). In “Grande,” “Quiet Man,” and “Eagles,” they were directed by John Ford and on “McLintock!” they were directed by Andrew V. McLaglen, son of their co-star from “Quiet Man,” Victor McLaglen. John Wayne often referred to Maureen O’Hara as “One of the greatest guys I’ve ever known.” Maureen O’Hara also once said “Speaking as an actress, I wish all actors would be more like Duke-and speaking as a person, it would be nice if all people could be honest and as genuine as he is. This is a real man.”

Wayne also worked with a number of talented men who played both sidekicks and villains in his movies. He made three films with another Hollywood legend, James Stewart: The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962), How the West Was Won (1962), and The Shootist (1976), which was Duke’s final film ever. “Shootist,” also starred Ron Howard, who at this point, was still well-known as an actor, but was beginning to pursue his directing career. Howard said that while on this movie, he learned more from Wayne than he usually learned from working with other Hollywood legends on screen.

John Wayne received a total of three Academy Award Nominations throughout his career: Best Actor in Sands of Iwo Jima (1949), Best Picture for producing The Alamo (1960), and Best Actor in True Grit (1969) and his performance in that film as Rooster Cogburn would be his first and only Oscar win. While making the film, Wayne disapproved of the casting of Kim Darby as Mattie Ross, and barely ever spoke to her off camera. He also did not get along well with Robert Duvall, who ironically played his main antagonist Lucky Ned Pepper in the film. Throughout filming, Duvall constantly argued with the director, Henry Hathaway, and at one point Wayne even threatened to punch Duvall if he argued with Hathaway again. Despite this, the film was a success, and was remade in 2010 with Jeff Bridges as Rooster Cogburn who coincidentally received a Best Actor Oscar Nomination for his performance, as well.

Although he feuded with Robert Duvall, Wayne did get along well with some of the actors who played the main antagonists in his movies. Bruce Dern played “Long Hair Watts” in The Cowboys (1972). Dern says that Wayne came up to him once and said “Oh, how they’re gonna hate you for this.” Dern replied “Maybe, but in Berkeley I’ll be a (bleeping) hero.” Wayne also made three movies with Richard Boone, a distant relative of American frontiersman, Daniel Boone: The Alamo (1960), Big Jake (1971), and The Shootist (1976).

John Wayne was not only well-liked by movie fans, but by movie professionals as well. His five-decade-career in movies made him an American legend—and he brought lots of adventure, intrigue, and fun into the lives of many.