How an unknown actor built the myth of John Wayne: “Duke was bright and he’d quickly learn”
As any true fan of The Duke knows, ‘John Wayne‘ was as much of an invention as any of the iconic star’s screen characters. After all, when he first attempted to make it in the movies, Marion Morrison – his given name – struggled to find his niche in the industry. However, when he reinvented himself as John Wayne, the paragon of cinematic manliness and heroic virtue, he became an icon the likes of which had been unparalleled in his era.
Fascinatingly, Wayne’s indelible screen persona didn’t just manifest overnight, and he wasn’t given a complete makeover by a studio intent on making him a star. Instead, he developed ‘John Wayne’ over time by paying close attention to what a couple of his co-stars were doing, and then watching himself on film to decide what to keep and what to discard.
The first actor Wayne took inspiration from was Harry Carey, the Oscar winner with whom he starred in 1941’s The Shepherd of the Hills. Carey had an incredible screen presence, and Wayne marvelled at how much he could convey with his face and body language in his many silent westerns. In fact, Wayne once told Carey’s son, “I watched your dad since I was a kid. I copied Harry Carey. That’s where I learned to talk like I do; that’s where I learned so many of my mannerisms. Watching your father.”
However, it wasn’t a simple case of Wayne studying Carey’s speech patterns and hey presto, he was ‘John Wayne’ all of a sudden. Putting it all together in a compelling screen package was difficult for Wayne, and it took a lot of trial and error. Thankfully, he starred in 26 pictures with a lesser-known performer who quietly helped him assemble the necessary building blocks for true movie stardom, but never received the credit they deserved.
Paul Fix enjoyed a career as one of Hollywood’s most in-demand character actors from 1925 to 1981. Arguably, his most famous role came as Marshal Micah Torrance in The Rifleman, which ran from ’58 to ’63, although he never achieved the same level of stardom as his iconic protege. Back in the ’30s, though, when a young Wayne struggled to get to grips with his physicality in front of the camera, Fix lived up to his name by offering the inexperienced star a solution.
“Duke was bright and you could teach him, and he’d quickly learn,” Fix revealed in John Wayne: The Man Behind the Myth. “He said he hated watching himself on the screen because he always looked so stiff. I told him to try pointing his toes into the ground as he walked, and when he did that, his shoulders and hips sort of swung.”
Suddenly, by focusing on this distinct walk instead of worrying about what to do with his hands or how to avoid looking stiff and awkward, Wayne’s unique physicality began to take shape. Over time, that walk, which naysayers amusingly claimed made him look like he always needed the toilet, became a signature aspect of his persona.
Fix also encouraged Wayne to go against his natural instinct to avoid watching himself on-screen. In truth, lots of actors hate watching their own films, and Wayne was no different, but Fix was insistent. He wanted Duke to truly study his own performances because, as he put it, “You can’t learn what to do if you don’t watch yourself.”
Over time, Wayne watched himself so regularly and made adjustments so frequently that the “distinctive rolling walk” began to look incredibly graceful. Most importantly, though, it looked distinctly his. No one else walked like Wayne in the movies – and he had Fix to thank for helping construct that element of his enduring myth.
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