Moda Entertainment - John Wayne Interview with son Patrick Wayne

Listen to the interview on www.iconsradio.com
Hosted by John Mulholland.

John Wayne (May 26, 1907 -- June 11, 1979) was an Academy Award-winning American film actor. He epitomized ruggedly individualistic masculinity, and has become an enduring American icon. He is famous for his distinctive voice, walk and physical presence. He was also known for his conservative political views and his support in the 1950s for anti-communist positions.

In 1999, the American Film Institute named Wayne thirteenth among the Greatest Male Stars of All Time. A Harris Poll released in 2007 placed Wayne third among America's favorite film stars, the only deceased star on the list and the only one who has appeared on the poll every year.

After two years working as a prop man at the Fox Film Corporation for $75 a week, his first starring role was in the 1930 movie The Big Trail. The first western epic sound motion picture established his screen credentials, although it was a commercial failure. Before this film, Wayne had only been given on-screen credit once (in Words and Music), as "Duke Morrison". The director Raoul Walsh, who "discovered" Wayne, suggested giving him the stage name "Anthony Wayne", after Revolutionary War general "Mad Anthony" Wayne. Fox Studios chief Winfield Sheehan rejected "Anthony Wayne" as sounding "too Italian." Walsh then suggested "John Wayne." Sheehan agreed and the name was set. Wayne himself was not even present for the discussion. His pay was raised to $105 a week.

Wayne continued making westerns, most notably at Monogram Pictures, and serials for Mascot Pictures Corporation, including The Three Musketeers (1933), a French Foreign Legion tale with no resemblance to the novel which inspired its title. Coincidentally, he also appeared in some of the Three Mesquiteers westerns whose title was a play on the Alexandre Dumas, père classic. He was tutored by stuntmen in riding and other western skills. He and famed stuntman Yakima Canutt developed and perfected stunts still used today.

Beginning in 1928 and extending over the next 35 years, Wayne appeared in more than twenty of John Ford's films, including Stagecoach (1939), She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949), The Quiet Man (1952), The Searchers (1956), The Wings of Eagles (1957), and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962). His performance in Stagecoach made him a star.

The Searchers continues to be widely regarded as perhaps Wayne's finest and most complex performance. In 2006 Premiere Magazine ran an industry poll in which his portrayal of Ethan Edwards was rated the 87th greatest performance in film history. He named his youngest son Ethan after the character.

John Wayne won a Best Actor Oscar for True Grit (1969). Wayne was also nominated as the producer of Best Picture for The Alamo, one of two films he directed. The other was The Green Berets (1968), the only major film made during the Vietnam War to support the war. During the filming of Green Berets, the Degar or Montagnard people of Vietnam's Central Highlands, fierce fighters against communism, bestowed on Wayne a brass bracelet that he wore in the film and all subsequent films.

According to the Internet Movie Database, Wayne played the lead in 142 of his film appearances.

John Wayne as Rooster Cogburn in 1975
Batjac, the production company co-founded by Wayne, was named after the fictional shipping company Batjak in Wake of the Red Witch. (A spelling error by Wayne's secretary was allowed to stand, accounting for the variation.) Batjac (and its predecessor, Wayne-Fellows Productions) was the arm through which Wayne produced many films for himself and other stars. Its best-known non-Wayne production was the highly acclaimed Seven Men From Now, which started the classic collaboration between director Budd Boetticher and star Randolph Scott.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• Moda Entertainment
• The Sands of Iwo Jima
• John Wayne
• John Ford
• Stagecoach
• True Grit
• The Alamo
• Katherine Hepburn

[tripsadelica]

When he died it was the end of an era...the end of "old Hollywood" and the start of the new era of self-indulgent parody and crap. Vale, Marion Morrison...long may you watch over us from the great plains above.

[acjluciano]

the best . i can,t belive it,s over 20 year,s cowboy,s will not be the same and includ,s lee marvin robert michium and walter brenn i miss you all happy trail.s

[matthewakian2]

This is an interview??

[dandotguitar]

So instead of posting the interview here, you tell us to go to your fucking website?

Nope.

[48alfaone]

PEOPLE, CHECK THEM OUT!! Icons Radio.com does have Great on line interviews. Its hosted by H. Bogart real life Son and others, very well done, pure professional. Check it out!!

[rennogsd1996]

@anonymous843e try Rio Grande. an awesome black and white.

[OLaverty111]

A decent sort as well! I met John Wayne in Hollywood when I was 20 in 1977 at Lucille Balls 25th Anniversary do.

Met all of the classsic actors by pure chance as we knew where he was going to be. A priviledge it was too and boy JW was so tall

... He gave me his card and I still have it! I agree the end of an era.. The Classics really could act..

[htuomnom]

There is NO one in Hollywood today like the Duke,Sean Penn,Tom Hanks,Ha there not fit to walk behind his horse.

[mo389]

yea i agree, alot..ALOT of todays movies are bullshit.