For an entire generation, Wayne represented on screen the American male in his ideal form, the deep-chested he-man who was frank in speech, black-and-white in his views, and handy with his fists when he had to be. He was also, of course, chivalrous towards women as long as they observed due protocol. Wayne, however, lived to be rather derided by a younger generation who saw him as the personification of Reaganism and Rightism. He was undoubtedly a man's man in the old style, more at home in John Ford's hard-drinking entourage than at cocktail parties, and his marriages were generally messy affairs. He was, however, obviously a Real Pro of the old school and some of his films survive as classics of their kind. Wayne's slow and painful death, from cancer, makes sad reading, although he faced it bravely. This biog. does not duck facts, but is neither sensational nor debunking.