The Life of John Wayne Trivia Quiz

Answer: Pharmacist

Wayne's father, Clyde, owned a pharmacy, but because of his poor health, it caused mounting financial pressure. Clyde's heart trouble and chronic asthma forced him to close his pharmacy and declare bankruptcy. But Wayne's domineering mother, Molly, was not happy with Clyde, because he wasn't successful and wasn't more ambitious to be successful.

It caused frequent heated arguments between Clyde and Molly, which caused young John Wayne to start suffering from insomnia. He ran away from home more than once.

Answer: Injured while bodysurfing

John Wayne just loved the ocean, and in his younger years he did a lot of surfing until he suffered a broken collarbone while body surfing. Unable to play football, his scholarship to USC was revoked. Wayne then got a job as a prop boy at Fox Studios, where his movie career would start.

Answer: The Big Trail

In "The Big Trail" (1930) John Wayne plays Breck Coleman, who agrees to lead a group of people who are trying to make it big on the Oregon Trail. The film was a box office bomb. It didn't launch Wayne's career, but instead set it back. Wayne found his only form of employment was in cheap westerns produced by B movie studios.

It wasn't until 1939 when director John Ford put John Wayne in the lead role in the film "Stagecoach" that launched him into stardom.

Answer: "The Searchers" - Ethan

In the 1956 film "The Searchers", John Wayne plays Ethan, who returns home to his brother's house after the Civil War, and finds that his brother and his brother's wife had been murdered by Comanches. He vows to find his abducted niece and seek revenge. Wayne named his youngest son Ethan after the character he played in this film.

Answer: True Grit

In the 1969 film "True Grit", Mattie Ross's (Kim Darby) father is murdered and she seeks the help of U.S. Marshall Rooster Cogburn (John Wayne) to find her father's killer. John Wayne received his only Oscar for Best Actor for "True Grit".

It is rare that a actor will win a Best Actor for a western. Many people believe that John Wayne won this Oscar because he had never won a Oscar. In addition they thought that he was getting older and might never make a big hit again.

Answer: Donovan's Reef

In the 1963 film "Donovan's Reef", Donovan (John Wayne) is living the life of leisure on a South Pacific island until a daughter of a friend who has never seen her father arrives at the island in search of her father. This was the last of the 14 films that John Wayne and John Ford made together.

Answer: The Shepherd of the Hills

In "The Shepherd of the Hills", a mysterious man (Harry Carry Sr.), arrives in town with a secret that, if Matt (John Wayne) finds out, could have serious consequences.

Many people believe that "The Wizard of Oz" (1939) was the first movie in color, but really it was a 8-min short film called "A Visit to the Seaside" (1908). At first the color process wasn't perfect. It took years of work to make the color process better in films, until 1939 when it was finally perfect.

Answer: Stomach Cancer

After filming "The Shootist" (1976), which was his last film, Wayne's health continued to deteriorate. In January 1979, when complaining of stomach pain, he found out he had stomach cancer.

In April 1979, he made his last public appearance at the Academy Awards, presenting the Oscar for Best Picture. At the Oscars, it was obvious that he had physically declined. In June he was admitted to UCLA Medical Center, and he died of stomach cancer on June 11, 1979, at the age of 79.

Answer: Pre-law

It was John Wayne's physical assets, rather than his good grades, that got him the opportunity to get a college education. In 1925, Wayne was awarded a football scholarship at the University of Southern California, and he majored in Pre-law. While he was there, which appears to have been just two years, he was a member of the Trojan Knights and Sigma Chi organizations.

Answer: Chess

One of John Wayne's favorite things to do was playing chess. He started playing chess at a young age, and played in high school. Then it carried over into his acting career.

John Wayne built a reputation for being a good chess player, and would often bring a miniature chess board to the set while making a movie. There he would play with anyone between scenes. He would play with actors, directors, friends, prop men, stunt men, or sometimes fans who came to the set.

Answer: Batjac

Wayne-Fellows Productions was co-founded by John Wayne and Robert Fellows in 1952. In 1956, Robert Fellows left the company and Wayne renamed it Batjak from a shipping company in the film "Wake of the Red Witch" (1948). When Wayne's secretary misspelled Batjak to Batjac, he decided to keep the error. Seventeen of John Wayne movies were made by the successful Batjac Productions.

Answer: John Wayne, American

By the time the medal was awarded, John Wayne's health had considerably declined. Knowing that Wayne may not live that much longer, tributes rushed in from across the country endorsing the bill to award a Congressional Gold Medal to the Duke. Letters of support came from such famous people as Jimmy Carter, Gerald Ford, Frank Sinatra, Katherine Hepburn, General Omar Bradley, Ronald Reagan, William Holden, and James Stewart.

But Maureen O'Hara and Elizabeth Taylor came and gave testimony in person to Congress. In her statement O'Hara said that the medal should simply say:
John Wayne, American. On May 26, 1979, John Wayne was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal. A little more than a week later, he died.

Answer: The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance

In the film "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance" (1962) a young lawyer, Ransom Stoddard (James Stewart), is robbed and beaten in a stagecoach held up by Liberty Valance (lee Marvin). Tom Doniphon (John Wayne) finds Stoddard and brings him to the town of Shinbone.

Then Stoddard seeks justice. The name "Pilgrim" has become synonymous with John Wayne. Whenever someone makes an impression of Wayne, good or bad, "Pilgrim" always follows. So in the film, Wayne repeatedly calls Stewart "Pilgrim" 25 times.

Answer: 35

Wayne appeared in 35 films, playing a character also named John. These include Sgt. John Stryker in ?Sands of Iwo Jima? (1949), John T. Chance in "Rio Bravo" (1959), John Elder in "The Sons of Katie Elder" (1965), John Chisum in "Chisum" (1970), and John B. Books in "The Shootist" (1976).

John Wayne's real name was Marion Robert Morrison. When Wayne got into films, they had to change his name because his real name does not sound like a name a cowboy would have. Director Raoul Walsh suggested that he change his name to Anthony Wayne, but Fox Studios rejected it. Walsh then suggested John Wayne.

Answer: "The Alamo" and "The Green Berets"

In The 1960 film "The Alamo", Davy Crockett (John Wayne), Jim Bowie (Richard Widmark), William Travis (Lawrence Harvey), and a small band of Texans hold up in a mission and fight for the freedom of Texas. The film was Wayne's dream and passion. He was obsessed so much on making the film that he put mortgages on his houses and using his vehicles as collateral to get loans. But it was not the success which Wayne had hoped it would be, even though he was nominated for Best Director for "The Alamo".

In The 1968 film "The Green Berets", Wayne leads a team to sneak behind enemy lines to kidnap a important Viet Cong commander. The film was a very controversial film because of its pro-war subject, but even though the film had poor reviews and was protested across the United States, it went on to be a box office success and the 10th highest grossing film of 1968.