Marion Robert Morrison was born in Iowa in 1907, and moved with his family to California in 1916. He dropped out of the University of Southern California after breaking his collarbone in a bodysurfing mishap and losing his football scholarship.

As a favor to the football coach, who had given them free game tickets, Western director John Ford and actor Tom Mix gave Morrison jobs as an extra and prop boy. He struck up a friendship with Ford, and soon graduated from extra to bit player.

In 1930, at Ford's recommendation, director Raoul Walsh cast the 6'4" hunk in his first leading role, dismissing Morrison’s inexperience by saying he just needed to “sit good on a horse and point.”

A leading man needed a good stage name, though. Walsh and studio head Winfield Sheehan debated various options before making a decision. They informed Morrison he would be appearing under the name John Wayne.

The Big Trail, about a caravan of settlers on the Oregon Trail, was shot on location in 70mm widescreen. It was epic in scope, tremendously expensive...and a box office bomb.

Wayne would spend the rest of the decade toiling in low-budget films and serials before finally attaining mainstream success in 1939 with his role in Stagecoach.