When John Wayne died June 11th, 1979, the Tokyo newspaper headline proclaimed, "Mr. America passes on". Ronald Reagan said of his friend, "He gave the whole world the image of what an American should be."
From a B-movie actor, he grew to become an American legend and cultural icon. In his movies and in his heart, John Wayne represented, reflected and rejoiced in the spirit and values of America.
Born in Iowa in 1907, Marion Michael Morrison moved to southern California with his parents when he was six. He picked up the nickname "Duke" as a boy. He had a paper route, was a Boy Scout and a member of the YMCA.
An honor student at Glendale High School and an outstanding football player, Duke Morrison won an athletic scholarship to USC. He played for the Trojans until a shoulder injury ended his football career.
Unable to afford USC, Duke got a job as a prop man on movie sets. At 6'4", well-built and remarkably handsome, he soon changed his name to John Wayne and started playing bit parts in B-westerns. Eventually, director John Ford became his mentor, drinking buddy and poker playing pal.
Ford and Wayne formed the "Young Men's Purity, Abstinence and Snooker Pool Association". It was comprised of actors, writers, directors and producers who liked to drink, socialize and play poker. Regular participants were Ward Bond, legendary stuntman Yakima Canutt, Ben Johnson, and Johnny Weissmuller among others.
On one drunken occasion, Ward Bond bet Wayne that he couldn't hit him hard enough to knock him off an open newspaper. Duke accepted the bet, whereupon Bond walked to the door, spread the newspaper, closed it and laughed, "Go ahead!" Young Wayne won the wager when his fist suddenly exploded through the door, knocking Bond back.
As a western star, John Wayne broke with tradition. Unlike the elaborately dressed, impeccably groomed screen idols Tom Mix, Gene Autry and Hopalong Cassidy, Wayne portrayed "real" cowboys as depicted by novelist Zane Grey and artist Frederick Remington. As a man facing great odds against evil-doers throughout the Depression Era '30s, WWII and the Cold War, Duke became America's Hero.
Director John Ford fondly recalled, "The Westerns were especially fun" Out on location, "the stars in the desert sky, good beef on the grill, and some music. We didn't talk film at night. It was off limits. We played poker or dominoes."
Young Wayne worked hard, drank hard and played hard. A biographer writes, "Duke thrived on working with the cowboys and spent most of his evenings playing poker with them. Poker games lasted late into the night, even though the company had a 4:30am call the next morning." Nevertheless, Wayne was always ready for action.
Rejected for military service during World War II because of his football injury, John Wayne devoted himself to making inspirational war films. He so epitomized "G.I. Joe", America's fighting man, that years after the war when Japanese Emperor Hirohito visited the U.S. he insisted on seeing John Wayne as a show of respect to America's combat soldiers.
John Wayne made dozens of films, many of them westerns and war pictures. He was always the American savior, defender of the weak and innocent, righter of wrongs, deliverer of justice. Whether it was The Alamo, The Fighting Seabees, or The Green Berets, John Wayne's movies honored America's fight for freedom.
Off-screen, Duke liked to drink, fish and play poker with his friends. An actress reported, "I was invited to play poker with John Wayne one night... When I left, I was nearly bankrupt because I'm not a very good player."
Actor Montgomery Clift occasionally joined the nightly poker game. According to him, "they laughed, drank, told dirty jokes, and slapped each other on the back" in what he called a "machismo thing". The group was no less civil when actress Maureen O'Hara took a seat at the table.
Apparently, Duke could play the game well. His wife Pilar said that, "in one all-night poker game" with the owner/ trainer of the Big Screen's first Lassie, "Duke won all the Lassies." She recalled, "The next day the man was devastated. That was his livelihood." Typically generous and big hearted, Wayne returned the dogs.
In 1963, John Wayne bought a 135-ft., WWII Navy minesweeper for $110,000. Named the Wild Goose, it became his sanctuary and club house. It had a crew of eight, several guest rooms, and he equipped it with a wet-bar and poker table. He spent as much time on it as possible and every summer sailed Puget Sound and the San Juan Islands with family and friends.
During the making of the Sons of Katie Elder, he and Dean Martin became drinking and poker buddies. Dean was a frequent guest aboard the Wild Goose.
When Pilar, his wife of many years left him in 1973, facing age and fading stardom, America's Hero struggled. He drank and spent money recklessly. A friend reported, "I watched him lose $11,000 on one roll of the dice in Vegas one night."
Duke made his last picture, The Shootist, in Carson City, Nevada, in 1976. Old and ill, he was asked how he wanted to be remembered, Duke replied, "Feo, Feurte y Formal" - a Spanish proverb meaning, "He was ugly, strong and had dignity."
John Wayne defined what it was to be an American. And, both in his movies and in his personal life, poker played an important role.
