When the Man Comes Around Trivia Quiz

Answer: Howard Jones

When John Wayne's application to join the US Naval Academy was turned down, he enrolled into the University of Southern California (USC) and majored in pre-law. He also played for the Trojans, the USC football team, as a tackle during the 1925 and 1926 seasons. Wayne would break his collarbone in a bodysurfing accident, and it spelt the end of his career in the sport. Legend has it that Wayne was terrified to tell Jones the real reason behind the injury. The break also meant the end of Wayne's sporting scholarship and the end of his stay at the university. Jones had connections with Hollywood stars, most notably Tom Mix and John Ford, to whom he'd provide tickets to USC games. It was the latter, Ford, who, as a favour to Jones, would provide Wayne with a job as a prop boy at the studios.

Jones would take the Trojans onto national prominence during the 1920s, winning four Rose Bowls by 1939.

Answer: Wyatt Earp

Wyatt Earp was the last of the surviving Earp brothers and, in his later life, he settled in Los Angeles. While he was there, he frequented numerous studio sets and, eventually became good friends of two of Hollywood's early cowboy stars in William Hart and Tom Mix. He also became close to John Ford, who'd employed a young Marion Morrison as a prop boy and sometime extra. Earp met with the lad, who'd later change his name to John Wayne, and gave him instruction. In an article in the "Vintage News" (Goran Blazeski April 9, 2017) it is intimated that Wayne stated "Earp was the man who had actually done the things in his life that I was trying to do in a movie. I imitated his walk; I imitated his talk".

Whether or not Wayne did say that is not known and numerous stories exist about how that walk of his came about. Burt Reynolds has indicated that it is a toe to heel Native American style of walking. Former co-star, Katherine Hepburn, reckons he had small feet trying to support a large frame and then there's a ludicrous theory that Wayne modelled himself on Michelangelo's statue of David.

Answer: Raoul Walsh

Two stories surfaced as to how John Wayne was cast in the lead of "The Big Trail" (1930), the first coming from famed director John Ford, who claimed that Walsh had approached him for casting suggestions after Gary Cooper had turned down the role. Ford said he suggested the new kid (Wayne) with the funny walk because "he looked like he owned the world". Walsh, on the other hand, said that he was impressed with Wayne when he saw him moving heavy furniture (as a prop boy) like it was light as a feather.

Walsh, however, did not like the name Marion Morrison, nor "Duke" Morrison, as Wayne had been credited for his small part in the 1929 film "Words and Music". Walsh sought to change the lad's name to Anthony Wayne, with the inspiration being "Mad" Anthony Wayne, a Revolutionary War general, but it was rejected by the studio for "sounding too Italian". The alternative of John Wayne was readily accepted.

Answer: Big Jim McLain

"Big Jim McLain" (1952) joins John Wayne together with James Arness as two House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) investigators hunting communists in post war Hawaii. Wayne was a very vocal anti-communism campaigner and was prominent in his support of the HUAC organisation. John was also excited about doing this film because it was an affirmation of his beliefs. Wayne welcomed the "Black List" and went out of his way to deny employment to anyone on it and even used his influence to end the careers of some actors as a result of this aspect.

Politically Wayne was a prominent conservative Republican and used his star power to promote support for the Vietnam War with films such as "The Green Berets" (1968) in which he both starred and directed.

Answer: Esperanza Baur

Esperanza Baur was a Mexican actress and John Wayne's second wife. Their marriage lasted eight years, but it was an extremely volatile eight years. There were claims and counter-claims of unfaithfulness with the most famous accusation stemming from Esperanza that John was in a torrid affair with Gail Russell during the making of "Angel and the Badman" (1947). Both Russell and Wayne denied the allegation. Esperanza, it was claimed, was also very jealous of Wayne's devotion to both his children (he had four with his first wife, Josephine Saenz) and to his work. John Wayne would have seven children from three marriages, ironically, none with Esperanza.

The pair met while Wayne was on vacation in Mexico City in 1941, and maintained a relationship despite Wayne being married to Saenz at the time. Wayne and Saenz divorced in December, 1945. Wayne and Baur married less than a month later.

Answer: John Ford

Wayne's first starring role, "The Big Trail" (1930) was a box office flop and he soon found himself relegated to featuring in B-movies or, worse, low budget "Poverty Row" westerns. He was still, however, a favourite of Ford's and he was keen to use Wayne in his next feature "Stagecoach" (1939). This, in turn, presented a problem in getting funding as the studio was not prepared to put forward funding for, what was to be, an A-budget film with a B-grade star. After Ford negotiated the placement of Claire Trevor's (a much bigger star) name over the title of the film, the studio relented, and John Wayne's breakthrough moment arrived.

