© NL Beeld/Getty Images

Hollywood legend - John Wayne is one of the most recognized actors in the world. Celebrated for his Hollywood Western movie roles, he was among the top box-office draws for three decades.

© NL Beeld

Marion Robert Morrison - Wayne was born Marion Robert Morrison on May 26, 1907, in Winterset, Iowa. He's pictured here just a couple of years old.  

© Getty Images

Early life -

Tall and athletic, he pursued a sports career until a broken collar bone curtailed his footballing aspirations. 

© NL Beeld

Early career - His Hollywood career began after silent movie star Tom Mix and film director John Ford hired the aspiring actor as a prop boy and extra. He would later form a very successful filmmaking partnership with Ford.

© NL Beeld

'The Big Trail' (1930) - While Morrison's nickname was "Duke," it was film director Raoul Walsh who suggested he change his name to "John Wayne." Wayne's first leading role was in 'The Big Trail' (pictured), directed by Walsh.

© NL Beeld

'Stagecoach' (1939) - Unfortunately 'The Big Trail' flopped and Wayne subsequently appeared in numerous bit-parts before John Ford hired him as the "Ringo Kid" in 'Stagecoach'—one of the most influential films ever made.

© Public Domain

Personal life - The actor was married three times and divorced twice. He's pictured on his wedding day in 1933 with first wife, Josephine Saenz. His other wives were Esperanza Baur and Pilar Pallete.

© Getty Images

'Red River' (1948) - One of Wayne's finest films, and a critical success, 'Red River' was nominated for Academy Awards for Best Film Editing and Best Writing.

© Public Domain

'Red River' (1948) - The film is a fictional account of the first cattle drive from Texas to Kansas, with Wayne playing a hard-nosed rancher who initiates the drive.

© NL Beeld

'She Wore a Yellow Ribbon' (1949) - Wayne was back in the saddle and once again working with John Ford for this Cavalry epic, which was shot on location in Monument Valley, a region synonymous with Ford's Westerns.

© Public Domain

'She Wore a Yellow Ribbon' (1949) - In fact, the movie's sweeping imagery garnered an Academy Award for Best Cinematography. His role as Captain Nathan Brittles became one of Wayne's favorite roles.

© NL Beeld

'Sands of Iwo Jima' (1949) - Wayne was exempted from service in World War II due to his age. His first war movie was 'Flying Tigers' (1942). As tough a soldier as grizzled cow hand, Wayne received an Academy Award Best Actor nomination for his role as a Marine sergeant in 'Sands of Iwo Jima.'

© NL Beeld

'Rio Grande' (1950) - This John Ford-directed Western was the first of five in which Wayne and Irish-American actress Maureen O'Hara costarred.

© Public Domain

'The Quiet Man' (1952) - Suitably, the pair's next outing together was in this romantic comedy-drama, which was shot on location in Ireland. A departure for both Wayne and director John Ford—both now firmly associated with the Western genre—the film was a critical and commercial success.

© Public Domain

'The Quiet Man' (1952) - For his efforts, Ford walked away with an Oscar for Best Director while Wayne was lauded for his measured performance as mild-mannered Sean Thornton, the "quiet" man in the film.

© NL Beeld

'The Conqueror' (1956) - As the 1950s progressed, Wayne appeared in political thrillers, aviation adventures...and the historical drama 'The Conqueror' as a totally miscast Genghis Khan. The movie is noted for being filmed near a nuclear test site and the subsequent cancer controversy surrounding the production; the film's director and several cast members, including Wayne, all later succumbed to cancer. Coincidence?

© NL Beeld

'The Searchers' (1956) - Generally regarded as one of the greatest movies ever made, 'The Searchers' is John Ford's masterpiece.

© Public Domain

'The Searchers' (1956) - Wayne portrays Civil War veteran Ethan Edwards who spends years looking for his abducted niece, played by Natalie Wood.

© Public Domain

'The Searchers' (1956) - The sequence where a cabin door slowly shuts on the lonely figure of Ethan remains one of the most iconic closing scenes in cinema history.

