The Originals: John Wayne

When it comes to tough, All-American men, the term has no better definition than John Wayne, the man who is the very image of the cowboy, a man a major world leader wanted dead at one point, and another wanted to meet as the embodiment of his enemy. All this, and so much more, makes "The Duke" a true Original.

Born Marion Morrison on May 26, 1907, in Winterset, Iowa, the icon would soon find himself in the state that would be his home the rest of his days when the family moved west, first to Lancaster, and then Glendale, both in California. Here, Marion would pick up the nickaname that would follow him forever, and he got it from his big Airedale dog, Duke. The Glendale firefighters would call Marion "Little Duke," and, since he liked that name better, that's what he was called from then on.

Following a high school career marked with academic and athletic success, he received a scholarship to USC to play football under legendary coach Howard Jones. However, a bodysurfing accident left him unable to play football, and the man who had military-issue paper towels named after him since they were "rough and tough and took (expletive deleted) off no one" never told his coach the true reason, afraid of Jones' reaction.

Having lost his scholarship, he had to find other ways to pay his tuition. Luckily, he had an in, as during his playing days, he gave Western film icon Tom Mix football tickets in exchange for a job at Fox Film Corporation, in the prop department, at a whopping $75 a week. From there, he had the great fortune to meet a man who would make him a legend.

Budding director John Ford and Morrison struck up a friendship that would greatly benefit both men, and Ford starting getting him some bit parts in movies, finally getting the young actor into a lead role in 1930's "The Big Trail." But Marion Morrison didn't have a good ring to the studio's ears. He needed a new name, and two of the bigwigs decided Morrison need not be included in the decision.

Director Raoul Walsh suggested "Anthony Wayne," after the Revolutionary War General "Mad Anthony" Wayne. Fox Studios head Winfield Sheehan shot that down, saying it sounded "too Italian."
Walsh then suggested "John Wayne." Sheehan agreed. And history was made without the man himself being in the room.

Wayne gained screen credentials despite the commercial failure of "The Big Trail," but still had a long row to hoe to get to superstardom. Again, John Ford to the rescue, as the director took the six-foot-four, 225 pounder to the top with 1939's "Stagecoach," one of over twenty films the two made together in a relationship that started in 1928 and lasted for 35 years.

The legend grew, in such films as "She Wore A Yellow Ribbon" (1949), "The Quiet Man" (1952), "The Searchers" (1956), and "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance" (1962), and won his only Oscar in 1969 for "True Grit," but the legend was made off-screen as much as on.

He learned to ride horses and other Western skills from stuntmen, and stunts he perfected with legendary stuntman Yakima Canutt are still in use today. In 1964, he was diagnosed with lung cancer, and, against the wishes of his business associates, disclosed this information to the public to encourage others to get preventive exams. In the process of becoming cancer-free, he had his left lung and four ribs removed, and still continued his full activities. (By the way, Wayne credited his five-pack-a-day habit for the cancer, not the fact that he filmed "The Conquerers" in Utah on the site of nuclear weapons testing, so strike one urban legend down.)

Sticking to his guns was more than a character trait on screen, he did it many times off screen. He refused to do "The Gunslinger," despite badly wanting the role, because he wouldn't work for Columbia Pictures and the head of the studio, Harry Cohn, for mistreating him when he was a contract player for them early in his career. The movie was sold to 20th Century Fox, the role went to Gregory Peck, but a saddened Wayne refused to bend.

He turned down the role of the Waco Kid in "Blazing Saddles" when offered it by Mel Brooks, saying, "I can't be in this picture, it's too dirty...but I'll be the first in line to see it." And, no, he wasn't offered the role of Matt Dillon on legendary TV series "Gunsmoke," but he did recommend James Arness for the part, even introducing Arness before the series' first episode.

He faced off with bad guys on screen, but it had nothing on reality: Joseph Stalin wanted him dead.

In 2003, it was revealed from Soviet archives that Stalin, incensed at Wayne's outspoken attacks on Communism, ordered the film star executed, and reportedly, it took Stalin's successor, Nikolai Khrushchev, personally rescinding the order to stop it. They weren't the only world leaders affected by "The Duke," as Japan's Emperor Hirohito, in 1975, wanted to meet the man he felt embodied his former enemy, America.

John Wayne lost his second battle with cancer, this time of the stomach, on June 11, 1979, but that hasn't affected his popularity. The most recent Harris Poll has him as the third-most popular film star, 31 years after his last film (1976's "The Shootist") and 28 after his death, and he's never been out of the top ten in the poll's history. This shows that some things, like tough, strong-willed men of action, never go out of style.