John Wayne - biography

“I’ve played the kinda man I’d like to have been.”

“Some of the guys were bitching about their hotel rooms.  When I started in this business, we used to sleep in tents.”

“Talk low, talk slow and don’t talk too much.  [Advice to Michael Caine]”

“Brando is one of the finest actors we’ve had.  I’m sorry he didn’t have the benefit of older, more established friends - as I did - to help him choose the proper material in which to use his talent.”

“Courage is being scared to death...  and saddling up anyway.”

“Get off your horse and drink your milk.”

“I never trust a man that doesn’t drink.”

“No one remembers the names of directors anymore.”

“The banks and stock promoters have taken over.  The moguls may not have been moral but they worked a 50-week schedule.  They built.”

“The whole industry is shot to hell now.  The only thing that’s kept it alive is the growth of population and the increase in ticket prices.  We used to have the most inexpensive and accessible medium in the world and now they’re doing everything in their power to tear it apart.”

“In B-pictures, all we ever did was tell a story.  But in A-pictures, you reacted more to the situations.”

“Motion pictures are for amusement.”

“I came to Hollywood in 1928 - the same time as the Oscar - and we plan to be around for a long time to come.”

“Used to have this dawg called Duke.  He’d follow me to school, ya know.  Used to stay at the fire station and wait for me.  Firemen knew his name but not mine.  So, he was Big Duke and I was Little Duke.”

“Life is tough, but it’s tougher when you’re stupid.”

“Tomorrow is the most important thing in life.  Comes into us at midnight very clean.  It’s perfect when it arrives and it puts itself in our hands.  It hopes we’ve learned something from yesterday.”

“You may say all my parts are the same.  That’s just what I want you to think.  You get lost on the screen if your personality doesn’t show through.”

“You can’t last if you don’t love it.”

“I’ve had three wives, six children, six grandchildren, and I still don’t understand women.”

“Couches are for one thing only.”

“Get off your butt and join the Marines!”

“I don’t feel we did wrong in taking this great country away from them.  There were great numbers of people who needed new land, and the Indians were selfishly trying to keep it for themselves.”

“If everything isn’t black and white, I say, ‘Why the hell not?’”

“If you’ve got them by the balls their hearts and minds will follow.”

“The news media has gotten more power today than the railroad in 1890.  But in 1890 at least they were trying to set up channels of communication.”

“Tomorrow hopes we have learned something from yesterday.”

