Wayne, John, 1907-1979

American film star and filmmaker John Wayne was born in Winterset, Iowa as Marion Robert Morrison to Mary A. Brown and Clyde L. Morrison on May 26, 1907. Wayne attended and played football at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, California where he was introduced to the film industry. He woked for the Fox Film Corporation as a propman and made small appearances in films before his debut leading role in The Big Trail (1930). Wayne became the face of Western films from the 1930s to the 1970s. He starred in several films for Howard Hughes' RKO Radio Pictures, Inc., including The Conqueror (1956) and Jet Pilot (1957).

Wayne married Josephine Saenz in 1993, but they divorded in 1945. The couple had four children, Antonia, Melinda, Michael, and Patrick. He remarried in 1946, to Esperanza Bauer, but the two divorced in 1954. His third and final wife was Pilar Pallete, whom he married in 1954, and the two remained together until Wayne's death in Los Angeles, California on June 11, 1979.

Source:

Britannica, T. Editors of Encyclopaedia. "John Wayne." Encyclopedia Britannica, June 7, 2021. https://www.britannica.com/biography/John-Wayne.

Geneaology files about "Marion Robert Morrison." Accessed from FamilySearch.org on October 11, 2011.