Trama

The film uses an off-screen narrator and still photographs to breeze through John Wayne's film career. First, he's an extra after playing guard for USC's football team; Raoul Walsh gives him his first screen test and his breakthrough role is in John Ford's "Stagecoach." Then, we get a rapid recitation of starring roles along with photos of him with some of his co-stars -- in Westerns, war films, costume dramas, and a few comedies. By the early 1960's Wayne is an American icon, one of movies' biggest stars.—<jhailey@hotmail.com>

John Wayne, currently Hollywood's most popular leading man, achieved his success in large part due to his vigorous action roles. A football player with the University of Southern California, he, better known as "the Duke", started his movie career as a prop man and bit player during the off season. He was noticed on the studio lot by director Raoul Walsh which led to being featured on-screen in primarily physical he-man roles. Ombre rosse (1939) would become a pivotal movie in his career as one where his natural "cowboy" talents were used. His roles over the subsequent two decades would have that noted physicality, largely in westerns or war movies or other such epics. Those movie successes would result in him being awarded the Henrietta as World Film Favorite Male by the Hollywood Foreign Press. Not content to rest on his laurels, he would move from being in front of the camera to behind the camera as a director.—Huggo