James W. Parker interested in Cynthia Ann but rather in her uncle James who had searched for her for eight years after her abduction." Historians and film critics have speculated on the inspiration for the character of Ethan Edwards in the John Ford movie The Searchers, with many saying that the character was based on James Parker. Critics and historians noted that James W. Parker, Cynthia Ann's uncle, spent much of his life and fortune in what became an obsessive search for his niece, like Ethan Edwards in the film. In addition, the "rescue" of Cynthia Ann, during a Texas Ranger attack on
John Wayne February 22, 1966). Pilar was an avid tennis player. In 1973, she encouraged him to develop the John Wayne Tennis Club, which today is the Palisades Tennis Club in Newport Beach, CA. Several of Wayne's children entered the film and television industry; Wayne's son Ethan was billed as John Ethan Wayne in a few films, and played one of the leads in the 1990s update of the "Adam-12" television series. His stormiest divorce was from Esperanza Baur, a former Mexican actress. She believed that Wayne and co-star Gail Russell were having an affair, a claim which both Wayne and Russell