John Wayne is one of my favorite actors and I bet he is either on top or high up on your list of favorites. He played a lot of different parts in a lot of different pictures, but he is most remembered for his westerns and even today, public polls show him as one of the most popular actors of all time!! But let's start from the beginning.
John Wayne was born on this day in 1907 in Winterset, Iowa. When he was sixteen years old, his family moved to Glendale, California. When he was a teenager, he got up in the mornings at 04:00 to deliver newspapers and in the evening he played football and made deliveries for some local stores. After high school, he attended the University of Southern California on a football scholarship. His football coach found him a job in 1926 as an assistant prop man on the set of a movie directed by John Ford. Mr. Ford started using him an extra, and he moved up from there to become the star we all remember.
His last movie was in 1976, The Shootist, and in it he played a gunfighter who was dying of cancer and at the time he was fighting lung cancer. Three years later, John Wayne died of his cancer. I am sure he knew he had cancer when he made that movie, don't you think so? Now, let me know what you think of John Wayne and the characters that he played and make real sure you all have a great day, you hear?
Jimmy Stewart is my favorite old time actor. Duke was good but Jimmy was my guy.
ReplyDeleteOh yes, Jimmy Stewart was really, really great. They don't make actors like they used to.
DeleteIf I remember right, John Wayne had a lot to do with Jim Arness getting on as Matt Dillon in Gunsmoke.I like both actors, enjoyed Rooster Coburn & Matt. Keep your powder dry, DD. Hear you getting a year's worth of rain in a very short time.
ReplyDeleteYes Jim, I believe that he did have something to do with getting Arness the job as Marshal Dillon on Gunsmoke. And I guess Chester's leg got better so they had to replace him with Festus.
DeleteWe used to have a bunch of old John Wayne westerns that we could watch using our laptops... don't know what happened to them. He's Bill's favorite actor... me? I don't have any, but remember a lot of Rock Hudson/Doris Day movies from when I was a kid.
ReplyDeleteOh yes, I remember Rock Hudson and Doris Day. When I was kid, my favorite radio show was "Straight Arrow". Do you remember him? The dividers in shredded wheat boxes had Straight Arrow tips printed on them. Then when we got a TV there was Sky King and The Cisco Kid, etc.
DeleteTo tell the truth I never liked John Wayne. I think it has to do with the stilted and phony sounding way they were supposed to deliver their lines in those days. But I saw the Shootist on TV and was blown away by JW's performance in that movie. Superb!
ReplyDeleteYes, that was his best acting, for sure in the Shootist.
DeleteMy fav, True Grit
ReplyDeleteThat was a good one, too. I think Glen Campbell was also in that one.
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