John Wayne was born Marion Robert Morrison on May 26, 1907 in the town of Winterset, Iowa. At the age of four him and his family moved to the Los Angeles area. He got his nickname 'Duke' from a local fireman that began calling him 'Little Duke' because he would never go anywhere without his dog, Duke. He found work at a small film studio after an injury ended his football career at the University of Southern California. There he began working in the prop department, but would eventually begin to act in small low budget films. In all the "B" movies he did, he used a white horse which he named the DUKE in remembrance of his dog. This was when he would become lifelong friends with legendary director John Ford. His first starring role was in the movie 'The Big Trail' directed by Raoul Walsh, he would be the man who gave Marion his screen name 'John Wayne'.

John Wayne finally got his break when he starred in John Ford's 'Stagecoach'. John Wayne became a star after Stagecoach was released and began his long successful movie career. Between John Ford and Howard Hawks directed movies this made John Wayne the America's most famous western actor, and comics were made of him entitled John Wayne Adventure Comics, published by Toby.

By 1979 John Wayne appeared in nearly 250 movies, and starred in 142 of them. Though nominated for many Oscars, Wayne wouldn't win one until 1969 for his performance as Rooster Cogburn in the movie True Grit.

His last film was The Shootist in 1976. Wayne would pass away due to stomach cancer on June 11, 1979 at the age of 72.

Vertigo:

John Wayne appears as a ghost who guides Jesse Custer down his road to being a good man.

John Wayne first appeared to Jesse Custer when the boy was 5 years old, right after his father had died. Jesse would later find this odd, as Wayne actually died five years after his ghost had reached out from the television set to offer to be Jesse's partner but none the less, Jesse (who idolized John Wayne due to his father's talks about him) agreed and shook the Ghost's hand. Still, Wayne appeared at the key turning points in Jesse's life, offering advice, support and, when necessary, criticism. He disappeared for a while when Jesse finally caved in to his grandmother, with his parting word simply being, "Fagot."

Once Genesis possessed Custer, however, Wayne returned, this time with slightly more awareness of the world than he'd had before. He was able to warn Jesse about the Saint Of Killers, which suggests that Wayne - whether ghost or hallucination - had some kind of rapport with the Genesis entity.

Wayne continued to support Jesse through his tough decisions, up until Jesse willingly went to his death in San Antonio, Texas. Before he left, he made Jesse repeat the words his father had taught him the night he died: "Don't take no shit off fools. And you judge a person by what's in 'em, not how they look. And you do the right thing. You gotta be one of the good guys, son. Cause there's way too many of the bad."

With that, Wayne shook Jesse's hand, told him he was proud of him, and vanished.