Why was John Wayne always called the Duke?

Answer 1

Listen up Pilgrim...
His neighbors in Glendale, CA called him Big Duke since his pet dog's name was Little Duke... and when you're real name is Marion, you'll probably settle for just about anything else.
It stuck with him thereafter.

Answer 2

In John Wayne's own words, "There've been a lot of stories about how I got to be called Duke. One was that I played the part of a duke in a school play, which I never did. Sometimes, they even said I was descended from royalty! It was all a lot of rubbish. Hell, the truth is that I was named after a dog!"

John Wayne was born Marion Michael Morrison in Winterset, Iowa. When young Marion was six, the family moved to California, eventually settling in Glendale. Marion delivered newspapers in the morning with his trusty Airedale, Duke. The locale firemen called them "Big Duke" and "Little Duke."

Marion later accepted a full scholarship to play football at the University of Southern California. In the summer of 1926, head coach Howard Jones fixed Duke up with a job as an assistant prop man on the set of a John Ford movie. The rest is history.

Answer 3

Despite my bare knowledge of the meaning of the word ''Duke'', I think it's because of his origin. The little that I've heard about ''Duke'' is related to those coming from Texas. And John Wayne is one of the most famous Texan actors.

Answer 4

because he never went anywhere without his Airedale Terrier dog, who was Little Duke when he was a kid in Glendale

Answer 5

Well if you want to get technical.... in a lot of his movies he was called "Sir".......

Answer 6

this just might help you out.

http://www.jwplace.com/

BTW..he was born in Iowa