On May 26, 1907, a 13 pound baby boy named Marion Morrison was born in
Winterset, Iowa. Nicknamed "Little Duke"
after his childhood dog, he grew up to become the most
famous icon of
American patriotism in the
world. When he was a football player at USC, Western filmstar
Tom Mix got him a summer job at Fox in exchange for game tickets. After two years working as a prop man for $75 a week, his first acting role was in
The Big Trail in 1930. "Marion Morrison" didn't sound like the right name for a trail scout though, so the studio took the last name from a Revolutionary War
general and replaced "Anthony" with "John."
Voila! A working actor from 1930 through the 1970s, this year John Wayne placed
third among America's favorite film stars, the only deceased star on the list and the only one who has appeared every year. He was an
opinionated patriot who, surprisingly, called himself
a liberal... bigger than life, the consummate
cowboy star, and the ultimate symbol of
heroic action and the
Code of the West. In the end, acting actually took his life indirectly thanks to
radiation poisoning during a
movie shoot in Utah (of the 220 persons on set, 91 had contracted cancer by the early 1980s), and almost three decades after his death, his
family continues to carry on his
legacy. He has an
an airport, an
elementary school, and various
Cancer Foundations named after him, and while he wasn't much of a
singer or
dancer, he remains the ultimate symbol of
American manliness to this day. Apparently there are
hundreds of reasons to love the guy.
And for the record... no,
he wasn't gay.
posted by miss lynnster
on May 27, 2007 -
73 comments