"Stagecoach" would prove to be both a critical success and a box office winner. It earned an Oscar nomination for Best Picture and Ford a nomination for Best Director. In all, the Ford/Wayne combination would get together for fourteen films, including the much lauded "She Wore a Yellow Ribbon" (1949), "The Quiet Man" (1952) and the incomparable "The Searchers" (1956).

Answer: Hedda Hopper

Hedda Hopper was initially an actress who then became a notable gossip columnist. Early in 1939 she took a role in "Brenthouse", a radio soap opera, which then led to the creation of her own programme, "The Hedda Hopper Show". This debuted in November of 1939 and she was soon heard on CBS for fifteen minutes, three days a week. One of her features was an interview with the rising star, John Wayne.

This was Wayne's introduction to radio, a medium that was becoming increasingly popular with the stars of Hollywood. Wayne would go on to feature in the "Louella Parsons Show", with whom Hopper had held a famous and longstanding feud.

This led to more dramatic roles and, in 1942, Wayne's own radio adventure series "Three Sheets to the Wind", which ran for six months.

Answer: Broderick Crawford

John Wayne received his first Academy Award nomination for Best Actor for his portrayal as the tough-as-nails Marine Sergeant John Stryker in the 1949 war drama "The Sands of Iwo Jima". Wayne rises to the occasion in this film as an embittered man after his wife walks out him and he's then entrusted with a squad of green recruits. He drives his recruits hard to the point that those nearest to him feel that he's gone "over the edge". Never backward in coming forward, Wayne said that he was honoured to have been nominated for his performance but felt that he should also have been nominated for his work in "She Wore a Yellow Ribbon".

Wayne shared the nominations for the 1949 Oscar with Kirk Douglas ("Champion"), Richard Todd ("The Hasty Heart") and Gregory Peck ("Twelve O'Clock High"). However, they were all left behind by the eventual winner, Broderick Crawford, and his peerless performance as Willie Stark in "All the King's Men".

Answer: Marlene Dietrich

Marlene Dietrich was a 1940s sex symbol who had a reputation for getting what she wanted, and the legend goes that once she saw John Wayne, she wanted him. Her agent asked her to suggest a leading man for "Seven Sinners" (1940) to build upon the success Marlene had built up with "Destry Rides Again" (1939). She wanted Wayne, and she got him. In his book "John Wayne: The Life and Legend" (2014) Scott Eyman indicates that Wayne was ushered into Dietrich's dressing room where she closed the door, locked it, cast a smouldering look in Wayne's direction and asked "I wonder what the time could be"? Before Wayne could look at his watch, Dietrich had lifted her skirt high to reveal a watch attached to a garter around her thigh and, in a husky voice, declared "It's very early, darling. We have plenty of time".

The affair would last for three years, during which time they played chess together, went to prize fights and shared a love for hunting, despite both of them being married at the time. Apart from "Seven Sinners", the pair would make two other films together; "The Spoilers" (1942), and "Pittsburgh" (1942).

Answer: Reuben Cogburn

Sometimes the best surprises come from the unlikeliest avenues. The movie was 1969's "True Grit" and John Wayne started campaigning for the role of the aging US Marshall, Reuben "Rooster" Cogburn, immediately after reading Charles Portis' 1968 novel of the same name. Needless to say, he got the part, however, as the date for filming approached, he started getting cold feet. The issue for Wayne was that this was a character that was outside of his comfort zone and he was starting to have doubts as to how he should play the role. He was hesitant over the patch over Cogburn's eye and, he was concerned that the script was not being specifically "tailored" for him like many of his previous roles had been.

Despite all this, the worry was worth it. Wayne received his second acting Oscar nomination and, this time, he won. He paid homage to his character, Rooster Cogburn, in his acceptance speech by declaring "Wow! If I'd have known that, I would have put that patch on 35 years earlier". However, the ghosts of 1949 were not far behind and it appeared that Wayne still rankled about the fact that he didn't earn a gong for his role in "She Wore a Yellow Ribbon" (1949). In an interview with Playboy magazine in 1971 he commented "And at 42, in "She Wore a Yellow Ribbon", I played the same character that I played in "True Grit" at 62".