Marion Robert Morrison, known professionally as John Wayne and nicknamed Duke, was an American actor who became a popular icon through his starring roles in films made during Hollywood's Golden Age, especially in Western and war movies. His career flourished from the silent era of the 1920s through the American New Wave, as he appeared in a total of 179 film and television productions. He was among the top box-office draws for three decades, and he appeared with many other important Hollywood stars of his era. In 1999, the American Film Institute selected Wayne as one of the greatest male stars of classic American cinema.
Stagecoach is a 1939 American Western film directed by John Ford and starring Claire Trevor and John Wayne in his breakthrough role. The screenplay by Dudley Nichols is an adaptation of "The Stage to Lordsburg", a 1937 short story by Ernest Haycox. The film follows a group of strangers riding on a stagecoach through dangerous Apache territory.
Lonesome Dove is a 1985 Western novel by American writer Larry McMurtry. It is the first published book of the Lonesome Dove series, but the third installment in the series chronologically.
Enos Edward "Yakima" Canutt, raised near Colfax, Washington, was an American champion rodeo rider, actor, stuntman, and action director. He developed many stunts for films and the techniques and technology to protect stuntmen in performing them.
Theodore Childress "Chill" Wills was an American actor and a singer in the Avalon Boys quartet.
The Sioux Wars were a series of conflicts between the United States and various subgroups of the Sioux people which occurred in the later half of the 19th century. The earliest conflict came in 1854 when a fight broke out at Fort Laramie in Wyoming, when Sioux warriors killed 31 American soldiers in the Grattan Massacre, and the final came in 1890 during the Ghost Dance War.
Benjamin Franklin McGrath was an American television and film actor and stunt performer who played the comical, optimistic cook with the white beard, Charlie B. Wooster, on the western series Wagon Train for five seasons on NBC and then three seasons on ABC. McGrath appeared in all 272 episodes in the eight seasons of the series, which had ended its run only two years before his death. McGrath's Wooster character hence provided the meals and companionship for both fictional trail masters, Ward Bond as Seth Adams and John McIntire as Christopher "Chris" Hale.
The Big Trail is a 1930 American pre-Code Western early widescreen film shot on location across the American West starring 23-year-old John Wayne in his first leading role and directed by Raoul Walsh.
Lane Chandler was an American actor specializing mainly in Westerns.
Blue Steel is a 1934 American pre-Code Monogram Western film directed by Robert N. Bradbury and starring John Wayne. Wayne plays a U.S. Marshal who is trying to capture the Polka Dot Bandit, who has taken off with $4,000. The film also featured Yakima Canutt and George "Gabby" Hayes. It was released as Stolen Goods in the UK, and this version was later released in a colorized version on home video. Since the movie has fallen into the public domain, several versions are in circulation, including a colorized edition with a jarringly re-dubbed soundtrack, including dialogue, music and sound effects.
Angel and the Badman is a 1947 American Western film written and directed by James Edward Grant and starring John Wayne, Gail Russell, Harry Carey and Bruce Cabot. The film is about an injured gunfighter who is nursed back to health by a Quaker girl and her family whose way of life influences him and his violent ways. Angel and the Badman was the first film Wayne produced as well as starred in, and was a departure for this genre at the time it was released. Writer-director James Edward Grant was Wayne's frequent screenwriting collaborator.
Raymond William Hatton was an American film actor who appeared in almost 500 motion pictures.
The Hurricane Express is a 1932 American Pre-Code 12-chapter Mascot Pictures film serial. Written by Colbert Clark, Barney Sarecky, Wyndham Gittens, George Morgan, and J.P. McGowan, the serial was directed by Armand Schaeffer and J.P. McGowan and produced by Nat Levine. The Hurricane Express stars John Wayne as aircraft pilot Larry Baker. Wayne goes after a mystery villain named "The Wrecker", who was responsible for a train crash that killed Baker's father.
The Painted Stallion is a 1937 American Western film serial from Republic Pictures. It was the sixth Republic serial of the sixty-six made by that company. Western serials such as this made up a third of the serials from Republic, a studio that was also heavily involved in making B-Western feature films at the time.
Earl Dwire, born Earl Dean Dwire, was an American character actor who appeared in more than 150 movies between 1921 and his death in 1940.
Custer's Last Stand is a 1936 American film serial based on the historical Custer's Last Stand at the Little Bighorn River. It was directed by Elmer Clifton, and starred Rex Lease, William Farnum and Jack Mulhall. It was produced by the Poverty Row studio Stage & Screen Productions, which went bust shortly afterwards as a victim of the Great Depression. This serial stars many famous and popular B-Western actors as well as silent serial star Helen Gibson playing Calamity Jane, Frank McGlynn Jr. as General Custer, and Allen Greer as Wild Bill Hickok.
Clifford William Lyons was an American film actor, stuntman and second unit director, primarily of Westerns and particularly the films of John Ford and John Wayne. His Hollywood contemporaries were unanimous in describing him as “a driven taskmaster”.
Charles Hugh Roberson was an American actor and stuntman. He was nicknamed "Bad Chuck" by director John Ford, for whom he worked many times, to distinguish him from "Good Chuck," stuntman Chuck Hayward. Roberson was reportedly the rowdier of the two, thus the nicknames.
Prairie Thunder is a 1937 American Western film directed by B. Reeves Eason and written by Ed Earl Repp. The film stars Dick Foran, Janet Shaw, Frank Orth, Wilfred Lucas, Albert J. Smith and Yakima Canutt. The film was released by Warner Bros. on September 11, 1937. It was the last of 12 B-westerns Foran made for Warners as a singing cowboy from 1935 to 1937.
The Glorious Trail is a 1928 American silent Western film directed by Albert S. Rogell and starring Ken Maynard, Gladys McConnell and Frank Hagney.
