Western film star and Academy Award-winner John Wayne is iconic for his tough demeanor and rugged image in his silver-screen movies — and according to his kids, Wayne’s on-screen persona of “The Duke” was similar to his personality at home.
“My father was tough, but very loving,” son Ethan Wayne told The Guardian in 2020. “He was old school. I don’t know how else to describe it. He didn’t talk much, but he could make his few words very, very impactful and meaningful.”
Wayne married Josephine Saenz in 1933, and they had four children: Michael Wayne, Mary Antonia “Toni” Wayne, Patrick Wayne and Melinda Wayne. The couple divorced in 1945, and the actor married Esperanza Baur in 1946. They divorced in 1954, and Wayne remarried for a final time, to Pilar Palette, that same year. The couple had three children: Aissa Wayne, John Ethan Wayne and Marisa Wayne. Wayne and Palette separated in 1973 but remained married until the actor’s death in 1979.
“I learned a lot from my father,” Ethan told The Guardian. “He never told me ‘do this’ or ‘do that,’ but led by example. You never wanted to disappoint him.”
Many of Wayne’s children followed him into the family business, working in Hollywood, pursuing artistic careers or working to preserve the actor’s legacy, both through John Wayne Enterprises and The John Wayne Cancer Foundation, created by his kids after Wayne’s death from stomach cancer.
Keep reading for everything to know about John Wayne’s seven children.
They grew up in Newport Beach, California
Wayne owned ranches in California and Arizona, but his primary residence was an oceanfront home in Newport Beach, Calif., about an hour south of Los Angeles. He and his kids were avid tennis players — so much so that the actor eventually opened his own tennis club in the city. But more than anywhere else, the family spent time on their boat.
“In his free time, his life was centered on the ocean,” Ethan told The Guardian in 2020. “We had a converted Second World War minesweeper called Wild Goose and every summer, we would sail up to British Columbia and Alaska. Every winter, we would take it down to Mexico.”
Ethan went on to explain that he was named after Wayne’s career-defining character in The Searchers, and that as a child, he was proud of “living up to my father’s straight-ahead toughness.”
“When we were in Cabo or La Paz, Mexico, we’d anchor the boat far from the shore and swim in,” he recalled to The Guardian. “It was about a 25-minute swim. I remember once, when I was seven or eight, swimming into a bunch of sea snakes and saying, ‘Holy crap. There are sea snakes here, Dad!’ He replied, ‘Yeah, just keep swimming, kid.’ Once we made it to shore … he gave me a big hug and said, ‘Good job, Big Stuff.’ I was just so proud to have made it through, proud to be my father’s son.”
Toni and Patrick appeared in many films with their dad
Toni, who died in 2000, was Wayne’s oldest daughter and appeared in several films with him, including The Quiet Man in 1952 and The Alamo in 1960. Patrick made his on-screen debut with his father in Rio Grande in 1950 and appeared in 10 of Wayne’s films and several television specials.
Michael became head of his father’s production company
Michael, who died of heart failure in 2003 following surgery, had a long career producing films, eventually running his father’s production company, Batjac Productions. After Michael produced Wayne’s 1963 McLintock! on time and on budget, the star reportedly said to a friend, according to the Los Angeles Times, “that kid of mine runs a tight ship. He’s all business and no nonsense.”
“He was John Wayne’s son, but that wasn’t why he was a producer,” friend Harry Carey, Jr. told the Los Angeles Times after Michael’s death. “He knew the business inside out.”
Despite inheriting his father’s stake in Batjac after Wayne’s death, Michael left producing to form John Wayne Enterprises and oversee the actor’s posthumous image and legacy, licensing Wayne’s appearance on products like memorabilia and funneling some of the proceeds to cancer research, per The New York Times.
“It’s a pity he didn’t go on producing because he was excellent, and Duke was very proud of him,” Hollywood icon Maureen O’Hara told the Los Angeles Times. “We all were.”
Wayne’s children started cancer foundations in his honor
When Wayne was diagnosed with lung cancer in 1964, eventually having part of his lung removed to fight it, he defied the standard convention at the time, which was to keep quiet about his illness. Instead, he spoke publicly about his condition and worked with the American Cancer Society to raise awareness. “There is a hell of a lot of good image in John Wayne beating cancer,” he told the press at the time.
After Wayne died of stomach cancer in 1979, his kids founded the John Wayne Cancer Institute at St. John’s Hospital in Santa Monica, Calif., and the John Wayne Cancer Foundation, in his memory.
“When he was in bed, sick and dying, he looked up at his kids and said, ‘Use my name to fight cancer,’ ” Ethan said on Instagram in 2023. “And that’s what we’ve tried to do the last 44 years.”
Ethan now runs the family interests
After Michael died in 2003, his younger brother took over John Wayne Enterprises, which has several different businesses, including John Wayne-branded apparel, books, bourbon and coffee, as well as the John Wayne Gritcast podcast, hosted by Ethan, which brings in friends of Wayne’s as guests.
Ethan is also chairman of the John Wayne Cancer Foundation. Many of the activities planned by John Wayne Enterprises, like road races and contests, raise money for the foundation and for other medical research.
Ethan and Marisa contributed to a John Wayne exhibit in Texas
John Wayne: An American Experience is an exhibit in Fort Worth, Texas, that includes personal items from the Western icon and stories from his children, including Ethan and Marisa, who talked about going to the Oscars with her father.
“Every opportunity he had, he made somebody feel special,” Marisa said on Instagram. “He really had that personal touch, and it has transcended generations and gone well beyond the movie screen. It wasn’t an act—he really was a genuine, great guy.”
Aissa’s daughter Jennifer is a country music star
Jennifer Wayne, daughter of Aissa and Earl Kuhle II, has followed her own path to stardom. After her first band, Stealing Angels, disbanded, she and a bandmate appeared on two seasons of The Amazing Race, losing their second game by only four seconds.
Now, Jennifer is part of the country trio Runaway June. “My grandfather gave me the western, cowboy country blood because I always loved country music,” she told PEOPLE in 2017. “Eleven years later, here I am with the girls.”
Jennifer married musician Austin Moody in 2021 in a seaside ceremony in Florida. For the big day, she wore her grandmother Pilar Wayne’s engagement ring. “On their 10th anniversary, he matched the diamond and had it reset in a flower setting,” she told PEOPLE in 2021. “Austin used his grandmother’s diamonds to create an engagement ring for me [made with help from my best friend’s mom, Dobrila Pintar,] in the flower setting as well.” As another nod to her grandparents, Jennifer served Duke bourbon, made by John Wayne Enterprises.
The couple welcomed a daughter, Lily Maria, in 2022.