‘The Duke’ loses his last fight

Press, 13 June 1979, Page 1

‘The Duke’ loses his last fight

NZPA-A.P. Los Angeles The veteran Hollywood actor, John Wayne, died yesterday at the U.C.L.A. Medical Centre, in Los Angeles. He was 72. The cause of death was not announced.

Wayne had been hospitalised for the treatment cf cancer of the lower abdomen since May 2, his second cancer operation of the year, when his lower intestine was partially removed.

During his 50-year career, the burly “Duke,” defeated legions of villains.

He even beat the deadliest enemy of all — cancer. Once. After 1964 surgery in which his cancerous left lung was removed, the gravelly voiced actor liked to boast: “I licked the big C.”

But 15 years later, the big C came back. Wayne’s second bout with cancer began early this year with what was officially described as a routine gall-bladder operation.

He had entered hospital on January 10 and two days later his stomach was removed during a

nine and a half hour operation when a low-grade cancerous tumour was discovered.

Five days later, tissue tests revealed cancer in the gastric lymph nodes, “with the probability that it will spread,” the hospital reported. Ten months earlier, Wayne had survived open.heart surgery in Boston to replace a defective valve. Wayne’s last public appearance was on April 9, a poignant moment at the end of the Academy Awards when the gaunt “Duke” ambled on stage to present the Oscar for the best picture to “The Deerhunter.” His appearance was greeted by a standing ovation.

Thanking his audience, he said the ovation was “just about the only medicine a fellow ever really needed.”

Wayne was a controversial figure because of his outspokenly conservative views, although on some issues, such as his support for the Panama Canal treaties, he drew criticism from conservatives.

He strongly supported American involvement in

Vietnam, and demonstrated his support with the film “The Green Berets.” He supported Richard Nixon during much of the Watergate scandal. Wayne won an Oscar as best actor in 1969 for his role as Marshal Rooster Cogburn in the film, "True Grit,” a role that, ironically parodied his own image. He played a similar role in “Rooster Cogburn,” in 1975 with Katherine Hepburn. In “The Shootist,” in 1976, his last film, he played an ageing gunfighter dying of cancer. He was No. 1 in an alltime compilation of box office attractions, based on annual polls of film exhibitors. It is estimated that his 200 films brought in more than SUS7OOM. During the filming of “The Shootist” in Carson City, Nevada, there was talk that it would be Wayne’s last film. It was said that his faltering health, the resulting higher cost of his employment insurance, as well as time-consuming business interests, would make “The Shootist” his swan song.

“Bullshit,” he roared at

an interview. “Unless I stop breathing, or people stop going to see my films, I’ll be making more of them."

Wayne began as a muscular prop man, served a 10-year apprenticeship in the Saturday matinee “oaters,” clicked as the star of the classic “Stagecoach” in 1939, then reigned as Hollywood’s top outdoorsman and one of the screen’s highest paid performers. Wayne was married three times. He was separated from his third wife, Pilar, in 1973. He was divorced from his earlier two wives.

He spent his youth in the Los Angeles suburb of Glendale, and became an actor almost by chance. He was born Marion Michael Morrison on May 26, 1907, in Winterset, lowa, and moved with his family to California a few years later. His family had an Airedale dog named “Duke,” a name that gave rise to Wayne’s famous nickname.

He became a star footballer at the University of Southern California. He dropped out after two years for financial rea-

sons, but not before he had struck up an acquaintance with the directors John Ford and Raoul Walsh on a summer job while carrying props round a Hollywood set. Walsh gave him his first starring role in 1930 in “The Big Iran." As Walsh told it. Wayne "looked like a man. To be a cowboy star, you gotta be tall, you gotta have no hips, and a face that looks right under a sombrero.” Walsh named his protege John Wayne and paid him IjiUbVO a week.

“The Big Trail” was a flop. For almost a decade after that, Wayne worked in quickie Westerns, filming two in a week, sometimes two at the same time. For a while he even became “Singing Sandy,” a primordial singing cowboy.

Then John Ford made Wayne a star in 1939 by casting him as Kid Ringo in “Stagecoach.” Wayne's popularity never slumped after that.

“Stagecoach,” and another Ford film, "The Quiet Man,” remained Wayne’s favourite pictures.