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1. Marion Robert Morrison was born in Winterset, Iowa in 1907. It is reported that he weighed 13 pounds at birth. His nickname was “Duke”.
2. “Duke” Morrison attended and played football at the University of Southern California. After a broken collar bone ended his college football days, he was hired by Tom Mix and John Ford as a prop boy and extra.
3. Director Raoul Walsh saw “Duke” Morrison moving studio furniture and decided to cast Wayne in the lead role in the 1930’s big budget western The Big Trail.
4. “Duke” Morrison has one on screen movie credit. Raoul Walsh changed Morrison’s screen name to John Wayne. Walsh’s first name choice was after Revolutionary War general “Mad” Anthony Wayne. Eventually “Anthony” was dropped and “John” was added. So Marion Morrison was born in 1907….while John Wayne was created in 1930.
5. When The Big Trail (1930) bombed at the box office, John Wayne was sent to the world of B movies and serials for the rest of the 1930s. It was only after being cast as the Ringo Kid in 1939’s Stagecoach did Wayne finally break through in Hollywood.
6. John Wayne holds the record for the actor with the most leading parts – 142. In all but 11 films he played the leading part.
7. John Wayne’s personal favorite role was that of Ethan Edwards from 1956’s The Searchers. Wayne even went so far as to name his son Ethan after that character.
8. John Wayne did not die on screen too many times….only 7 times: He was killed by undersea squid in 1942’s Reap The Wild Wind. He was killed by a sniper in 1944’s The Fighting Seabees and 1949’s The Sands of Iwo Jima. He was killed by an octopus in 1949’s Wake of the Red Witch. He was killed by a Mexican soldier in 1960’s The Alamo. He was shot in the back by Bruce Dern in 1972’s The Cowboys. And he died in a gunfight in his very last movie…1976’s The Shootist.
9. John Wayne was ranked in the annual Quigley Poll of The Top 10 Box Office Stars an incredible 25 times. That is the most ever by any actor or actress.
10. John Wayne gave the eulogy at the funerals of Ward Bond, John Ford and Howard Hawks.
11. Check out John Wayne’s movie career compared to current and classic actors. Most 100 Million Dollar Movies of All-Time.
12. Our Letterboxd.com I review lots of movies …click the link to see my John Wayne Movie Reviews.
13. John Wayne’s favorite hobbies? Chess, bridge, poker and deep sea fishing.
14. John Wayne collected walking canes, comic books, Kachina western dolls and comboy outfits. He owned a share of Al Capp’s comic book company.
15. John Wayne’s favorite poet was Robert Frost. His favorite singer was Frank Sinatra. Favorite country and western singer was Charlie Pride. His first movie hero was Douglas Fairbanks, Sr.. His favorite western writer was Emmet Rhodes.
16. John Wayne’s yacht, Wild Goose, was used in the movie Skidoo.
17. John Wayne’s favorite photo of himself was a publicity shot from 1930’s The Big Trail.
18. John Wayne’s favorite drink was tequila with lemon. He preferred Commemorativo Tequila.
19. John Wayne learned to swim in an irrigation ditch.
20. John Wayne’s first job was picking apricots during summer vacation.
21. John Wayne spent a night in jail for stowing away on the U.S.S. Malolo. He was trying to get to Hawaii.
22. The first movie article written about John Wayne appeared in the December 30th issue of Photoplay. See that article here.
23. John Wayne’s favorite horse was named Banner. Banner was in every Wayne western from 1940 through 1954.
24. John Wayne had the most fun making 1952’s The Quiet Man.
25. John Wayne’s favorite John Wayne Movies included: Stagecoach, Red River, She Wore A Yellow Ribbon, Sands of Iwo Jima, The Alamo, Hatari, True Grit and The Shootist.
26. Flying Leathernecks (1951) was the film in which John Wayne started the custom of giving coffee cups to the people that worked on his movies. Those cups will only cost you a thousand dollars if you want to buy one on EBay.
27. During a poker while filming Hondo, John Wayne won Lassie from Rudd Weatherswax. Wayne felt bad about it and returned Lassie to his owner.
28. John Wayne earned a quarter of a million dollars for 4 days of work on The Longest Day.
29. Hellfighters was the first movie in which John Wayne earned a million dollars.
30. John Wayne’s 1970 television special, Swing Out, Sweet Land, was at the time, the single most expensive ($2 million cost) television ever produced. On it’s first airing, 77 million people watched the show.
31. John Wayne sent his collection of Kachina dolls, western paintings, western sculptures, private guns and films guns to the The National Cowboy Hall of Fame in Oklahoma City.
32. Republic Pictures released 36 John Wayne movies. That is the most by a studio. Warner Brothers released 27 Wayne movies while 20th Century-Fox (18 movies), Universal (14 movies) and Monogram (14 movies) round out the Top 5.
33. John Wayne worked with Paul Fix the most when looking at actors…..they worked together 25 times. Yakima Canutt appeared with Wayne 22 times. Ward Bond (19 times), Chuck Robertson (17 times) and Jack Pennick (16 times) round out the Top 5.
34. John Wayne worked with Mae Marsh the most when looking at actresses…..they worked together 6 times. Maureen O’Hara and Anna Lee (5 times) are tied for second….while Vera Miles and Mildred Natwick (4 times) are tied for 4th place.
35. John Wayne worked with John Ford the most when looking at directors….they worked together an incredible 31 times. R.N. Brabury directed Wayne 13 times. In third place was George Sherman (9 times), while Henry Hathaway (6 times) sits in the 4th spot. Joseph Kane, William Wellman, Howard Hawks and Andrew McLaglen are tied in 5th place….they each directed Wayne 5 times.
36. John Wayne played the character, Stony Brooke, in 8 different movies. All the movies were in his 1930s B movie days.
37. James Edward Grant wrote the screenplay for 10 John Wayne Movies.
38. Victor Young (8 movies) and Roy Webb (7 movies) were the composers, most frequently used, in John Wayne movies.
39. William Clothier (25 movies) and Archie Stout (25 movies) were the cinematographers, most frequently used, in John Wayne movies.
40. 35 of John Wayne’s movies were filmed in color.
Many of these pieces of trivia came from the book…..The Official John Wayne Reference Book by Charles John Kieskalt. Highly recommend this book to John Wayne fans.
Jump To John Wayne Links: 1. Box Office 2. Oscar Movies 3. Reviews 4. Trailers 5. Trivia 6. UMR Table
Figured I would share a photo of the Duke in my classroom….at the bottom of the page….pass the 40th trivia fact…is a picture of Wayne in my classroom.
HI BRUCE
Thanks for sharing that. I guess I won’t have to gatecrash your
classroom after all!
Nice to see your book on display as well.
One fly in the ointment: no sign of Joel’s book in the photo!