Patrick Wayne

Following the death of his elder brother Michael in 2003, Patrick Wayne became Chairman of the John Wayne Cancer Institute.

"Ending his film and TV just before the millennium, his last appearances were on "Kung Fu: The Legend Continues" and "Silk Stalkings" and with the films Young Guns (1988) (as Pat Garrett), the comedy crimer Her Alibi (1989) and the action adventures Chill Factor (1989) and Deep Cover (1997).

The February 6, 1985, issue of Variety announced the film "Ombre sul ponte" (English title "Shadow on the Bridge") would begin filming in March 1985, with director Ruggero Deodato, starring Franco Nero, Patrick Wayne, Lisa Blount, and Eli Wallach. No evidence the film was ever made or released.

He co-starred as a romantic love interest to Shirley Jones in another brief TV series Shirley (1979), and occasionally forsook acting chores to emcee game shows and syndicated variety series.

Was offered the role of Superman in the Superman (1978) film but declined because of his father's cancer.

Following work on his dad's Big Jake (1971), Patrick broke away again and sought success on his own. Interestingly, he earned more recognition away from the dusty boots and saddle scene and into the sci-fi genre.

His career peaked in the late 1970s as the titular hero braving Ray Harryhausen monsters and saving Tyrone Power's daughter Taryn in the popular matinée fantasy Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger (1977), then battled more special effects creatures in the Edgar Rice Burroughs film adaptation of The People That Time Forgot (1977). Patrick was a smoother, more gentlemanly version of the Wayne package with a completely captivating smile and accessible personality.

Although the scope of his talent was seldom tested over the years, he was a thoroughly enjoyable presence on all the popular TV shows of the 1970s and 1980s, including "The F. B. I. ," "Marcus Welby," "Police Woman," "Grizzly Adams," "Charlie's Angels," "Fantasy Island," "Matt Houston," "Fantasy Island" and "Murder, She Wrote.

He co-starred in the short-lived comedy western series The Rounders (1966).

A few exceptions included a role in Ford's sprawling epic Cheyenne Autumn (1964), his turn as James Stewart's son in the frontier adventure Shenandoah (1965) and in An Eye for an Eye (1966) in which he and Robert Lansing played bounty hunters.

Following high school, he attended Loyola University and graduated in 1961 (older brother Michael Wayne had graduated five years earlier).

Realizing he was not quite ready to carry his own film, he returned to the family fold and gained more on-camera confidence throughout the 1960s supporting his father in The Alamo (1960), Donovan's Reef (1963), McLintock! (1963), and The Green Berets (1968).

During this time, he went out on his own to star in his own film, the second-string oater The Young Land (1959).

Among the summer stock and dinner theater productions Wayne starred in included 'My Three Angels," "Angel on my Shoulder," "Romantic Comedy," "Come Blow Your Horn," and "Arsenic and Old Lace" at the Burt Reynolds Theatre in Florida, which reunited him with Henry Brandon, his co-star in The Searchers (1956).

Fifteen year-old Wayne was big for his age and able to pass as a cadet in director John Ford's The Long Gray Line (1955).

At 14 he assisted the property master, Joe LaBella, on his father John Wayne's film Hondo (1953), while his brother Hondo (1953) was apprenticed to the uncredited assistant director Hondo (1953), his father's younger brother and Patrick's uncle.

Possessing his father's durable good looks, vigor and charm, this tall, strapping, exceedingly handsome second son of John Wayne had huge boots to fill in trying to escape his legendary father's shadow and corral Hollywood fame on his own terms. But attempt he did and, looking back, he may not have achieved the outright stardom of his father but certainly did quite admirably, making over 40 films in his career -- nine of them with his dad. One of four children born to John Wayne and his first wife, Josephine Alicia Saenz. , Patrick John Wayne carried his father's name, so it seems natural that a similar destiny would be in the making. Patrick made his debut film bit at age 11 in his father classic western Rio Grande (1950) and proceeded to apprentice in The Quiet Man (1952), The Sun Shines Bright (1953), The Long Gray Line (1955), Mister Roberts (1955), and The Searchers (1956), some with and some without his father's name above the title credits. All the above-mentioned films, however, were helmed by family friend and iconic director John Ford.