Up for auction a RARE! "John Wayne" Remnant of His Worn Outfit Encapsulated. This item is certified authentic by Todd Mueller Autographs and comes with
their Certificate of Authenticity.
ES-2617C
Marion Robert Morrison (May 26, 1907 – June 11, 1979), known
professionally as John Wayne and nicknamed Duke,
was an American actor and filmmaker who became a popular icon through his starring roles in Western films. His career spanned from the silent era of the 1920s, through the Golden Age of Hollywood and
eventually American New Wave,
appearing in a total of 179 film and television productions. He was among the
top box office draws for three decades and appeared with many important
Hollywood stars of his era. Wayne was born in Winterset, Iowa, but grew up in Southern California. He
lost a football scholarship to the University of Southern California as
a result of a bodysurfing accident, and began
working for the Fox Film Corporation. He
appeared mostly in small parts, but his first leading role came in Raoul Walsh's Western The Big Trail (1930), an early widescreen film epic
which was a box-office failure. Leading roles followed in numerous B movies during the 1930s, most of them also Westerns,
without becoming a major name. It was John Ford's Stagecoach (1939)
that made Wayne a mainstream star, and he starred in 142 motion pictures
altogether. According to one biographer, "John Wayne personified for
millions the nation's frontier heritage." Wayne's other roles
in Westerns include a cattleman driving his herd on the Chisholm Trail in Red River (1948),
a Civil War veteran
whose niece is abducted by a tribe of Comanches in The Searchers (1956), a troubled rancher competing
with a lawyer (James Stewart) for a
woman's hand in The Man Who Shot Liberty
Valance (1962), and a cantankerous one-eyed
marshal in True Grit (1969),
for which he received the Academy Award for Best
Actor. He is also remembered for his roles in The Quiet
Man (1952), Rio Bravo (1959) with Dean Martin, and The Longest Day (1962).
In his final screen performance, he starred as an aging gunfighter battling
cancer in The Shootist (1976).
He made his last public appearance at the Academy Awards ceremony on April 9, 1979 before
succumbing to stomach cancer later that year. He was posthumously awarded
the Presidential Medal of
Freedom, the highest civilian honor of the United States.