Thursday, December 8, 2011

Cinematic Tough Guys Who Love Latinas

John Wayne (1907—1979), born Marion Robert Morrison and also known as Marion Mitchell Morrison and "The Duke," was an American film actor, director and producer. An Academy Award-winner, he is one of the biggest box office draws of all time. An enduring American icon, he epitomized rugged masculinity and is famous for his demeanor, including his distinctive calm voice, walk, and height. Born in Winterset, Iowa, U.S.A., his family relocated to the greater Los Angeles area when he was four. He found work at local film studios when he lost his football scholarship to the University of Southern California as a result of a surfing accident. Initially working for the Fox Film Corporation, he mostly appeared in small bit parts. His acting breakthrough came in 1939 with John Ford's Stagecoach, making him an instant star. He would go on to star in 142 pictures, primarily typecast in Western films. He won the Academy Award for the film True Grit (1969). For more information, click here.

He married three times and divorced twice. All of his wives were Latina: Josephine Alicia Sáenz, Esperanza Baur and Pilar Pallete, the latter two of whom were actresses. His wives were Panamanian, Mexican and Peruvian, respectively. He had four children with his first wife: Michael Morrison (1934—2003), Mary Antonia "Toni" Morrison LaCava (1936—2000), Patrick Morrison (1939— ), and Melinda Morrison Muñoz (1940— ); no children with his second wife; and three children with his third wife: Aissa Morrison (1956— ), John Ethan Morrison (1962— ), and Marisa Morrison (1966— ). Three of his sons (under the names Michael Wayne, Patrick Wayne and John Ethan Wayne, respectively), pursued careers as actors.

Clinton "Clint" Eastwood, Jr. (1930— ) is an American film actor, director, producer, composer and politician. Born in San Francisco, California, U.S.A., he first came to prominence as a supporting cast member in the TV series "Rawhide" (1959–1965). He rose to fame for playing the Man with No Name in Sergio Leone's Dollars trilogy of spaghetti westerns (A Fistful of Dollars, For a Few Dollars More and The Good, The Bad and the Ugly) during the 1960s, and as San Francisco Police Department Inspector Harry Callahan in the Dirty Harry films (Dirty Harry, Magnum Force, The Enforcer, Sudden Impact and The Dead Pool) during the 1970s and 1980s.

He won Academy Awards for Best Director and Producer of the Best Picture, as well as receiving nominations for Best Actor, for his work in the films Unforgiven (1992) and Million Dollar Baby (2004). In addition to directing most of his own star vehicles, he has also directed films in which he did not appear, such as Mystic River (2003) and Letters from Iwo Jima (2006), for which he received Academy Award nominations, and Changeling (2008). These roles, along with several others in which he plays tough-talking no-nonsense police officers, have made him an enduring cultural icon of masculinity. In 2000 he was awarded the Italian Venice Film Festival Golden Lion for lifetime achievement. Since 1967, Eastwood has run his own production company, Malpaso, which has produced the vast majority of his films. He also served as the nonpartisan mayor of Carmel-by-the-Sea, California, U.S.A., from 1986 to 1988. For more information, click here or here.

He has had a passion for music all his life. He particularly favors jazz and country and western music and is a pianist and composer. He developed as a ragtime pianist early on and had originally intended to pursue a career in music by studying for a music theory degree after graduating from high school. He has his own Warner Bros. Records-distributed imprint Malpaso Records, as part of his deal with Warner Brothers, which has released all of the scores of his films from The Bridges of Madison County onward.

He has seven children by five different women, and has married twice. He married Maggie Johnson on December 19, 1953. While separated from Johnson, he had an affair with dancer Roxanne Tunis, with whom he had his first child, Kimber Tunis (1964— ). After a reconciliation, he had two children with Johnson: Kyle Eastwood (1968— ) and Alison Eastwood (1972— ). He filed for divorce in 1979 after a long separation which was finalized in 1984. He then entered a relationship with actress Sondra Locke in 1975, and they lived together for fourteen years despite the fact that she remained married (in name only) to her gay husband, Gordon Anderson. They co-starred in six films together: The Outlaw Josey Wales, The Gauntlet, Every Which Way But Loose, Bronco Billy, Any Which Way You Can, and Sudden Impact. The couple separated acrimoniously in 1989. During his cohabitation with Locke, he had an affair with flight attendant Jacelyn Reeves. From this union is his son, Scott Reeves (1986— ) and Kathryn Reeves (1988— ). In 1990, he began living with actress Frances Fisher, whom he had met on the set of Pink Cadillac (1989). They co-starred in Unforgiven and had a daughter, Francesca Fisher-Eastwood (1993— ). The couple ended their relationship in early 1995, but remain friends and later appeared together in True Crime. His son Kyle is a jazz bassist and his daughter Alison is an actor.

