American actor, director, and producer John Wayne (1907–1979) began working on films as an extra, prop man and stuntman, mainly for the Fox Film Corporation. He frequently worked in minor roles with director John Ford and when Raoul Walsh suggested him for the lead in The Big Trail (1930), an epic Western shot in an early widescreen process called Fox Grandeur, Ford vouched for him. Wayne's early period as a star would be brief, as Fox dropped him after only three leads. He then appeared in a string of low-budget action films before garnering more recognition with the 1939 film Stagecoach.
Publicity photo from The Long Voyage Home in 1940
Wayne in The Big Trail (1930)
Wayne as "Singin' Sandy" in Riders of Destiny (1933)
Betty Field and Wayne in The Shepherd of the Hills (1941)
The Big Trail is a 1930 American pre-Code Western early widescreen film shot on location across the American West starring 23-year-old John Wayne in his first leading role and directed by Raoul Walsh. It is the final completed film to feature Tyrone Power Sr. before his death in 1931, as well as his only sound role.
Theatrical release poster
John Wayne and Marguerite Churchill
Tully Marshall and Churchill
John Wayne in The Big Trail