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The Life And Legend
Simon & Schuster
April 2014
On Sale: April 1, 2014
Featuring: John Wayne
672 pages
ISBN: 1439199582
EAN: 9781439199589
Kindle: B00DPM909C
Hardcover / e-Book
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Paperback (May 2015)
Non-Fiction Biography
John Wayne was one of Hollywood’s most famous and most
successful actors, but he was more than that. He became a
symbol of America itself. He epitomized the Western film,
which for many people epitomized America. He identified with
conservative political causes from the early 1930s to his
death in 1979, making him a hero to one generation of
Americans and a villain to another. But unlike fellow actor
Ronald Reagan, Wayne had no interest in politics as a
career. Like many stars, he altered his life story, claiming
to have become an actor almost by accident when in fact he
had studied drama and aspired to act for most of his youth.
He married three times, all to Latina women, and conducted a
lengthy affair with Marlene Dietrich, as unlikely a romantic
partner as one could imagine for the Duke. Wayne projected
dignity, integrity, and strength in all his films, even when
his characters were flawed, and whatever character he played
was always prepared to confront injustice in his own way.
More than thirty years after his death, he remains the
standard by which male stars are judged and an actor whose
morally unambiguous films continue to attract sizeable
audiences.
Scott Eyman interviewed Wayne, as well as
many family members, and he has drawn on previously
unpublished reminiscences from friends and associates of the
Duke in this biography, as well as documents from his
production company that shed light on Wayne’s business
affairs. He traces Wayne from his childhood to his stardom
in Stagecoach and dozens of films after that. Eyman
perceptively analyzes Wayne’s relationship with John Ford,
the director with whom he’s most associated and who made
some of Wayne’s greatest films, among them She Wore a
Yellow Ribbon, The Quiet Man, and The
Searchers. His evaluation of Wayne himself is shrewd: a
skilled actor who was reluctant to step outside his comfort
zone. Wayne was self-aware; he once said, “I’ve played the
kind of man I’d like to have been.” It’s that man and the
real John Wayne who are brilliantly profiled in Scott
Eyman’s insightful biography of a true American legend.
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