Marion Robert Morrison John Wayne biography

Birth Name: Marion Robert Morrison
* Sunday 26 May 1907 in Winterset, Iowa, USA
† Monday 11 June 1979 in Los Angeles, California, USA

Prototype of the Western hero John Wayne

"He was ugly, he was strong, and he had dignity," reads the inscription on John Wayne's grave. The star had a pithy words shortly before his death on 12 Elected in June 1979 itself. Sincerity, masculinity and patriotism were penetrating the ideals for which the Western idol was standing in the film as in life. His death was like a big Hollywood production. As he lay on his deathbed, the first special editions of tabloids published, then starts a television station's first retrospective. Ronald Reagan, later President of the United States and in more recent years, a rather hapless film actor gushed from his example: "No one represents the values ​​of our country as he does." President Jimmy Carter and hurries to the deathbed. Wayne confesses his past sins - and is baptized. Then he dies like a true American. What sets him apart from many Hollywood heroes: he was prototype, not an industrial product.

Wayne attended Glendale High School in California, studied law and economics at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. And he's a great football player. In the film studio prop as it begins at the Fox, which is in 1926. He is extra and soon played small film roles, especially with his friend John Ford in the early years, it bears the name Duke Morrison. His trek leader Breck Coleman in Raoul Walsh's western "The Big Trail" (1930) is his first great success, he attained star status but only years later by the outlaw Ringo Kid in John Ford's "Ringo - Hellish trip to Santa Fe" ( 1939).
When Barry Goldwater wanted to be President of the United States, he campaigned - as usual - to generous support from Hollywood celebrities: And no one answered the call of the most reactionary senator from Arizona as unconditionally as John Wayne aka Marion Michael Morrison. The ideas and ideals of the politician and the Hollywood stars were so close: both to mourn the glorious pioneering days, with its small, uncomplicated order, the law of the jungle and the rapid categorization of good and evil. Both rely on the archaic principles of the law of the jungle, despising Kennedy's liberal ideas and profess to be tight militarists, nationalists and anti-communists. The emancipation of African-Americans are facing with strong disapproval. Barry Goldwater's defeat in his time not hurt Wayne's popularity: He still represents for millions of Americans the middle class dream of Wild West, returning to the free life beyond administrative coercive measures, the realization confused Adolescent dreams with which the bulk of which came workers to Feierabend sells.
High art of acting, however, was also not required. The 1.92 meter tall giant embodied exactly what you envisioned under a Western hero: "To my mind many Western stars were in front of me fucking perfect I tried to play a man who makes dirty sweats, as well. happy girl kisses., the clean fights, as long as it is possible, but dirty when there is no other way. " Strong and impact-bible-resistant, quick at hand with the Winchester and a spanking for the unruly woman he stalks through his films, the Klische the symbol of American size. After James Dean and Humphrey Bogart he has until his death represents the myth of Hollywood. But while Dean and Bogart had visions of generations of downtrodden, the underdog and the lost, Wayne is the incarnation of militant reaction, a hero who was created so right for the American War Propaganda: Korea, Vietnam, and the eternal Cold War against Bolshevism .
John Wayne was one of the powers that be in Hollywood. In addition to his position as one of the very few top stars he still owns his own production company, "Batjac", named after the ship commanded Wayne Edward Ludwig "Wake of the Red Witch" (1949). Especially in the films produced by him evokes the confident star who liked to be called "The Duke", his own myth. Most clearly happened in the "Alamo" (1960), in which Wayne directed. "Alamo" tells the story of the famous fortress siege in 1836, when the Mexican General Santa Ana with a superior force stormed the Alamo and the crew made down to the last man. Wayne plays the legendary Davy Crockett himself, who was killed at the Alamo. The authentic history of the Mexican War was the opportunity to turn one of the most insidious staying films, which need not fear comparison with Veit Harlan's "Kolberg" for Wayne.
Because against all reason not to give the defenders of the fortress and die a hero heroic, impassioned speeches about people and country spreading. The Mexicans appear as dark contrast, sub-human and similarly vilified as the Asians in World War II, Korea and finally in Vietnam. Finally in 1967 he gives his personal commitment to the Vietnam War from "The Green Berets" ("The Green Berets" - the namesakes of American Vietnam fighters). Cynically, the film is formed shortly after the masterful Howard Hawks western "El Dorado", where the hero is given a delightfully ironic lesson in the saddle when he comes only with difficulty on his horse. And his only Oscar he receives only after 1968 as a hard-drinking, aging "Marshal" even took a bead on. He plays his last role, directed by Don Siegel in 1976 in "The Shootist". Since the cancer Wayne is a gunslinger with cancer.