John Wayne has appeared in the following films:
Brown of Harvard (1926)
Bardelys the Magnificent (1926)
The Great K and A Train Robbery (1926)
Annie Laurie (1927)
The Drop Kick (1927)
Mother Machree (1928)
Four Sons (1928)
Hangman’s House (1928)
Noah’s Ark (1928)
Speakeasy (1929)
The Black Watch (1929)
Words and Music (1929)
Salute (1929)
The Forward Pass (1929)
Men Without Women (1930)
Born Reckless (1930)
Rough Romance (1930)
Cheer Up and Smile (1930)
The Big Trail (1930)
Girls Demand Excitement (1931)
Three Girls Lost (1931)
Arizona (1931)
The Deceiver (1931)
Range Feud (1931)
Maker of Men (1931)
The Shadow of the Eagle (1932)
Texas Cyclone (1932)
Two-Fisted Law (1932)
Lady and Gent (1932)
The Hurricane Express (1932)
Ride Him, Cowboy (1932)
That’s My Boy (1932)
The Big Stampede (1932)
Haunted Gold (1932)
Running Hollywood (1932)
The Telegraph Trail (1933)
The Three Musketeers (1933)
Central Airport (1933)
Somewhere in Sonora (1933)
The Life of Jimmy Dolan (1933)
His Private Secretary (1933)
Baby Face (1933)
The Man from Monterey (1933)
Riders of Destiny (1933)
College Coach (1933)
Sagebrush Trail (1933)
The Lucky Texan (1934)
West of the Divide (1934)
Blue Steel (1934)
The Man from Utah (1934)
Randy Rides Alone (1934)
The Star Packer (1934)
The Trail Beyond (1934)
The Lawless Frontier (1934)
’Neath the Arizona Skies (1934)
Texas Terror (1935)
Rainbow Valley (1935)
The Desert Trail (1935)
The Dawn Rider (1935)
Paradise Canyon (1935)
Westward Ho (1935)
The New Frontier (1935)
Lawless Range (1935)
The Oregon Trail (1936)
The Lawless Nineties (1936)
King of the Pecos (1936)
The Lonely Trail (1936)
Winds of the Wasteland (1936)
Sea Spoilers (1936)
Conflict (1936)
California Straight Ahead! (1937)
I Cover the War (1937)
Idol of the Crowds (1937)
Adventure’s End (1937)
Born to the West (1937)
Pals of the Saddle (1938)
Overland Stage Raiders (1938)
Santa Fe Stampede (1938)
Red River Range (1938)
Stagecoach (1939)
The Night Riders (1939)
Three Texas Steers (1939)
Wyoming Outlaw (1939)
New Frontier (1939)
Allegheny Uprising (1939)
Dark Command (1940)
Three Faces West (1940)
The Long Voyage Home (1940)
Seven Sinners (1940)
A Man Betrayed (1941)
Lady from Louisiana (1941)
The Shepherd of the Hills (1941)
Lady for a Night (1942)
Reap the Wild Wind (1942)
The Spoilers (1942)
In Old California (1942)
Flying Tigers (1942)
Pittsburgh (1942)
Reunion in France (1942)
A Lady Takes a Chance (1943)
In Old Oklahoma (1943)
The Fighting Seabees (1944)
Tall in the Saddle (1944)
Memo for Joe (1944)
Flame of Barbary Coast (1945)
Back to Bataan (1945)
They Were Expendable (1945)
Dakota (1945)
Without Reservations (1946)
Angel and the Badman (1947)
Tycoon (1947)
Fort Apache (1948)
Red River (1948)
3 Godfathers (1948)
Wake of the Red Witch (1948)
The Fighting Kentuckian (1949)
She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949)
Sands of Iwo Jima (1949)
Rio Grande (1950)
Operation Pacific (1951)
Flying Leathernecks (1951)
Miracle in Motion (1952)
The Quiet Man (1952)
Big Jim McLain (1952)
Three Lives (1953)
Trouble Along the Way (1953)
Island in the Sky (1953)
Hondo (1953)
The High and the Mighty (1954)
The Sea Chase (1955)
Blood Alley (1955)
The Conqueror (1956)
The Searchers (1956)
The Wings of Eagles (1957)
Jet Pilot (1957)
Legend of the Lost (1957)
The Barbarian and the Geisha (1958)
Rio Bravo (1959)
The Horse Soldiers (1959)
The Alamo (1960)
North to Alaska (1960)
The Comancheros (1961)
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)
Hatari! (1962)
The Longest Day (1962)
How the West Was Won (1962)
Donovan’s Reef (1963)
McLintock! (1963)
Circus World (1964)
The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965)
In Harm’s Way (1965)
The Sons of Katie Elder (1965)
Cast a Giant Shadow (1966)
El Dorado (1966)
The War Wagon (1967)
The Green Berets (1968)
Hellfighters (1968)
True Grit (1969)
The Undefeated (1969)
Chisum (1970)
Rio Lobo (1970)
Big Jake (1971)
The Cowboys (1972)
The Train Robbers (1973)
Cahill U.S. Marshal (1973)
McQ (1974)
Brannigan (1975)
Rooster Cogburn (1975)
The Shootist (1976)
Chesty: A Tribute to a Legend (1976)


John Wayne directed the following films:
Blood Alley (1955)
The Alamo (1960)
The Comancheros (1961)
The Green Berets (1968)
Big Jake (1971)