IN AMERICA'S annual Harris Poll, listing the nation's all-time favourite movie stars, John Wayne consistently makes the cut. This year, the star of more than 145 films, who died in 1979, came in at No.3.
``There were some basic qualities about him that appeal to every generation,'' his daughter-in-law Gretchen Wayne says. ``He really embodies the ideals of honesty, loyalty and absolute masculinity, yet he had great respect for women and he loved his country. ``The parts that he played always seemed to speak to those traditional values.
'' Now in her 70s, Gretchen was married for 45 years to Wayne's eldest son Michael. In 1961, Michael became the president of Batjac, the production company started by his father in 1952. He produced more than 30 films, most of them starring his father.
When Michael died in 2003, Gretchen took over the reins at Batjac and made a deal with Paramount Pictures to distribute the films made by the company. McLintock!, The High and the Mighty, Hondo and Island in the Sky have all been digitally restored and re-mastered.
Their release next month celebrates the 100th year since Wayne's birth. ``McLintock! was the very first film that my husband produced,'' Gretchen says.
``You know that's sort of like your first child.'' The 193cm screen legend was born in Iowa in 1907 and christened with the rather unmanly name of Marion Morrison. He won a football scholarship to the University of Southern California and worked on the Fox Studio lot.
Wayne met director John Ford on set and was cast in several of Ford's films. ``The Duke'', as he was known, quickly became a popular star. ``He had an airedale dog called Duke and the dog used to follow him to school,'' Gretchen says.
``They'd walk by the firehouse and the firemen would say `here comes big Duke and here comes little Duke'. John was little Duke.'' Gretchen, who attended the same school as Wayne's daughter Toni, first met him as a teenager.
``There was a school play that Toni and I were in and after it was over, all the parents stand around as their children come out from backstage,'' she says. ``He was standing towards the back of the auditorium. Naturally people couldn't help but notice him because he was such a big man, but he did not try to draw a lot of attention to himself.
``He was not a loud or boisterous person and he was very gentlemanly. When Toni and I came out said `I want you to meet my father'. I knew who her father was, but he was just as nice as anyone's parent could be.
'' When Gretchen married Toni's elder brother Michael, whom she met at a school dance at the age of 14, she couldn't bring herself to call The Duke anything other than ``Mr Wayne''. ``When we got married, he asked me to call him Duke, but I couldn't suddenly become that familiar,'' she says. Wayne, who was married three times and had seven children, won an Oscar in 1970 for True Grit.
Not known for his range, he consistently played a taciturn, no-nonsense style of character. ``Talk low, talk slow'' was his advice on acting. Off-screen, he was known for his right-wing political views and his criticism of anything he considered anti-American.
He endorsed the efforts of Senator Joseph McCarthy, who organised a committee, seen by many as a witch hunt, to blow the whistle on supposed communists and communist supporters in Hollywood in the 1950s. ``He had independent ways of thinking,'' Gretchen says. ``He saw himself as a true liberal, in that he really did listen to all sides of the situation.
``He was a voracious reader. He kept up on everything and then formed his opinion about it. ``That might agree with the Republicans or it might agree with the Democrats, he didn't care, it was what he thought.
Of course, it always made for a lively dinner-table conversation.'' In 1968, Wayne was asked by the Republican Party to run for President. ``He said, `I've got seven children, I can't take the cut in pay','' Gretchen says.
``But no, it was never a consideration for him.'' A heavy smoker all his life, Wayne lost a lung to cancer in 1964 and died from stomach cancer. ``When John was ill and knew that he wasn't going to survive, the doctors at UCLA came to him and asked if they could name a new cancer facility after him in which they would try different, experimental procedures,'' Gretchen says.
``He told them he'd be honoured.'' After his father's death, Michael became president of the John Wayne Cancer Institute. Through charity work and control over Wayne's image, the family has raised tens of millions of dollars for the institute.
For Wayne, she says, the key to success was education and hard work. ``He was a man who came from very humble means and, to him, hard work was everything. ``When Michael just started out producing, he and the director drove out to the location at about eight in the morning.
When they arrived, they see this lone figure all dressed in this western wardrobe. ``It was John and he's mad as hell. ``The sun's been up for an hour.
`We're burning daylight,' he says to them. He had very high standards.'' Four John Wayne Collector's Edition titles will be released on DVD through Paramount on August 2 What is this?
Post to del.icio.us Post to Newsvine IN AMERICA'S annual Harris Poll, listing the nation's all-time favourite movie stars, John Wayne consistently makes the cut.
News RSS