AN ALL-AMERICAN ZERO; Book brands John Wayne a racist bully.

Byline: ALEX MARUNCHAK

TO millions of film fans around the world John Wayne was a hero. He immortalised screen characters when he played Irish boxer Sean Thornton in film epic The Quiet Man.

And his on-screen chemistry with Dublin-born leading lady, Maureen O'Hara, was legendary. But 30 years after his death a book has branded him a bully, adulterer and racist.

His tangled private life is being reassessed by Hollywood - but for many he will always remain the perfect all Irish-American hero.

A NEW book has poured scorn on John Wayne's status as an American legend.

The actor who was christened with a girl's name, Marion Morrison, but who played tough men in the movies was named by the US Marine Corps as the man who most typified the word "American".

He was praised by US presidents and received America's two highest civilian awards - the Congressional Gold Medal and a Presidential Medal of Freedom.

But 30 years after his death at the age of 71 in 1979 a different picture of John Wayne has started to emerge.

In his recent book, Great American Hypocrites, author Glenn Greenwald wrote: "John Wayne was one of America's biggest and most repugnant frauds.

"The gap between Wayne's image and the reality of his life is enormous."

Wayne crusaded for old-fashioned family values but was a serial adulterer. And his views on Native Americans and black people would be seen as offensive and racist today.

His father, Clyde Morrison, proudly proclaimed his Irish ancestry and the family originally came from Co Mayo.

But of white settlers' treatment of native Americans, Wayne said: "I don't feel we did wrong in taking America away from them.

"There were great numbers of people who needed new land and the Indians were selfishly trying to keep it for them-selves.And what would he have made of the first black president in Barack Obama? He once said: "I believe in white supremacy until blacks are educated to a point of responsibility."

It was when he got a bit part in a 1930s film that he was given the name John Wayne by Fox Studios.

But Wayne preferred to be known as Duke, the name he picked up from his Airedale Terrier as a schoolboy.

When America got involved in World War II, he stayed in the US to make movies and money. He was exempt from military service due to his age so he was not classed as a "draft dodger".

The only real-life danger Wayne faced was in his love life. His second wife, Mexican actress Esperanza Bauer, once tried to shoot him - convinced he was having an affair.

Wayne himself said: "I've had three wives, six children and six grandchildren. I still don't understand women."

One of his lovers was German actress and Nazi sympathiser Marlene Dietrich. But the affection with which Wayne was held by the American public knew no bounds.

He was urged to stand as Republican candidate for president but refused, saying he did not believe an actor would ever be elected to the White House.

But one year after his death another Irish-American Hollywood screen idol, Ronald Reagan, took up that very role.

CAPTION(S):

COWBOY Wayne in The Searchers CHEMISTRY Wayne starring in McLintock with Maureen O'Hara LEGENDARY The Quiet Man TOUGH The Horse Soldiers WESTERN Rooster Cogburn SOLDIER The Longest Day