John Wayne's Real Name: Marion Robert Morrison

Quick answer: John Wayne was born Marion Robert Morrison on May 26, 1907, in Winterset, Iowa. John Wayne Enterprises, which runs his official site, gives that birth name, and the Library of Congress says it matches his birth certificate. Many published sources instead say "Marion Michael Morrison" or "Marion Mitchell Morrison," because his middle name changed after his younger brother was born. Known as "Duke," he won an Oscar for True Grit and died in Los Angeles on June 11, 1979 (John Wayne Enterprises; LOC).

Real name and early life

John Wayne Enterprises says Marion Robert Morrison was the son of Clyde Leonard "Doc" Morrison and Mary "Molly" Morrison. His father was a sometime pharmacist whose business ventures often failed. People in Winterset called young Marion "Duke," after the family dog, and the nickname stuck for life. When Marion was 4, his father's health took the family west, and they settled in Glendale, California. There he became a high school football star and won a football scholarship to the University of Southern California.

The LOC record explains the name confusion. Wayne said that when his brother was born in 1911 and named Robert Emmett, his parents changed Marion's middle name from Robert to Michael. Several biographers say the new middle name was Mitchell.

Career highlights

Britannica says Morrison worked summers as a prop man at Fox and befriended director John Ford, who gave him small roles from 1928. He billed himself as Duke Morrison in one early film. His first lead, and his first credit as "John Wayne," came in Raoul Walsh's The Big Trail (1930). After more than 60 low-budget pictures, he became a star as the Ringo Kid in Ford's Stagecoach (1939).

With Ford he made the cavalry trilogy Fort Apache, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, and Rio Grande, as well as The Quiet Man (1952), The Searchers (1956), and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962). For Howard Hawks he starred in Red River (1948) and Rio Bravo (1959). He earned an Oscar nomination for Sands of Iwo Jima (1949) and directed and starred in The Alamo (1960). He won the best actor Oscar as Rooster Cogburn in True Grit (1969). His final film, The Shootist (1976), cast him as a gunfighter dying of cancer; Britannica notes that Wayne himself died of cancer three years later.

Name notes for searchers

His legal birth name was Marion Robert Morrison. "Marion Michael Morrison" and "Marion Mitchell Morrison" are later forms of his middle name found in many references. "Duke" was a childhood nickname, "Duke Morrison" and "Michael Morris" were early credits, and "John Wayne" was the screen name he took for The Big Trail.