John Wayne was Born (May 26, 1907)

This week (May 20-26) in Hollywood history – Winning starring Paul Newman was released (May 22, 1969); Joan Collins was born (May 23, 1933); Thelma and Louise was released (May 24, 1991); Sex, Lies and Videotape was well received at the Cannes Film Festival (May 24, 1989); Star Wars was released (May 25, 1977); John Wayne was born (May 26, 1907); Sidney Pollack died (May 26, 2008)

Highlighted Story of the Week -

 

 

On May 26, 2008, Hollywood legend John Wayne was born in Winterset, Iowa. Born Marion Michael Morrison, Wayne’s family moved to Glendale, California, when he was six years old. When he graduated from high school, he hoped to attend the U.S. Naval Academy. However, after the school rejected him, he accepted a full scholarship to play football at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles.

In the summer of 1926, Wayne’s football coach found him a job as an assistant prop man on the set of a movie directed by John Ford. Ford started to use Wayne as an extra, and he eventually began to trust him with some larger roles. In 1930, Ford recommended Wayne for Fox’s epic Western The Big Trail. Wayne won the part, but the movie did poorly, and Fox let his contract lapse. During the next decade, Wayne worked tirelessly in countless low-budget western films, sharpening his talents and developing a distinct persona for his cowboy characters. Finally, his old mentor John Ford gave Wayne his big break, casting him in the epic 1939 western, Stagecoach. Wayne played the role of Ringo Kid, and he imbued the character with the essential traits that would inform nearly all of his subsequent screen roles: a tough and clear-eyed honesty, unquestioning valor, and a laconic, almost plodding manner.

With the success of Stagecoach, Wayne’s movie career took off. Among the dozens of Westerns he appeared in (many of them directed by Ford) were classics such as Tall in the Saddle (1944), Red River (1948), Fort Apache (1948), She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949), Rio Bravo (1959), and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962). In all these films, Wayne embodied the simple, and perhaps simplistic, cowboy values of decency, honesty, and integrity.

Besides Westerns, Wayne also acted in war films. It was a small leap from the valorous cowboy or cavalry soldier to the brave WWII fighters of films like Sands of Iwo Jima (1949) and Flying Leathernecks (1951). Deeply conservative in his politics, Wayne also used his 1968 film, The Green Berets, to express his support of the American government’s war in Vietnam. By the late 1960s, some Americans had tired of Wayne and his simplistically masculine and patriotic characters. Increasingly, western movies were rejecting the simple black-and-white moral codes championed by Wayne and replacing them with a more complex and tragic view of the American West. However, Wayne proved more adaptable than many expected. In his Oscar-winning role in True Grit (1969), he began to escape the narrow confines of his own good-guy image. His final film, The Shootist (1976), won over even his most severe critics. Wayne, who was battling lung cancer, played a dying gunfighter whose moral codes and principles no longer fit in a changing world. He died from stomach cancer at the UCLA Medical Center on June 11, 1979 and he was buried at Pacific View Memorial Park in Newport Beach, California.

 

 

Michael Thomas Barry is the author of six nonfiction books that includes the award winning Fade to Black Graveside Memories of Hollywood Greats, 1927-1950. Visit Michael’s website www.michaelthomasbarry.com for more information. His book can be purchased from Amazon through the following link:

http://www.amazon.com/Fade-Black-Graveside-Memories-Hollywood/dp/0764337092/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8

John Wayne is Born - 1907

On this date in 1907, John Wayne, an actor who came to epitomize the American West, is born in Winterset, Iowa.  

Born Marion Michael Morrison, Wayne's family moved to Glendale, California, when he was six years old. As a teen, he rose at four in the morning to deliver newspapers, and after school he played football and made deliveries for local stores. When he graduated from high school, he hoped to attend the U.S. Naval Academy. However, after the school rejected him, he accepted a full scholarship to play football at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. 

