John Wayne (Drawing)

Description

John Wayne was the greatest Western movie star of his time. A protege of John Ford, he starred in Ford’s cavalry trilogy ‘Fort Apache’, ‘She Wore a Yellow Ribbon’, and ‘Rio Grande’. In 1970, Wayne won the Oscar that he should have received for ‘Sands of Iwo Jima’. The movie ‘True Grit’ showed him with a patch over one eye and a dogged determination to bring hardened criminals to justice, one way or another. His aged character demonstrates what the movie title outlined, ‘True Grit’. I was at the awards ceremony in April 1970. I was eighteen at the time, and my Brother’s girlfriend had tickets for the both of us. She knew someone in the industry. I was one of the few people who, that evening, got John Wayne’s autograph. That is a memory I shall not forget.