British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. 797b. Photo: Walter Wanger. John Wayne in Stagecoach (John Ford, 1939).

American actor John Wayne (1907-1979) was one of the most popular film stars of the 20th century. He received his first leading film role in The Big Trail (1930). Working with John Ford, he got his next big break in Stagecoach (1939). His career as an actor took another leap forward when he worked with director Howard Hawks in Red River (1948). Wayne won his first Academy Award in 1969. He starred in 142 films altogether and remains a popular American icon to this day.

John Wayne was born Marion Robert Morrison in 1907, in Winterset, Iowa. Some sources also list him as Marion Michael Morrison and Marion Mitchell Morrison. He was already a sizable presence when he was born, weighing around 13 pounds. The oldest of two children born to Clyde and Mary 'Molly' Morrison, Wayne moved to Lancaster, California, around the age of seven. The family moved again a few years later after Clyde failed in his attempt to become a farmer. Settling in Glendale, California, Wayne received his distinctive nickname 'Duke' while living there. He had a dog by that name, and he spent so much time with his pet that the pair became known as 'Little Duke' and 'Big Duke', according to the official John Wayne website. In high school, Wayne excelled in his classes and many different activities, including student government and football. He also participated in numerous student theatrical productions. Winning a football scholarship to the University of Southern California (USC), Wayne started college in the fall of 1925. Unfortunately, after two years, an injury, a result of a bodysurfing accident, took him off the football field and ended his scholarship. While in college, Wayne had done some work as a film extra, appearing as a football player in Brown of Harvard (Jack Conway, 1926) with William Haines, and Drop Kick (Millard Webb, 1927), starring Richard Barthelmess. Out of school, Wayne worked as an extra and a prop man in the film industry. He first met director John Ford while working as an extra on Mother Machree (John Ford, 1928). With the early widescreen film epic The Big Trail (Raoul Walsh, 1930), Wayne received his first leading role, thanks to director Walsh. Raoul Walsh is often credited with helping him create his now legendary screen name, John Wayne. Unfortunately, the Western was a box office failure. For nearly a decade, Wayne toiled in numerous B-films. He played the lead, with his name over the title, in many low-budget Poverty Row Westerns, mostly at Monogram Pictures and serials for Mascot Pictures Corporation. By Wayne's estimation, he appeared in about 80 of these horse operas from 1930 to 1939. In Riders of Destiny (Robert N. Bradbury, 1933), he became one of the first singing cowboys of film, named Sandy Saunders, although via dubbing. During this period, Wayne started developing his man-of-action persona, which would serve as the basis of many popular characters later on.

Working with John Ford, John Wayne got his next big break in Stagecoach (John Ford, 1939). Because of Wayne's B-film status and track record in low-budget Westerns throughout the 1930s, Ford had difficulty getting financing for what was to be an A-budget film. After rejection by all the major studios, Ford struck a deal with independent producer Walter Wanger in which Claire Trevor, who was a much bigger star at the time, received top billing. Wayne portrayed the Ringo Kid, an escaped outlaw, who joins an unusual assortment of characters on a dangerous journey through frontier lands. During the trip, the Kid falls for a dance hall prostitute named Dallas (Claire Trevor). The film was well received by filmgoers and critics alike and earned seven Academy Award nominations, including one for Ford's direction. In the end, it took home the awards for Music and Actor in a Supporting Role for Thomas Mitchell. Wayne became a mainstream star. Reunited with Ford and Mitchell, Wayne stepped away from his usual Western roles to become a Swedish seaman in The Long Voyage Home (John Ford, 1940). The film was adapted from a play by Eugene O'Neill and follows the crew of a steamer ship as they move a shipment of explosives. Along with many positive reviews, the film earned several Academy Award nominations. Around this time, Wayne made the first of several films with German star Marlene Dietrich. The two appeared together in Seven Sinners (Tay Garnett, 1940) with Wayne playing a naval officer and Dietrich as a woman who sets out to seduce him. Off-screen, they became romantically involved, though Wayne was married at the time. There had been rumours about Wayne having other affairs, but nothing as substantial as his connection to Dietrich. Even after their physical relationship ended, the pair remained good friends and co-starred in two more films, Pittsburgh (Lewis Seiler, 1942) and The Spoilers (Ray Enright, 1942). Wayne's first colour film was Shepherd of the Hills (Henry Hathaway, 1941), in which he co-starred with his longtime friend Harry Carey. The following year, he appeared in his only film directed by Cecil B. DeMille, the Technicolor epic Reap the Wild Wind (1942), in which he co-starred with Ray Milland and Paulette Goddard; it was one of the rare times he played a character with questionable values. Wayne started working behind the scenes as a producer in the late 1940s. The first film he produced was Angel and the Badman (James Edward Grant, 1947) with Gail Russell. Over the years, he operated several different production companies, including John Wayne Productions, Wayne-Fellows Productions and Batjac Productions.