© NL Beeld

'Rio Bravo' (1959) - Wayne's costars in this Howard Hawks-directed Western include crooner Dean Martin and teen idol Ricky Nelson. The movie soundtrack subsequently featured three songs, a nod perhaps to Wayne's 1933 appearance as a singing cowboy in 'Riders of Destiny' (although his singing voice was in fact dubbed).

© NL Beeld

'The Alamo' (1960) - Wayne directed, produced, and starred in this historical war film, which depicts the 1836 Battle of the Alamo.

© Public Domain

'The Alamo' (1960) -

By all accounts, Wayne was an intelligent and gifted director... competent, but not outstanding. The film was nominated for several Academy Awards, winning for Best Sound.

© Getty Images

'The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance' (1962) -

Directed by John Ford, this highly regarded Western costars James Stewart and Lee Marvin. Fourteen years later, Stewart would work with Wayne again in the actor's final film, 'The Shootist.'

© Getty Images

'The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance' (1962) - A financial and critical success, the movie is today considered one of the great Western classics.

© NL Beeld

'The Longest Day' (1962) - The Duke was back in uniform and enjoyed a prominent role in this epic war film about the June 6, 1944 D-Day landings. The large ensemble cast includes Robert Mitchum, Sean Connery, Henry Fonda, and Richard Burton.

© NL Beeld

'McLintock!' (1963) - Loosely based on William Shakespeare's 'The Taming of the Shrew,' this Western comedy again teamed Wayne with one of his favorite leading ladies, Maureen O'Hara. It was a box-office success.

© Public Domain

'The Sons of Katie Elder' (1965) - The first signs of serious ill-health appeared in 1964 when the Duke postponed filming of 'The Sons of Katie Elder' in order to undergo surgery to remove a cancerous lung. When filming did commence, he insisted on doing his own stunts and nearly contracted pneumonia after being dragged into a river.

© NL Beeld

Cancer - The actor admitted to smoking six packs a day, and attributed his lung cancer to an insatiable tobacco habit. This despite the fact that he and fellow cast members might have been exposed to dangerous levels of radioactive fallout on the set of 'The Conqueror.'

© NL Beeld

'The Green Berets' (1968) - After two more Westerns, 'El Dorado' (1966) and 'The War Wagon' (1967), Wayne directed and starred in the Vietnam War movie 'The Green Berets.' A supporter of the conflict, Wayne's film was a critical failure but did well at the box office.

© NL Beeld

'True Grit' (1969) - Back on familiar ground, the then 62-year-old triumphed at the Academy Awards with this celebrated Western, which tells the story of US Marshal Rooster Cogburn and his pursuit of a rancher accused of murder.

© NL Beeld

'True Grit' (1969) - The movie, which costars Glen Campbell (pictured), earned Wayne an Oscar for Best Actor. Campbell was Oscar nominated for his title song.

© NL Beeld

Political views - Wayne was a prominent conservative Republican and publicly voiced his anti-communist views and support for the Vietnam War. His barbed opinions about social issues and race relations in the US often made headlines. He's pictured with President Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger.

© Getty Images

'The Cowboys' (1972) - This film, in which the Duke's character hires a bunch of boys for a long cattle run, is noted for being one of the very few in which John Wayne’s character is killed, and the only one where he is slain by the main antagonist.

© NL Beeld

'The Shootist' (1976) -

'The Shootist,' his final film role, begins with a prologue—a clip montage of scenes from some of Wayne's earlier Western films—summarizing the career of his character, John Bernard "J.B." Books.

© Getty Images

'The Shootist' (1976) - 'The Shootist,' his final film role, begins with a prologue—a montage of scenes from some of Wayne's earlier Western flicks—summarizing the career of his character in the movie. With art imitating life, Wayne's character is an aging gunman lamenting that the Old West is dying—as is he, from cancer! In fact, his illness only returned in 1979, but 'The Shootist' marked farewell to an actor whose 50-year career was drawing to a close.

© NL Beeld

Death -

John Wayne died on June 11, 1979. He is buried in the Pacific View Memorial Park Cemetery in Corona del Mar, California. His birthplace (pictured) remains a place of pilgrimage for Western fans around the world.

See also: Why Orson Wells still influences film, radio, and theater

© Getty Images