Posted on 05/27/2011 5:52:35 AM PDT by GonzoII
"LOS ANGELES (AP) - John Wayne, known for his tough talking movie ways, rarely went to church. But 24 hours before he died "The Duke" became a Catholic and recieved the last rites, his family says.
...snip
"Father Robert Curtis, a Paulist priest and chaplain at UCLA Medical Center where Wayne died Monday at age 72 after a long bout with cancer, confirmed the actor's conversion to Catholicism.
"John Wayne was recieved into the Catholic Church the day before he died," Curtis said in a statement read by Margaret Morris, a spokeswoman for St. Paul the Apostle's Church in Los Andeles. [sic]
"Mr. Wayne was conscious at the time. We are not at liberty to speak about something that is a personal matter between a priest and a penitent."
Michael Wayne was quoted in the New York Daily News as saying that his father asked Curtis to convert him the day before he died."
"I wasn't in the room at the time," Michael said, "but Father Curtis gave Dad the last sacraments. It was either Saturday or Sunday. I don't know all the technicalities of the church or what constitutes conversion but Dad did die in the church."-- THE FREE LANCE-STAR, Fredricksburg, Virginia, Thursday, June 14, 1979
Ping.
"I thought you was dead."
"Not hardly."
Pure Duke
“Now you listen up! If that boy gets hurt; your fault, my fault, no-body’s fault - I'm gonna blow your head off!”
An iconic John Wayne performance. I liked when he picked up the boy’s shirt to let the dog smell it and said, “My grandson wears THIS?!?”
In Harms’ Way, True Grit, Stagecoach, The Quiet Man: too many great films by the Duke to list here. Even as a liberal I liked John Wayne and his love for this country.
Rio Bravo, El Dorado I never miss.
I didn’t know that..
Just this week introduced my 12 yr old daughter to the Duke in Sons of Katie Elder
In the 1920’s, when John Wayne was a lad named Marion Morrison, and played football for USC, he went bodysurfing one day near the Balboa Pier in Newport Beach, and was injured. That accident turned out to be a lucky break, since the injury helped convince him to give up football and pursue an acting career. In 1928, cowboy star Tom Mix (a fan of Wayne’s football heroics) got him a $35-a-week job as a prop man at the Fox studios. Wayne was discovered by John Ford while loading furniture onto a truck on the Fox lot, and the rest is history.
Later in the Duke’s life, in 1966, when his health began to fail him, he moved from his Beverly Hills home (at 4750 Louise Avenue) back to the clean air of Newport Beach. John Wayne lived in a large waterfront home overlooking the beautiful Newport Bay, sailing his yacht “The Wild Goose”(a former minesweeper) until his death in 1979. (He was even buried in a Newport Beach cemetery just a few miles to the northeast.)
Alas, the Duke’s island home, a one-story, 10-room, 7-bath white ranch house with a pool, at the tip of Bayshore Drive, was recently torn down by the new owner. If you take a Newport harbor cruise, the guides will point out where waterside mansion used to be. Wayne’s widow continued to live there until very recently; the property is now owned by a couple who also own the Four Seasons Hotel in Beverly Hills. Their $6 million yacht, The P’zazz, is worth as much as the Wayne mansion.
http://www.seeing-stars.com/live/newportbeach.shtml
Judge Sends John Wayne Estate Battle To OC
http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2010/10/18/judge-sends-john-wayne-estate-battle-to-oc/
Oh you had to say it. Now I have The Quiet Man music playing in my head. De de de de de de deedle eeddle.
Thanks for posting this. John Wayne was my all-time favorite actor. I remember hearing something about the fact that he entered the Church before he died and this confirms that. Awesome! My Dad (of 100% Irish heritage) also attended what is now Loyola-Marymount University. I wonder.....
;-)
I intend to pray for John Wayne’s grandson who is now a priest.
I’d vote for “the Searchers” as JW’s best film.
He is a priest. . . and he needs a haircut (again):
http://www.nj.com/shore/blogs/surfing/index.ssf/2008/10/saintly_surfers_praise_divine.html
I’m with you on “The Searchers” being the best. We’re not alone, Wayne stated it was his favorite roll as well. A detailed review here.
http://www.filmsite.org/sear.html
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