Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire John Wayne, a short bio

Duke was one of The Old Man’s favorites, and I grew up watching his movies with him.
I believe that I learned to be a man by following both examples!😀
I don’t know how many times as a kid, we went to the drive in. Dad & Mom up front, me and my younger brother in the back in our Jammie’s and a blanket. We were usually out by the end of the B movie, but I can remember several times of Dad carrying me in to bed. Treasured memories, I can assure you.
Lotta stuff here that I didn’t know about the second hero of my life.
Reon
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I met him at his 26 Bar ranch by Eagar AZ in the mid 60's. Our homestead is about 30 miles from his ranch, my dad took me when Wayne was in town for 4th of July celebrations and he put on a show with his border collies rounding up cattle. He was a nice guy. I must have been about 12-13.

He's one of my favorite actors. He was quite a man both on and off the set.

I knew people that went duck hunting with him

🤣😂🤣

Had lunch on Balboa Island at an outdoor diner, and sat next to he and Buddy Ebsen. Was surprised not many people bothered either with autographs.

I’ve seen a few other bio’s on JW. His movies were before my time but he seemed like someone with some substance to him and an interesting personality.

You won’t find this info easily found unless you do a lot of reading but the Duke wanted to ride in a P-47 fighter aircraft. Not being authorized and it was only one cockpit! While visiting a USMC fighter squadron south of Japan, a small size Marine pilot flew the Duke while he sat in Dukes lap! The P-47 has a sizeable cockpit!

My dear departed mother-in-law was not shy and when she spotted John Wayne on his yacht "Wild Goose" docked nearby she gushed so much John invited her onboard for a few pictures. He put his arm around her and in that John Wayne drawl he said to the photographer, "Fire away."

Truth. I saw the pics.

The John Wayne marina is in Sequim Washington. He bought land in the area and when he died his family gave the land to the town and they built a marina and named it after him

I loved his westerns and his cast of side kicks. A Mississippian supplied his westerns with proper attire. He built a small museum in Ruleville MS and had John Wayne’s various and sundry hats and clothing he wore in various movies. My brother was the local UPS driver in that area and was gifted a genuine Rooster Cogburn eye patch when he made deliveries there. I loved Red River , Stage Coach, The Quiet Man, and most of all The Seachers. I introduced my only grandson the to his movies. I remember him calling me long distance when he was 5 -6 and telling me I like that Rooster Cogburn. He really liked the Cowboys and hated Bruce Dern. Bruce said in an interview that he wished had never taken the role of being the one to kill the Duke. Said little kids would come up to him in public and kick him in the shins and say “You killed John Wayne!”

Story is, Wayne had an island on Lake of the Woods. It must have been some place.

The best lines from any movie:

James Pepper: You know, there's an old saying, Miss Sally. There's no law west of Dodge and no God west of the Pecos. Right, Mr. Chisum?
John Simpson Chisum: Wrong, Mr. Pepper. Because no matter where people go, sooner or later there's the law. And sooner or later they find God's already been there.

I had a couple drinks with the skipper of the Wild Goose in a bar in Westport Wash in the early 70's, the skipper said pretty much, 'he is a helluva man, and bigger than his reputation'. When the hired help likes you, that's a pretty good character reference.

He has to be my favorite actor. I can always watch one of his movies (again).

Coming from Winterset Iowa there are a few differences from what was stated in this presentation. Marion Morrison was not born in the house shown. He was born in a doctor's office that was on the second floor of a building on the east side of the square in downtown Winterset. Directly beside the Iowa theater where I saw several John Wayne movies in my youth. Winterset is the county seat of Madison county.

I also have information that he lived in a different house than the one that is commonly described as the "John Wayne house". The other house was torn down in the early 1960's and is not there to be publicly identified. The house that is now called "the John Wayne house" is period correct and was around at the time of Marion Morrison's birth. But I really have to wonder if that is really the house he came home to after his birth.

My brother works part time at the John Wayne house and at the museum that is just on the other side of the block from the house. The property was formerly home to a Conoco gas station. It is currently closed for the winter. The last I knew, an addition was being put on the museum to house the cannon that was used in the movie Remember the Alamo. The pharmacy his father worked in was a store front on the south side of the square in downtown Winterset. It is a shoe store now.

I'm going to stick my neck out a bit here. I can only assume it was a pharmacy my great grandparents (both sides) used around the turn of the century. If there was another pharmacy in town at the time, I am not aware of it.

The Morrison family left Winterset and lived for a short time in Earlham, a town in northwestern Madison county. I understand they lived in what is now a store front in downtown Earlham. They were only there for a short time before going to California.

The statue of John Wayne is in front of the museum one block south of the east side of the square in Winterset.

I love some john wayne.

He makes it believable that a 65 year old man 100 lbs overweight can beat the hell outta three-four 28 year old shifty punks.

I do miss the days where excessive drinking and womanizing was considered a good thing. Now it's all skinny jeans and asking consent.

I love me some John Wayne. Will even admit to having watched Blood Alley and The Conqueror more than once and Legend of the Lost at least 5 times. John Wayne the actor was great.

I have a bunch, maybe 10 or 12 of his very early westerns including the big trail which I thought was actually better than Stagecoach. I have some of his WW2 era films as well. Funny thing, when I was kid they showed those old and I thought they were phony. It wasn't until I read Keith, Elmer's first biography that there was a period when horses and those old cars did exist at the same time. I've been watching quite a few of them lately and they weren't quite as bad as I once thought. I was kind of surprise he didn't mention two of Wayne's detective films. Mc Q was one and the other Brannigan. I thought both were well done.
PJ

Bursting a bubble here but all those wonderful things he said were written by a writer. He WAS a great guy by all accounts. It showed through in his acting. I just wish the writers of today could come within a thousand miles of the morals of those old writers. And some morals in the hearts of actors. There also should be no problem telling whether someone in the acting business is straight or not. I haven't watched many movies since John Wayne died. At least on the big screen OR TV. Be Well, RZ.

As I recall, in at least one of those movies JW carried a Colt Diamondback. That was the motivation for me carrying one on duty until we replaced them with semi autos. I still own the Diamondback to this day.

kwg