John Wayne biography
John Wayne biography
John Wayne (Marion Michael Morrison) was born on May 26, 1907.
He was an American film actor and Oscar winner. He was an institution in American cinema as the classic hero of war films, especially westerns.
He personified individualism and a pioneering spirit and was an exponent of conservative American ideals on and off the screen. After a series of b-movie roles, he got his breakthrough in John Ford's Stagecoach (1939).
John Wayne's talent, which mainly rested on a rare laid-back and authoritative radiance, was also seen in more complex western roles, for example, in John Ford's She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949), The Searchers (1956) and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962).
He also had a fruitful collaboration with Howard Hawks in Red River (1948), Rio Bravo (1959), and Hatari! (1962). He won his only Oscar in 1970 for the role of the choleric sheriff in Henry Hathaway's True Grit (1969).
Besides his regular genre roles, John Wayne succeeded in The Quiet Man (1952). John Wayne was inspired by his teachers and directed The Alamo (1960) and The Green Berets (1968), which glorified the American effort during the Vietnam War.
In the last role of his career as the old, dying gunslinger in Don Siegel's The Shootist (1976), genre, myth, and private person were united.
Died on June 11, 1979.
last updated October 2022