In the summer of 1926, Wayne's football coach found him a job as an assistant prop man on the set of a movie directed by John Ford. Ford started to use Wayne as an extra, and he eventually began to trust him with some larger roles. In 1930, Ford recommended Wayne for Fox's epic Western The Big Trail. Wayne won the part, but the movie did poorly, and Fox let his contract lapse. During the next decade, Wayne worked tirelessly in countless low-budget western films, sharpening his talents and developing a distinct persona for his cowboy characters. Finally, his old mentor John Ford gave Wayne his big break, casting him in his brilliant 1939 western, Stagecoach. Wayne played the role of Ringo Kid, and he imbued the character with the essential traits that would inform nearly all of his subsequent screen roles: a tough and clear-eyed honesty, unquestioning valor, and a laconic, almost plodding manner.

After Stagecoach, Wayne's career took off. Among the dozens of Westerns he appeared in—many of them directed by Ford-were memorable classics like Tall in the Saddle (1944), Red River (1948), Fort Apache (1948), She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949), Rio Bravo (1959), and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962). In all these films, Wayne embodied the simple, and perhaps simplistic, cowboy values of decency, honesty, and integrity. Besides Westerns, Wayne also acted in war films. It was a small leap from the valorous cowboy or cavalry soldier to the brave WWII fighters of films like Sands of Iwo Jima (1949) and Flying Leathernecks (1951). Deeply conservative in his politics, Wayne also used his 1968 film, The Green Berets, to express his support of the American government's war in Vietnam. 

By the late 1960s, some Americans had tired of Wayne and his simplistically masculine and patriotic characters. Increasingly, western movies were rejecting the simple black-and-white moral codes championed by Wayne and replacing them with a more complex and tragic view of the American West. However, Wayne proved more adaptable than many expected. In his Oscar-winning role in True Grit (1969), he began to escape the narrow confines of his own good-guy image. His final film, The Shootist (1976), won over even his most severe critics. Wayne—who was himself battling lung cancer—played a dying gunfighter whose moral codes and principles no longer fit in a changing world. Three years later, Wayne died of cancer. To this day, public polls identify him as one of the most popular actors of all time.

John Wayne Wins Best Actor Oscar - 1970

On this day in 1970, the legendary actor John Wayne wins his first--and only--acting Academy Award, for his star turn in the director Henry Hathaway’s Western True Grit.

Wayne appeared in some 150 movies over the course of his long and storied career. He established his tough, rugged, uniquely American screen persona most vividly in the many acclaimed films he made for the directors John Ford and Howard Hawks from the late 1940s into the early 1960s. He earned his first Oscar nomination, in the Best Actor category, for Sands of Iwo Jima (1949). The Alamo (1960), which Wayne produced, directed and starred in, earned a Best Picture nomination. 

Wayne’s Oscar for True Grit at the 42nd annual Academy Awards in 1970 was generally considered to be a largely sentimental win, and a long-overdue reward for one of Hollywood’s most enduring performers. The Academy had failed to even nominate Wayne for any of his most celebrated performances, in films such as Stagecoach (1939), Red River (1948), The Quiet Man (1952), The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962) and especially Ford’s The Searchers (1956), considered by many to be the greatest Western ever made. In True Grit, Wayne played a drunken, foul-tempered but endearing U.S. marshal named Rooster Cogburn, who becomes an unlikely hero when he helps a young girl avenge the murder of her father. He would reprise the role in the film’s sequel, Rooster Cogburn (1975), opposite Katharine Hepburn. 

In 1964, Wayne battled lung cancer, undergoing surgery to remove his entire left lung. He went public with news of his illness in hopes of convincing people to remain vigilant about cancer. In his last movie, The Shootist (1976), Wayne portrayed an aging gunfighter dying of cancer. Three years later, the great actor himself succumbed to stomach cancer at the age of 72 on June 11, 1979.

Wesley Ruggles, John Wayne

Because I will be out of town tomorrow June 11th...I have posted tomorrow's blog today

Who was born on this date:

On June 11, 1889, film director Wesley Ruggles was born in Los Angeles, California. He was the younger brother of actor Charles Ruggles. He began his film career in 1915 as an actor, appearing in a dozen or so silent films, on occasion with Charles Chaplin. In 1917, he turned his attention to directing, making more than 50 mostly forgettable films — including a silent film version of Edith Wharton's novel The Age of Innocence (1924), before he won acclaim with Cimarron in 1931. The adaptation of Edna Ferber's novel Cimarron, about homesteaders settling in the prairies of Oklahoma, was the first Western to win an Academy Award as Best Picture.

