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Description
John Wayne, an American icon and a major picture star for some 40 years, became one of Hollywood's biggest box office draws as he portrayed rugged, honest, no-nonsense heroes in a number of roles, ranging from the idealistic cowboy, to a tough military man and handsome romantic leads. Born Marion Micheal Morrison in Winterset, Iowa, Wayne was a star athlete at the University of Southern California during the 1920's. During college he was cast in a number of small film roles beginning in 1929. After about 10 years of minor parts, his big break came in 1939 when noted director John Ford cast him in the lead role in the ground-breaking western "Stagecoach". Thereafter, Wayne's fortunes soared and he was in great demand as a leading man until the mid-1970's.
Among the most notable and memorable of the more than 250 Wayne films are They Were Expendable (1945), Fort Apache (1948), She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949), Rio Grande (1950), The Quiet Man (1952), and The Searchers (1956), all directed by John Ford. Other classics directed by Howard Hawks, including Rio Bravo (1959), Hatari! (1962), and Rio Lobo (1970). Demonstrating other talents, Wayne produced, starred in and directed The Alamo (1960) and The Green Berets (1968), the latter displaying his iconoclastic and conservative philosophy that ran contrary to most of his Hollywood contemporaries. In 1969 Wayne earned an Academy Award for Best Actor as he portrayed Rooster Cogburn in "True Grit". In 1975, with co-star Katherine Hepburn, he resurrected the character in "Rooster Gogburn".
Other notable films include; Sands of Iwo Jima (1949), Hondo (1953), The High and The Mighty (1954), Blood Alley (1955), The Comancheros (1961), McLintock (1963), and his final picture, The Shootist (1976). After his death in 1979, Joahn Wayne was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest civilian honor granted by the United States Congress. A true American hero, on the screen… and off.
Pointillism artist Micheal Coupe captures Wayne's rugged idealism as he fights the good fight in a western setting in his latter years. Coupe's unique ability to zero in on a mood, a sense of determination and purpose shows John Wayne fighting the odds as an aging bulwark against evil. The message is undoubtedly, "…don't cross this man… if you know what's good for you."
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