He subsequently began dating Dina Ruiz, an anchorwoman 35 years his junior, whom he had first met when she interviewed him in 1993. They married on March 31, 1996, when he surprised her with a private ceremony at his home. Ruiz is of African American-Japanese-Irish-German-English descent, but was adopted by a Latino family named Ruiz. The couple has one daughter, Morgan Eastwood (1996— ). He has two grandchildren: Clinton (1984— ) and Graylen (1994— ), by Kimber and Kyle respectively.

Marlon Brando, Jr. (1924—2004) was an American actor and political activist. He was the only professional actor, aside from Charlie Chaplin, named by Time magazine as one of its 100 Persons of the Century in 1999. He had a significant impact on film acting, and was the foremost example of the Method acting style and is widely considered as one of the greatest and most influential actors of the 20th century. Director Martin Scorsese said of him, "He is the marker. There's 'before Brando' and 'after Brando'." Actor Jack Nicholson once said, "When Marlon dies, everybody moves up one." He was ranked by the American Film Institute as the fourth greatest screen legend among male movie stars.

An enduring cultural icon, he became a box office star during the 1950s, during which time he racked up five Oscar nominations as Best Actor. He initially gained popularity for recreating the role as Stanley Kowalski in A Streetcar Named Desire (1951), a Tennessee Williams play that had established him as a Broadway star during its 1947-49 stage run; and for his Academy Award-winning performance as Terry Malloy in On the Waterfront (1954), as well as for his iconic portrayal of the rebel motorcycle gang leader Johnny Strabler in The Wild One (1953), which is considered to be one of the most famous images in pop culture. He was also nominated for the Oscar for playing Emiliano Zapata in Viva Zapata! (1952); Mark Antony in Joseph L. Mankiewicz's 1953 film adaptation of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar; and as Air Force Major Lloyd Gruver in Sayonara (1957), Joshua Logan's adaptation of James Michener's 1954 novel. He won his second Academy Award for playing Vito Corleone in Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather (1972), a role critics consider among his greatest. His final nomination was for the role of Paul in Bernardo Bertolucci's Last Tango in Paris (1972). As an activist, the Omaha, Nebraska, U.S.A.-born actor supported many issues, notably the African American Civil Rights Movement and various American Indian Movements. For more information, click here or here.

He had numerous children. Some historians put the number of children he had as fourteen, including three of whom he adopted. He married Indian-Welsh-Irish actress Anna Kashfi in 1957; they had a son Christian Brando (1958—2008), divorcing in 1959. He then married María Movita Castañeda, a Mexican-American actress; they were divorced in 1962. They had two children together, Miko Castañeda Brando (1961— ) and Rebecca Brando (1966— ). His third wife was Tahitian actress Tarita Teriipia, who played his love interest in the 1962 film Mutiny on the Bounty. They married in 1962. Teriipia became the mother of two of his children, Simon Teihotu Brando (1963— ) and Tarita Cheyenne Brando (1970-1995). He also adopted Teriipia's daughters Maimiti Brando (1977— ) and Raiatua Brando (1982— ), even though they divorced in 1972.

He had a longterm relationship (roughly between 1988 and 1996) with his housekeeper María Christina Ruiz, by whom he had three children, Ninna Priscilla Brando (1989— ), Myles Jonathan Brando (1992— ), and Timothy Gahan Brando (1994— ). He had three more children by unidentified women, Stefano Brando (1967— ), Dylan Brando (1968—1988), and Angelique Brando (?— ). He also adopted Petra Brando-Corval (1972— ), the daughter of his assistant Caroline Barrett and novelist James Clavell.

Of his children, only Stefano, using the stage name Stephen Blackehart, is an actor. Tuki Brando, one of his numerous grandchildren (some estimates say as many as 36), is a famous Tahitian fashion model in his own right. The current exact number of Brando's descendents is unknown.

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