Although Ruggles followed this success with the light comedy No Man of Her Own (1932) with Clark Gable and Carole Lombard, the comedy I'm No Angel (1933) with Mae West and Cary Grant , College Humor (1933) with Bing Crosby, and Bolero (1934) with George Raft and Carole Lombard, few of his later films were in any way memorable (an exception is Arizona). His career was on the downslide when he teamed with the Rank Organization in 1946 to produce and direct London Town with Sid Field and Petula Clark, based on a story he wrote. The film was British cinema's first attempt at a Technicolor musical extravaganza and is notable as being one of the biggest critical and commercial failures in that country's film history. Ironically, Ruggles had been hired to helm it because as an American, it was thought, he was better equipped to handle a musical but despite the fact that nothing in his past had prepared him to work in the genre. It was his last film. An abridged version was released in the U.S. under the title My Heart Goes Crazy by United Artists in 1953. Ruggles died on January 8, 1972 in Santa Monica and he is buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California.

Who died on this date:

On June 11, 1979, actor John Wayne died. He was born Marion Robert Morrison on May 26, 1907 in Winterset, Iowa to Mary and Clyde Morrison. Mary soon had a change of heart, and re-named him Marion Michael in honor of a wealthy relative. The young Morrison grew to despise the name, and his early childhood was not happy. He felt unloved by his mother, who favored his younger brother Robert. Because of his name, Marion was teased, and bullied at school. He found himself in many fights, his father Clyde advised him not to go looking for a fight, but if he found it unavoidable, make sure he won at all costs. The tough image that would be a hallmark of later film characters was being developed at an early age.

In 1915, the Morrison’s moved to the Los Angeles area, Clyde had been diagnosed with tuberculosis, and a hot dry climate was suggested. At the age of eleven a big event in Marion’s life took place; he was befriended by a local fireman, a man that Marion looked up too, this man gave young Morrison his nickname “big Duke.” The nickname stuck, and with the new name came a fresh bravado, the young “Duke” Morrison began to prosper emotionally, and academically. He began to excel in school, and by his senior year was a member of the National Honor Society, and at graduation, was named the class salutatorian. Morrison grew to be a tall and very handsome young man. Because of his size he excelled in athletics. He was named captain of the high school football team, and this team was very successful. These triumphs gave Morrison his first glimpse of fame. As for college, his greatest desire was to attend the U.S. Naval Academy, at Annapolis but instead was offered a full scholarship to play football at the University of Southern California. Morrison’s college years were filled with great joy, and he prospered. He gained tremendous fame on and off the football field. These accolades led to a part-time summer job on the back lot of the Fox Studios. Morrison’s first taste of the movies came as an assistant to cowboy actor Tom Mix. This small job was the catalyst that propelled Morrison into his legendary film career. During that summer at the Fox Studios, Morrison would meet a person that would forever alter his life.

In 1930, John Ford, was one of Hollywood’s most successful directors, he was directing a film called Mother MacCree, when fate sent the young Morrison to the set of the film. The director took an immediate liking to Duke, and a lifelong friendship ensued. John Ford saw something special in Morrison. He was young, raw, and he saw a potential for stardom. Over the next few years, Ford cast Morrison in several of his films, and he was a natural in front of the camera. Fate again entered Morrison’s life when he was introduced to another director, Raoul Walsh. Walsh also saw potential in Morrison, but thought his name was not marketable. A more “American” sounding name was needed, and Walsh came up with John Wayne. The name stuck, and John “Duke” Wayne the movie star was born. It was with Raoul Walsh that John Wayne got his first big break as a leading man in The Big Trail (1930).

