02 Lug John Wayne
Data di morte: 11 Giugno 1979
In: California 1, Corona Del Mar, California, Stati Uniti
Storia:
He was an American actor, filmmaker and Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient.
He was among the top box office draws for three decades.Wayne was born in Winterset, Iowa but grew up in Southern California.
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.
In 1934 he starred as Ted Hayden, posing as Gat Ganns in the western West of the Divide.
Wayne's career was rejuvenated when John Ford's Stagecoach (1939) made him an instant mainstream star.
He starred in 142 motion pictures altogether.
According to one biographer, "John Wayne personified for millions the nation's frontier heritage. Eighty-three of his movies were Westerns, and in them he played cowboys, cavalrymen, and unconquerable loners extracted from the Republic's central creation myth."
In his final screen performance, he starred as an aging gunfighter battling cancer in The Shootist (1976). He appeared with many important Hollywood stars of his era, and made his last public appearance at the Academy Awards ceremony on April 9, 1979.