John Wayne's career as an actor took another leap forward when he worked with director Howard Hawks in Red River (1948). The Western drama provided Wayne with an opportunity to show his talents as an actor, not just an action hero. Playing the conflicted cattleman Tom Dunson, he took on a darker sort of character. He deftly handled his character's slow collapse and difficult relationship with his adopted son played by Montgomery Clift. Also around this time, Wayne received praise for his work in John Ford's Fort Apache (1948) with Henry Fonda and Shirley Temple. Taking on a war drama, Wayne gave a strong performance in Sands of Iwo Jima (Allan Dwan, 1949), which garnered him his first Academy Award nomination for Best Actor. He also appeared in more two Westerns by Ford now considered classics: She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (John Ford, 1949) and Rio Grande (John Ford, 1950) with Maureen O'Hara. Wayne worked with O'Hara on several films, perhaps most notably The Quiet Man (John Ford, 1952). Playing an American boxer with a bad reputation, his character moved to Ireland where he fell in love with a local woman (Maureen O'Hara). This film is considered Wayne's most convincing leading romantic role by many critics. A well-known conservative and anticommunist, Wayne merged his personal beliefs and his professional life with Big Jim McLain (Edward Ludwig, 1952). He played an investigator working for the U.S. House Un-American Activities Committee, which worked to root out communists in all aspects of public life. Off-screen, Wayne played a leading role in the Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Ideals and even served as its president for a time. The organisation was a group of conservatives who wanted to stop communists from working in the film industry, and other members included Gary Cooper and Ronald Reagan. In 1956, Wayne starred in another Ford Western, The Searchers (John Ford, 1956). He played Civil War veteran Ethan Edwards whose niece is abducted by a tribe of Comanches and he again showed some dramatic range as the morally questionable veteran. He soon after reteamed with Howard Hawks for Rio Bravo (1959). Playing a local sheriff, Wayne's character must face off against a powerful rancher and his henchmen who want to free his jailed brother. The unusual cast included Dean Martin and Angie Dickinson.

John Wayne made his directorial debut with The Alamo (John Wayne, 1960). Starring in the film as Davy Crockett, he received decidedly mixed reviews for both his on- and off-screen efforts. Wayne received a much warmer reception for The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (John Ford, 1962) in which he played a troubled rancher competing with a lawyer (James Stewart) for a woman's hand in marriage. Some other notable films from this period include The Longest Day (Ken Annakin, Andrew Marton, Bernhard Wicki, 1962) and How the West Was Won (John Ford, Henry Hathaway, George Marshall, 1962). Continuing to work steadily, Wayne refused to even let illness slow him down. He successfully battled lung cancer in 1964. To defeat the disease, Wayne had to have a lung and several ribs removed. In the later part of the 1960s, Wayne had some great successes and failures. He co-starred with Robert Mitchum in El Dorado (Howard Hawks, 1967), which was well received. The next year, Wayne again mixed the professional and the political with the pro-Vietnam War film The Green Berets (Ray Kellogg, John Wayne, 1968). He directed and produced as well as starred in the film, which was derided by critics for being heavy-handed and clichéd. Viewed by many as a piece of propaganda, the film still did well at the box office. Around this time, Wayne continued to espouse his conservative political views. He supported his friend Ronald Reagan in his 1966 bid for governor of California as well as his 1970 re-election effort. In 1976, Wayne recorded radio advertisements for Reagan's first attempt to become the Republican presidential candidate. Wayne won his first Academy Award for Best Actor for True Grit (Henry Hathaway, 1969). He played Rooster Cogburn, a one-eyed marshal and drunkard, who helps a young woman named Mattie (Kim Darby) track down her father's killer. A young Glen Campbell joined the pair on their mission. Rounding out the cast, Robert Duvall and Dennis Hopper were among the bad guys the trio had to defeat. A later sequel with Katherine Hepburn, Rooster Cogburn (Stuart Millar, 1975), failed to attract critical acclaim or much of an audience. Wayne portrayed an ageing gunfighter dying of cancer in his final film, The Shootist (Don Siegel, 1976), with James Stewart and Lauren Bacall. His character, John Bernard Books, hoped to spend his final days peacefully but got involved in one last gunfight. In 1978, life imitated art with Wayne being diagnosed with stomach cancer. John Wayne died in 1979, in Los Angeles, California. He was survived by his seven children from two of his three marriages. During his marriage to Josephine Saenz from 1933 to 1945, the couple had four children, two daughters Antonia and Melinda and two sons Michael and Patrick. Both Michael and Patrick followed in their father's footsteps Michael as a producer and Patrick as an actor. With his third wife, Pilar Palette, he had three more children, Ethan, Aissa, and Marisa. Ethan has worked as an actor over the years.