For the next few years, Wayne starred in numerous serials and B-westerns, his six foot three inch frame, and silent good looks made him very marketable. Wayne felt he was being type cast and yearned to break free to super stardom. The year 1939 was to be very significant for John Wayne. Director John Ford had not forgotten his friend and protégé; he was casting for a new film, Stagecoach. Ford thought that Wayne would be perfect for the lead role in the film. This was the break that Wayne needed. Stagecoach was critically acclaimed, a box office success, and it propelled Wayne to new level of recognition. It was the beginning of many successes for Wayne, and provided the impetus for the development of the hero image that would prove to be Wayne’s lasting legacy in film. The dynamic duo of Ford and Wayne would become box office gold, and over the years their film partnership would produce some of Hollywood’s greatest and most successful motion pictures.

John Wayne’s award winning acting, producing, and directing career spanned five decades, beginning in the late 1920’s through the late 1970’s. A prolific film career that saw him star in over two hundred and fifty motion pictures. During this time he starred alongside many of Hollywood’s greatest actors and actresses. The characters he portrayed in many of his films, personified the image of the true patriotic American. Some of Wayne’s many legendary films credits include, Dark Command (1940), Reap the Wild Wind (1942), Flying Tigers (1942), The Fighting Seabees (1944), Fort Apache (1948), Red River (1948), Wake of the Red Witch (1948), The Sands of Iwo Jima (1949), Rio Grande (1950), The Quiet Man (1952), Hondo (1953), The High and the Mighty (1954), The Searchers (1956), The Alamo (1960), The Longest Day (1962), In Harms Way (1965), and The Green Berets (1968). He was nominated for a best acting Academy Award for his portrayal of Marine Sergeant John Stryker in The Sands of Iwo Jima (1949). In 1969, he won the best actor Academy Award and Golden Globe for his portrayal of Marshall Rooster Cogburn in True Grit. Wayne’s last film was The Shootist (1976), in the film he played an over the hill gunfighter who is dying of cancer. Ironically, in real life Wayne was also battling cancer. He was a lifelong smoker, and had been waging a fight with lung cancer for several years. Illness was nothing new to Wayne, he had a cancerous lung removed in 1963, had open heart surgery in 1978, and had his stomach removed in 1979. He died on the evening of June 11, 1979, at the U.C.L.A. Medical Center in Los Angeles, California from lung and stomach cancer. According to his widow Pilar, John Wayne final wish was to be cremated, and his ashes scattered at sea, near Catalina Island. He also wanted all of his friends to gather at his home for a party, not wanting a sorrowful occasion; but instead wanted a joyful celebration of his life, an Irish type wake. These arrangements were never carried out; Michael Wayne the executor of his father’s estate chose to have a “more dignified “arrangement. Wayne was to be buried at Pacific View Memorial Park, which over looked his beloved Newport Harbor. At 6:00 a.m. on June 15, 1979, Wayne’s bronze flower draped casket was brought into Our Lady Queen of Angels Catholic Church in Corona del Mar for funeral mass. In attendance were only immediate family, his seven children, twenty seven grand children, Pilar Wayne, and a few close friends. After the conclusion of the mass, the funeral procession of only twenty cars made its way to Pacific View Memorial Park. After the procession had entered the cemetery, the gates were closed, and no one else was allowed admittance. As the sun arose in the east, on that June morning, a brief graveside ceremony was conducted by the archbishop Marcos G. McGrath, and John Wayne was laid to rest. This was not the end the legendary actor had envisioned. It is interesting to note that the plot in which Wayne is buried was given to the Wayne family by his close friend, Chick Iverson.

John Wayne's final resting place at Pacific View Memorial Park

John Wayne’s final resting place lay unmarked for over twenty years, his son Michael was very protective of his father’s image, and was adamant about keeping fans away. He feared fans would desecrate the grave, and wanted the location of his father’s burial kept as secret as possible. It was only after Michael’s death in 2003, that the surviving Wayne siblings decided it was time pay tribute to their father’s legacy, and at long last had a flat bronze marker (which plays homage to his image of the ultimate cowboy) erected at his grave site. Today, John Wayne’s legacy is found in his films, and the characters he portrayed will be remembered forever. He was a true American icon, an original, a legend bigger than life. John Wayne’s grave is located in Bay View Terrace lawn, lot 573, it is a few yards from his daughter Toni, and first wife Josephine’s graves.

http://www.michaelthomasbarry.com/, author of "Fade to Black Graveside Memeories of Hollywood Greats, 1927-1950"