Why Was John Wayne Called ‘The Duke’? His Son Reveals the True Story
John Wayne is one of the most beloved movie stars of all time — but have you ever wondered how he picked up his famous nickname, “The Duke”? According to son and fellow actor Patrick Wayne, the star’s royal moniker had a very unlikely source: the local firehouse near John’s childhood home.
“He was always Duke,” Patrick explained to an enthusiastic crowd in Olive Branch, Mississippi, at the MidSouth Nostalgia Festival in June. “He grew up in Glendale, California. There, he would go down to his local fire station to play with the fire house dog – a Dalmatian named Duke. He loved playing with this dog. The firemen called the dog Big Duke and my dad Little Duke. The Duke part stuck and that was basically what anybody called him. I called him Daddy.”
On the set of ‘The Alamo’ in 1960. Credit: Everett Collection
Patrick said that his dad attended college for “5 minutes,” attending on a football scholarship. “He did play football but lost his scholarship and then couldn’t afford to go to school. He didn’t want to go to the Naval Academy and the family didn’t have political connections. He had no choice. He ended up in the movie business.”
Clearly, a wise choice given his career spanned over 50 years and 175 movies!
Everett Collection
“Mom was a homemaker. She raised four kids virtually by herself because my parents were divorced when I was 4 years old. We were kind of on our own,” Patrick explains of his own childhood. “All us kids had parts in different movies of Dad’s, just bits, but since I chose acting as a career and worked so much with my dad, I had a different kind of bond with him than my brothers and sister.
“I was the only one that had any desire to do this stuff. I was the only one on the set when these things were being shot. I never had to compete with my brothers and sister for my dad’s attention. It was pretty great; and it made it special.”
Bruce Cabot, Patrick Wayne and John Wayne in 1961’s ‘The Comancheros.’ ©20th Century-Fox Film Corp./Everett Collection
It’s never easy for the child of a movie icon to enter show business; comparison is inevitable. But against the odds, Patrick Wayne carved out a great career for himself, appearing in over 40 films, nine of which with his legendary dad. The father and son actors starred together in Rio Grande (1950), The Quiet Man (1952), The High and the Mighty (1954), The Conqueror (1956), The Alamo (1960), The Comancheros (1961), Donovan’s Reef (1963), McLintock! (1963) and Big Jake (1971).
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TV Westerns of the 50's & 60's
September 2021
’50s and ’60s TV Westerns roundup, celebrating the shows and stars of their golden age.
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