John Wayne

John Wayne Estate Celebrates His Two Youngest Children’s Birthdays With Sweet Throwback Pic

What a fun detail in the John Wayne family. His two youngest children share the same birthday. Surely, their parties were twice as spectacular.

The John Wayne estate wished Duke’s two youngest a very happy 2/22 kind of birthday. The estate posted a throwback photo to when Ethan and Marisa appear to be of elementary school age. So that would make the photo likely from the early 1970s. The caption — “Happy Birthday to John Wayne’s two youngest children, Ethan and Marisa!”

Ethan was born in 1962. His kid sister followed in 1966.

John Wayne Was Father to Seven Children
John Wayne had a big family. He married three times and had children with two of his wives.

His first wife was Josephine “Josie” Saenz. The couple married in 1933 when John Wayne still was acting in lower-budget movies, the ones that filled out a double feature. The two stayed together for a dozen years and had four children together. His career took off midway through the marriage when he starred in Stagecoach.

So, let’s catch up on the children of John Wayne. Michael was the oldest of the bunch. He went into the movie business but decided he’d rather be behind the camera and not in front of it. He eventually became a movie producer and worked on several of his dad’s better-known projects, The Green Berets, The Alamo and Cahill U.S. Marshal. Michael also headed up the John Wayne Foundation. He died in 2003 at the age of 68.

Mary Antonia “Toni” Wayne LaCava was the oldest daughter. She appeared in two of her dad’s films — The Quiet Man and The Alamo. Toni and her husband were the parents of eight children. She died in 2000 at age 64.

Patrick Wayne probably enjoyed the most prolific career of his brothers and sisters. He appeared in 11 John Wayne movies. And he also hosted two TV shows, including Tic-Tac-Dough. He retired in 1997 from the entertainment business.

Melinda Wayne Munoz had some walk-on roles in her father’s movies. when she was a kid.

“He was a man of honor,” Melinda Munoz said about John Wayne. “I loved being my father’s daughter.”

Duke’s Kids All Tried Acting, But Few Did It Full Time
John Wayne married Pilar, his third wife, in the mid-1950s. They had three children together, long after Duke established himself as one of the biggest movie stars in the world.

Aissa Wayne, the oldest, also dabbled in acting, appearing in a couple of her dad’s movies — McLintock and The Alamo. Her daughter, Jennifer, is a member of the country group Runaway June.

Then there’s Ethan, the birthday boy. John Wayne named him for his character in The Searchers. And Ethan was both an actor and a stuntman. He acted in Longshot and Scream. And he did stunts on The Blues Brothers. Ethan manages John Wayne Enterprises and directs his father’s cancer foundation.

Marisa Wayne, the birthday girl, made six appearances in movies or TV shows.

Ethan Wayne hosts the Gritcast, which drops a new episode each Thursday. And he often shares the show with some of his siblings. You can read more Outsider coverage of the podcast here and here.

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