John Wayne, an actor who came to epitomize the American
West,was born in Winterset, Iowa.
Born Marion Robert Morrison, Wayne’s family moved to
Glendale, California, when he was six years old. As a teen,
he rose at four in the morning to deliver newspapers, and
after school he played football and made deliveries for local
stores.
When he graduated from high school, he hoped to attend the
U.S. Naval Academy. However, after the school rejected him,
he accepted a full scholarship to play football at the University
of Southern California in Los Angeles.
In the summer of 1926, Wayne’s football coach found him a job
as an assistant prop man on the set of a movie directed by John
Ford. Ford started to use Wayne as an extra, and he eventually
began to trust him with some larger roles.
In 1930, Ford recommended Wayne for Fox’s epic Western The
Big Trail. Wayne won the part, but the movie did poorly, and Fox
let his contract lapse.
1954
1969
Wayne won the Academy Award for Best
Actor and the Golden Globe Award for
Best Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama,
his only competitive win for either
institution.
