The legendary American actor John Wayne was arguably the most famous star of cowboy films during the golden era of Hollywood. The 6ft 4in Academy Award-winner starred in 142 films - after honing his acting skills by spending time with real cowboys during his early career.

He made 83 cowboy films and was nicknamed "The Duke", although this wasn't connected to his on-screen persona as a tough loner. His real name was Marion Morrison, but when he was a child, he spent much of his time with his Airedale dog, Duke. They walked past the local fire station in Glendale, California, every day and the firefighters jokingly named him after his dog!

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Early years

Born in Iowa in 1907, the family moved to Glendale in 1914. He won a football scholarship at the University of Southern California, but an injury put paid to his sporting dreams and he took a job working backstage at a local film studio to support himself.

After being taken on by Fox Film Corporation as a prop man, moving equipment and furniture around for the film-makers, he was spotted by a number of directors due to his height - they felt he was the right build to be an extra in a few scenes. His first role was as a football player in Brown of Harvard in 1926, when he was 19.

The great Hollywood director, John Ford, gave him a small role in his 1928 film, Mother Machree. Wayne had used his real name at first, but the studio gave him his stage name. After many bit parts in Ford's films, Wayne won his first leading role in director Raoul Walsh's 1930 movie, The Big Trail, playing cowboy Breck Coleman.

 

Real cowboys

Starring in a number of less well-known Westerns throughout the 1930s, Wayne decided to improve his skills by spending time with real-life cowboys, so he could understand their lifestyle and motivation. He also spent time with the studio stuntmen, so they could teach him new skills - he performed a lot of his own stunts throughout his career.

He became a proficient horseman, developed his signature rangy walk, learned how to fist-fight for the cameras, began wearing the type of cowboy costumes he preferred and started doing his own stunts. It took him nine years before he finally rocketed to super-stardom, when he won the role of The Ringo Kid in the legendary 1939 cowboy film, Stagecoach.

This was the start of three decades of movie-making that saw Wayne become one of the most important and relevant actors in Hollywood. During the 1940s and '50s, he starred in a series of hit Westerns and war films. He toured the world and entertained the troops during the Second World War.

 

Academy Award

In 1969, Wayne finally won an Academy Award for his role as Rooster Cogburn in one of the most famous Westerns of all time, True Grit. He moved into new genres, including police dramas, romantic comedies and historical dramas. One of his most poignant roles was playing a gunman who had cancer in the 1976 film, The Shootist, which was lauded as one of his best performances. He had survived a cancer scare in real life in 1964, when he recovered after losing a lung and several ribs.

Wayne was well-known for his dry humour, both in reality and in his films. Describing his acting style and on-screen persona, he said the screen cowboys of his era always behaved "like gentlemen". During a fight, when they knocked down the "bad guy", they waited with their fists raised until he got back up. "I decided I was going to drag the bad guy to his feet and keep hitting him," Wayne quipped.

 

Famous quotes

In real life, he famously said, "Courage is being scared to death - and saddling up anyway," as he echoed his cowboy film persona. In True Grit, his character said to a young pretender, "If you’re looking for trouble, I’ll accommodate ya."

Surprisingly, one of his most famous quotes, "Get off your horse and drink your milk!", was something that The Duke never actually said! Legend had it he uttered the words to a young would-be cowboy in The Cowboys. In the 1972 Western, Wayne played a rancher whose regular ranch hands had gone to join the Gold Rush.

Faced with the problem of leading a cattle drive 400 miles to avoid financial ruin, he had to hire a bunch of youths to help with the journey. Some of the young cowboys were only schoolboys and he had severe misgivings, as it wasn't an easy trek. The myth of his quote began because the youngsters were too young to drink alcohol.

The story developed that Wayne told the kids to "drink their milk" before getting on their horses in a reference to their youth. However, after it became a topic of great debate on fans' forums, many people watched the film all the way through and studied every scene in minute detail to try and track down the elusive line! However, no-one has ever found it, because it isn't there!

Wayne was struck down with stomach cancer in 1979. He lost his life to the disease that year, when he was 72. He was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Congressional Gold Medal.

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