Celebrity Name : John Wayne

Celebrity Real Name :Marion Morrison

Date of Birth : May 26, 1907

Birth Location : Winterset, Iowa in USA

Biography of Marion Morrison :
John Wayne (May 26, 1907 – June 11, 1979), popularly known as “The Duke,” was an Academy Award winning, American film actor whose career began in silent movies in the 1920s. He was a major star from the 1940s to the 1970s. He is most famous for his Westerns and World War II epics, but he also made a wide range of films from various Genres, biographies, romantic comedies, police dramas, and more. He epitomized a certain kind of rugged individualistic masculinity, and has become an enduring American icon.

Early life and college :
John Wayne was born Marion Robert Morrison in Winterset, Iowa in 1907, but his name was changed to Marion Michael Morrison when his parents decided to name their next son Robert. His family was Presbyterian; father Clyde Leonard Morrison was of Irish and Scottish descent and the son of an American Civil War veteran while mother Mary Alberta Brown was of Irish descent. Wayne’s family moved to Glendale, California in 1911; it was neighbors in Glendale who started calling him “Big Duke” because he never went anywhere without his Airedale Terrier dog, who was Little Duke. He preferred “Duke” to “Marion”, and the name stuck for the rest of his life.
Duke Morrison’s early life was marked by poverty; his father was a man who did not manage money well. Duke was a good and popular student. Tall from an early age, he was a star football player for Glendale High School and was recruited by the University of Southern California. As a teen, Wayne also worked in an ice cream shop for an individual who shoed horses for local Hollywood studios. He was also active as a member of the Order of DeMolay, a masonic youth organization run by the Freemasons, the latter which he would also join.
Wayne applied to the U.S. Naval Academy, but was not accepted. He instead attended the University of Southern California, where he was a member of the Trojan Knights and joined the Sigma Chi Fraternity. Wayne also played on the USC football team under legendary coach Howard Jones. An injury while supposedly swimming at the beach curtailed his athletic career, however; Wayne would later note that he was too terrified of Jones’ reaction to reveal the actual cause of his injury. He lost his athletic scholarship and with no funds was unable to continue at USC.
While at the university, Wayne began working around the local film studios. Western star Tom Mix got him a summer job in the prop department in exchange for football tickets, and Wayne soon moved on to bit parts, establishing a long friendship with director John Ford. During this period, Wayne appeared with his USC teammates as one of the featured football players in Columbia Pictures’ Maker of Men (filmed in 1930 and released in 1931), which starred Richard Cromwell and Jack Holt. In the film, Wayne was billed with his given name of Marion Morrison.
After two years working as a prop man at the William Fox Studios for $35 a week, his first starring role was in the 1930 movie The Big Trail; the director of that movie, Raoul Walsh, (who “discovered” Wayne) gave him the stage name “John Wayne”, after Revolutionary War general “Mad Anthony” Wayne. His pay was raised to $75 a week. He was tutored by the studio’s stuntmen in riding and other western skills.[wikipedia]