Homage Why John Wayne remains America’s favourite actor.
John Wayne’s appeal has not waned.
He still rates, nearly three decades after his demise in 1979, as one of America’s favourite movie actors, according to a poll conducted this year. Many consider him as American as George Washington or Abraham Lincoln. He is John Wayne (popularly known as Duke).
May 26, 2007, is his Birth Centenary and to celebrate it in a fitting manner, four Hollywood producers, Universal, Warner, Paramount and Lionsgate, are bringing out commemorative DVDs of his films including some rare ones. No other film actor has received such homage.
Interestingly some of the DVDs contain his original name, Mitchell Morrison or Duke Morrison, in the credit titles, produced long before he took his new avatar as John Wayne.
At Cannes
His daughter-in-law Gretchen Wayne, who now runs the family Production Company Batjac, is making a special presentation on John Wayne at the Cannes Film Festival currently on in France.
Wayne acted in a number of silent films, sometimes with no credit and sometimes with one of the two names, until 1930.
For two years he worked as a ‘prop man’ on the sets, shifting furniture, and set property at the Fox Studios for $ 35 a week. Then the first major role came his way in ‘The Big Trail’ (1930) and its director, Raoul Walsh, gave him the screen name, John Wayne, after the American Revolutionary War general ‘Mad Anthony’ Wayne. His weekly take-home salary was now $ 75.
Before shooting began, he received lessons from the studio stuntmen in riding and various skills needed for westerns.
While he was noticed by audiences and critics in this movie, John Wayne had to wait for nine years before he finally became a star. And he owed it all to the great American filmmaker, John Ford.
It all happened with the John Ford classic Western, ‘Stagecoach’ (1939). John Wayne did not appear in the first few reels, till the stagecoach stopped to pick up a man standing under a tree waiting for it. Thus began Wayne’s ‘onscreen’ journey to stardom and immortality.
Based on a Saturday Evening Post story by the noted writer of Westerns, Ernest Haycox, ‘Stage To Lordsburg,’ which in turn was inspired by the Guy de Maupassant’s classic ‘Boule de suif.’ It was an alle
gory built around different human beings travelling through life towards ‘salvation’ (Lordsburg!).
Besides stardom for Wayne, this movie also gave the ‘cowboy movies’ (as it was referred to contemptuously) honour, respectability, and values. It was seen as an art form.
John Ford shot the movie in Monument Valley, Utah, and captured its picturesque beauty. Monument Valley appears often in John Ford’s movies, almost like a signature. It became a symbol and personification of America, its permanence, toughness and its ability to weather any storm. Today it is a tourist attraction.
His last movie was ‘The Shootist’ (1976), in which the hero is an ageing cowboy suffering from terminal cancer. The film attracted critical attention for it parallels the real John Wayne and his reel character, as the star became a victim of cancer and passed away in 1979. Between ‘Stagecoach’ and ‘The Shootist,’ John Wayne appeared in Westerns, war movies, comedies and so on.
Notable ones
The list is too long but here are a few notable ones. ‘Red River’ (1948), ‘She Wore A Yellow Ribbon’ (1949), ‘Sands Of Iwo Jima’ (1949, Oscar nomination), ‘The Quiet Man’ (1962), ‘The Alamo’ (1960, also produced and directed the film), ‘The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance’ (1962) and ‘True Grit’ (1969, Oscar for Best Actor).
One movie ‘Rio Bravo’ (1959) deserves special mention because it brings out John Wayne’s deep-rooted conservatism, and unshakable faith in American History and values. Filmmaker Fred Zinnemann made a western classic, ‘High Noon’ (1952, which became a hit), with Gary Cooper as the sheriff who faces trouble from some killers. His people refuse to help.
Reaction to film
John Wayne and director Howard Hawkes strongly felt that the film was “un-American and wimpish” as it showed the sheriff in a bad light, as a coward who could not face challenges. In reply, the two made ‘Rio Bravo’ in which a wandering cowboy helps a drunken sheriff against the outlaws. Then they repeated the same story for two more movies, ‘El Dorado’ (1966) and ‘Rio Lobo’ (1970).
John Wayne (Marion Michael Morrison) was born in Winterset, Iowa, on May 26, 1907. His family relocated to Glendale in 1911, where he was a star footballer in high school and then made his way to University of Southern California (USC). A man, who shoed horses for Hollywood studios, found him a job as ‘property man.’ That was how it all began.
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