Sources: Biography.com, Wikipedia and IMDb.

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Mexican collector card. Photo: publicity still for 3 Godfathers (John Ford, 1948).

In the American Western 3 Godfathers, Mexican actor Pedro Armendáriz (1912-1963) plays one of three outlaws on the run. The other two are played by John Wayne and Harry Carey Jr. In the desert, they find a dying woman and her newborn baby, and of course, they vow to save the child. They bring the baby to safety across the desert, even at the risk of their own lives. Director John Ford had previously made a silent film version of the same story, The Three Godfathers (John Ford, 1916), which starred Ford's long-time friend Harry Carey. When Carey died in 1947, Ford decided to remake the story in Technicolor and dedicate the film to his memory. Carey's son, Harry Carey Jr., plays the outlaw named 'The Abilene Kid'. John Wayne's character, Robert Marmaduke Hightower, was named by Ford after his favourite stuntman, Bryan 'Slim' Hightower, who also worked on this picture. And Armendáriz's character was called Pedro 'Pete' Roca Fuerte.

Born in 1912, in Mexican revolution times, Pedro Armendáriz was the first child of Mexican Pedro Armendáriz García-Conde and American Adele Hastings. He was raised in Churubusco, then a suburb of Mexico City, before the family travelled to Laredo, Texas. They lived there until 1921, the year Armendáriz's parents died. His uncle Francisco took charge of his education, and young Pedro went to the Polytechnic Institute of San Luis Obispo, California. There, he studied business and journalism. He graduated in 1931 and returned to Mexico City where he found work as a railroad employee, insurance salesman and tourist guide. He was discovered by director Miguel Zacarías when Armendáriz was reciting Hamlet's monologue (to be or not to be) to an American tourist in a cafeteria. After that, Armendáriz began a brilliant career in Mexico, the United States and Europe. Together with Dolores del Rio and Emilio Fernández, he made many of the greatest films in the so-called Mexican Cinema Golden Era, such as Flor Silvestre/Wild Flower (Emilio Fernández, 1943), Bugambilia/Secret Love (Emilio Fernández, 1945), and María Candelaria/Portrait of Maria (Emilio Fernández, 1944). He was considered a prototype of masculinity and male beauty, nicknamed 'The Clark Gable of Mexico '. His green eyes and almost perfect features made him perfectly cast in any role he made. But it was his passion, force and acting abilities, combined with his quality of a gentleman that made him an instant favourite of great directors like John Ford. His final film role was as Kerim Bey in the James Bond adventure From Russia with Love (Terence Young, 1963).

Source: IMDb.

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Spanish postcard by Ediciones Raker, Barcelona, no. 129. Photo: Warner Bros. Publicity still for Sergeant Rutledge (John Ford, 1960).

American actor Jeffrey Hunter (1926-1969) was the tall, blue-eyed, and impossibly good-looking heartthrob of many Hollywood films of the 1950s. During the 1960s, he also worked in European cinema.

