John Wayne

This painting was originally titled ‘A man ought to do what he thinks is right”, because ‘John Wayne’ seemed so obvious. His name was actually Marion Robert Morrison, but his parents changed his middle name to Mitchell, because they wanted to name their next son Robert. A local fireman started calling him Little Duke, because he had a huge Airedale Terrier named Duke. And he preferred the name to Marion.

So his first screen credit was as Duke Morrison, but when he got his first starring role, the Director wanted to change his name to Anthony Wayne, after a crazy revolutionary war general. The head of Fox Studios thought Anthony sounded too Italian, so they agreed on John Wayne, who wasn’t even present for the discussion that changed his name. So, if you get into a John Wayne trivia game, you’re all set.