Happy John Wayne Day!

OK, so I know that it's not an official holiday, but today does mark the 100 year anniversary of the birth of a boy named Marion. No, seriously, 100 years ago today, John Wayne was born, his given name was Marion Robert Morrison. When his parents decided to name his younger brother Robert they changed his middle name to Micheal. He earned the moniker "Duke" at a young age, and clung to it, for obvious reasons, preferring it over Marion. The first few movie roles for which he received any credit at all billed him as "Duke Morrison," but very early on in his career a Director decided that he needed a manlier name, and John Wayne was born... so to speak. The Duke was very picky about the roles he chose to play. He refused to be cast as a villain, preferring instead to always be the hero. For decades he as been the very image of the big Hollywood tough guy. He is the only deceased actor to make the list of America's favorite actors (in an annual poll), and even now, 28 years after his death, he still makes the list every year. This year he came in at number 3. He was in a lot of movies, most of them as the star. From early successes like "Stagecoach" to his Oscar winning performance in "True Grit," and on to his final role as a dying gunfighter in "The Shootist," John Wayne was always larger than life. He is remembered by many for calling others "Pilgrim," but there were other lines that he used far more often, such as "That'll be the day!" and "Not hardly." Nobody could deliver a tough guy line like the Duke. I'm going to put in some great quotes from some of his movies here: From True Grit: "You do and you'll feel as though a thousand of brick had fell on ya!" "You do that and I'll Kill ya!" "I aim to kill you in one minute Ned, or see you hanged at Fort Smith at Judge Parker's convenience!" (Ned's response) "That's Bold talk for a one-eyed fat man!" (The Duke again) "Fill your hand you sonuvab**ch!" From Big Jake: "Anything goes wrong, anything at all, your fault, my fault, nobodies fault, I'm gonna blow your head off, it's as simple as that, no matter what else happens, no matter who else gets killed, I'm gonna blow your head off, do you understand me?" "Next man says that to me I'm gonna shoot!" "And if I find out you followed him, I'll hunt you down and kill you, every mother's son of ya." From The Cowboys: "I'm 30 years older than you, I've had my back broke once and my hip twice, and on my worst day I could beat the h**l out of you!" And last, but not least, from The Shootist: "I won't be wronged, I won't be insulted, and I won't be laid a hand on, I don't do these things to other people, and I require the same from them." May we never forget, The Duke!!