Jeffrey Hunter was born Henry Herman McKinnies Jr. in 1926 in New Orleans, Louisiana, an only child. His parents met at the University of Arkansas, and when he was almost four his family moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin. In his teens, he acted in productions of the North Shore Children's Theater, and from 1942 to 1944 performed in summer stock with the local Port Players, along with Eileen Heckart, Charlotte Rae, and Morton DaCosta, and was a radio actor at WTMJ, getting his first professional paycheck in 1945 for the wartime series Those Who Serve. After graduation from Whitefish Bay High School, where he was co-captain of the football team, he enlisted in the United States Navy and underwent training at Great Lakes Naval Station, Illinois, in 1945-1946. However, on the eve of his transfer to duty in Japan, he took ill and received a medical discharge from the service. Hunter attended and graduated from Northwestern University in Illinois with a bachelor's degree in 1949, where he acquired more stage experience in Sheridan's The Rivals and Ruth Gordon's Years Ago. He also did summer stock with Northwestern students at Eagles Mere, Pennsylvania in 1948, worked on two Northwestern Radio Playshop broadcasts, was president of Phi Delta Theta Fraternity, and was active in the campus film society with David Bradley, later acting in Bradley's production of Julius Caesar (1950). He went to graduate school at the University of California, Los Angeles, where he studied radio and drama. He was in the cast of a UCLA production of All My Sons in May 1950, and on opening night talent scouts for Paramount and 20th Century Fox in the audience zeroed in on the tall, blue-eyed, and impossibly good-looking Hunter.

Jeffrey Hunter made a screen test with Ed Begley in a scene from All My Sons at Paramount where he met Barbara Rush, his future wife. An executive shake-up at that studio derailed his hiring, but in 1950, 20th Century-Fox head Darryl F. Zanuck signed him to a contract and changed his name from Henry Herman McKinnies Jr to Jeffrey Hunter. He was almost immediately sent on location in New York for Fourteen Hours (Henry Hathaway, 1951) with Richard Basehart. Hunter was kept fairly busy in pictures, working his way from featured roles to starring roles to first billing within two years in the British film Single-Handed (Roy Boulting, 1953). His big break came with The Searchers (John Ford, 1956), where he played the young cowboy who accompanies John Wayne on his search for a child kidnapped by Comanches. Hunter got excellent reviews for his performance in this film and justifiably so, as he held his own well with the veteran Wayne. Starring roles in two more John Ford movies followed, and in 1960 Hunter had one of his best roles in Hell to Eternity (Phil Karlson, 1960), the true story of World War II hero Guy Gabaldon. That same year, Hunter landed the role for which he is probably best known (although it's far from his best work) when he played the Son of God in King of Kings (Nicholas Ray, 1961). After the cancellation of his Western series Temple Houston (1963) his career took a downturn. He was cast as Christopher Pike, captain of the USS Enterprise, in the original Star Trek pilot in 1964. However, when an undecided NBC requested a second pilot in early 1965, Hunter declined, having decided to concentrate on his film career, instead. He worked in Italy where he starred in Oro per i Cesari/Gold for the Caesars (André De Toth, Sabatino Ciuffini, 1963) and the Spaghetti Western Joe... cercati un posto per morire!/Find a Place to Die! ( Giuliano Carnimeo, 1968). In 1969, Hunter suffered a stroke (after just recovering from an earlier stroke), took a bad fall, and underwent emergency surgery, but died from complications of both the fall and the surgery.

Sources: Pedro Borges (IMDb) and IMDb.

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British Real Photograph postcard, London, no. FS 121. Photo: Samuel Goldwyn. Publicity still for The Hurricane (John Ford, 1937).

Handsome, athletic, American actor Jon Hall (1915-1979) is best known for his adventurous roles in Universal pictures.

American actress and singer Dorothy Lamour (1914-1996) is best remembered for appearing in the Road to... comedies, starring Bing Crosby and Bob Hope. During World War II, Lamour was among the most popular pin-up girls among American servicemen.

See for more vintage postcards of Hollywood stars our albums Vintage B&W Hollywood and Hollywood Colour Postcards.

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British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. FS 163. Photo: 20th Century Fox. Publicity still for Four men and a Prayer (John Ford, 1938).

Darkly handsome British film and television actor Richard Greene (1918-1985) was a matinee idol of the late 1930s who appeared in more than 40 films. He was perhaps best known for the lead role in the long-running British TV series The Adventures of Robin Hood (1955-1960).

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