John Wayne Bravo" (1959) with Dean Martin, and "The Longest Day" (1962). 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 his last public appearance was at the Academy Awards ceremony on April 9, 1979. Wayne was born Marion Robert Morrison on May 26, 1907 at 224 South Second Street in Winterset, Iowa. The local paper, "Winterset Madisonian", reported on page 4 of the edition of May 30, 1907 that Wayne weighed 13 lbs. (around 6 kg.) at birth. His middle name was
John Wayne Corporation, he appeared mostly in small bit parts. 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. Only leading roles in numerous B movies followed during the 1930s, most of them also Westerns. Wayne's career was rejuvenated with John Ford's "Stagecoach" (1939) making him an instant mainstream star. He starred in 142 motion pictures altogether, including the dozens with his name above the title produced before 1939. Biographer Ronald Davis said, "John Wayne personified for millions the nation's frontier heritage. Eighty-three of his movies were Westerns,