John Wayne

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John Wayne
John Wayne, was born Marion Robert Morrison on May 26, 1907, was an American actor, producer and director. He is a ageless American icon, an Academy Award victor and the principal box office magnet in history. identified for his walk, expression, height and disposition, he was the very image of masculinity.

Wayne was born in Winterset, Iowa, started out working at motion picture studios in Los Angeles, California after he lost a football scholarship due to a bodysurfing misfortune. He started out with bit parts in the Fox Film Corporation. His 1st break which made him instant celebrity was the film Stagecoach in 1939. He starred in 142 films, a large amount of them Westerns.

Some of his most well identified films are True Grit, The Gunfighter, Rio Bravo and The Quiet Man. Wayne was the personification of American ideals and values. He never played a character that shot a man in the back. If the script required it, he had it changed.

His reputation was such that when Japanese Emperor Hirohito visited the USA in 1975, he specifically asked to be introduced to Wayne, who in the film Sands of Iwo Jima played the emperorís enemy.

Wayne visited the combat zones in the course of World War Two. Wayne was such an icon to the United States Armed Forces that many war veterans claimed their inspiration in enrolling the army was motivated by his movies.

Wayne was vocal regarding being a conservative Republican in his life. Wayne assistanceed the House of American Activities Committee as an anti-communist. To express his support against communism, he made the film Big Jim McLain in 1952. Soviet documents that have been declassified show that Soviet premier Joseph Stalin ordered the killing of John Wayne because of his anti-communist stand.

Wayne died in 1979 of stomach cancer.

John Wayne was named the 13th Greatest Male Screen Legend of All Time by the American Film Institute in June 1999.