John Wayne (1907-1979) - Find A Grave Memorial

Actor, Film Director, and Film Producer. John Wayne is noted mostly for his military and cowboy roles and was an American icon. Fiercely patriotic and a staunch American, he represented an American ideal of rugged individualism. Politically conservative and hawkish, he was the direct opposite of many Hollywood stars and was often ridiculed for his political opinions. He was born in Winterset, Iowa, the son of lackadaisical Presbyterians who never baptized their son. His family moved to Southern California, where his father owned a ranch, and he learned to ride a horse. When the ranch failed, his family moved from Palmdale to Glendale, California, where he attended elementary school through high school. He had an Airedale Terrier dog named Duke, which was the source of his later nickname. When he narrowly missed getting an appointment to the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, he went to the University of Southern California (USC) on a football scholarship. Cowboy actor Tom Mix got him a summer job as a prop man in exchange for USC football tickets. On the set, he became lifelong friends with director John Ford, for whom he began doing bit parts. He kept his faith on the sidelines until 1933, when he married a devout Catholic. Although he never became one for churchgoing, Wayne helped raise his children Catholic and sent all of them to Catholic schools, later crediting those schools for how well his children turned out. His first film in 1930 was Men Without Women. His first lead role was Raoul Walsh's widescreen Western epic The Big Trail (1930). After bit parts in some 70 films, his breakthrough came in the 1939 film Stagecoach, where he emerged as a star. He holds the record for an actor, playing the most leading parts in 142 movies. He stayed mostly with his best acting roles, those of strong military men or fierce independent cowboys. He was exempt from military service in World War II (WWII) due to a separated shoulder injury from college and an ear infection that left him partially deaf. Declared "4F medically unfit," he nonetheless attempted to volunteer 3 times, for the U.S. Army, Navy, and Film Corps. As Wayne's fame grew, so did the number of temptations that came his way. An extramarital affair ended his first marriage, as well as his second and third. Wayne often spoke with regret about his broken marriages and moral failings, but he never seemed inclined to do anything about them. When asked about his religion, John Wayne joked about being a "cardiac Catholic." In 1948, he starred in Howard Hawks' Red River, giving a dynamic performance that made critics take notice. However, he is best remembered for his performance in the John Ford cavalry trilogy, Fort Apache (1948), She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949), and Rio Grande (1950). He had great film chemistry with Maureen O'Hara, and, in 1952, he made The Quiet Man with her, considered by many to be Wayne's most endearing film. Other classic Wayne films include: The Searchers (1956) and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962). When Republic Pictures refused to make The Alamo, Wayne started his own studio, Batjac Productions, and made the film in 1960. In 1968, during the Vietnam War, he made the film The Green Berets, considered the only pro-Vietnam War film made in that period. He won his only Oscar for his role as a boozy, one-eyed, over-the-hill lawman in True Grit (1969), a role he reprised in Rooster Cogburn (1975). His acting abilities were often underrated by critics, yet he was always a professional actor who knew his lines and his mark and was always on time for shooting. During his storied career, Wayne would quietly slip off movie sets to attend Catholic Mass. Wayne wasn't a Catholic, but the spark of faith was there. In the waning days of John Wayne's life, Maureen O'Hara made an impassioned plea for him to receive the Congressional Gold Medal. "John Wayne is the United States of America," she told the United States Congress. Congress honored him on May 26, 1979, his 72nd birthday. As Wayne lay dying in a Los Angeles hospital, the time for joking about cardiac Catholicism had ended. His son Patrick, at his father's request, summoned a priest to his bedside, and two days before his death, Wayne was baptized and received into the Catholic Church. A sunrise Funeral Mass, attended only by family, was celebrated by Archbishop Marcos McGrath at Our Lady Queen of Angels in Corona Del Mar, California, on June 15, 1979. Music from Wayne's movies played, including the theme from the 1954 film, The High and the Mighty. John Wayne received a Grammy nomination in 1974 for Best Spoken Word Album for his album "America, Why I Love Her." Wayne left behind a legacy of 175 films, seven children, and many more grandchildren, including one who became a Catholic priest.