| − | Wayne was born May 26, 1907, in the small town of Winterset, Iowa. His father Clyde Morrison, a local pharmacist, named him Marion Robert, but had it changed when his brother Robert Emmett was born in 1911. Soon after Robert's birth the family moved to southern California where Clyde operated a ranch; when the ranch failed, they moved to Glendale. Marion delivered medicines for his father accompanied at times by his airedale dog "Duke", from which he got his famous nickname. | + | Wayne was born May 26, 1907, in the small town of Winterset, [[Iowa]]. His father Clyde Morrison, a local pharmacist, named him Marion Robert, but had it changed when his brother Robert Emmett was born in 1911. Soon after Robert's birth the family moved to southern California where Clyde operated a ranch; when the ranch failed, they moved to Glendale. Marion delivered medicines for his father accompanied at times by his airedale dog "Duke", from which he got his famous nickname. |
| | While studying and playing football at the [[University of Southern California]] he worked summers as a propman at Fox studios and built a friendship with director John Ford; Wayne would be placed in several small roles starting in 1928. His size and good looks got the attention of another director, Raoul Walsh, who placed Wayne in his first leading role in ''The Big Trail'' (1933)[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0020691/]; the film is the first in which he was creditied as Wayne. Other roles came his way during the next several years, mostly in low-budget films in which he played cowboys or soldiers, with several starring Wayne as a “singing cowboy” in the mold of [[Gene Autry]] and others (his singing was dubbed). | | While studying and playing football at the [[University of Southern California]] he worked summers as a propman at Fox studios and built a friendship with director John Ford; Wayne would be placed in several small roles starting in 1928. His size and good looks got the attention of another director, Raoul Walsh, who placed Wayne in his first leading role in ''The Big Trail'' (1933)[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0020691/]; the film is the first in which he was creditied as Wayne. Other roles came his way during the next several years, mostly in low-budget films in which he played cowboys or soldiers, with several starring Wayne as a “singing cowboy” in the mold of [[Gene Autry]] and others (his singing was dubbed). |