María del Pilar Pallete Alvarado (born 3 September 1928), known professionally as Pilar Pallete, is a Peruvian-born American former actress and painter. She became well-known through her marriage to the actor John Wayne.
Early life
María del Pilar Pallete Alvarado[1] was born in Paita, Piura, Peru on 3 September[2][3][4][5] 1928,[1] as the second child to Miguel Ángel Pallete Cañote (1888–1946), a Peruvian senator, and his wife, Carmela Maria (née Alvarado Zegarra; 1909–1971).[6][7] She has three siblings; an elder sister, Josefina Rosario "Josephine" Stinson (née Pallete Alvarado; 1926–2016),[8] and two younger siblings, Marcela Lina de la Torre (née Pallete Alvarado; born 1931) and Miguel Angel Pallete (born 1933).[9][10]
Pallete made her debut in Peru in 1950, after participating in the English-speakingtheatre club, Lima Theatre Workshop.[14] She moved to Los Angeles, California in early 1953,[15] to dub a film, Sabotear en la selva, in English, and in February 1953, she signed a long term movie contract with Wayne-Fellows Productions, the production company owned by her future husband, John Wayne, and his associate, Robert Fellows.[16][17] She made an uncredited appearance in the Western filmThe Alamo (1960).[18] She retired as an actress to raise her children, becoming a housewife.[1]
Pallete rented a studio inside the Fernleaf Courtyard in Corona Del Mar, California, during the 1960s.[19] She would entertain her clients outdoors with coffee and finger sandwiches, and found herself, a year later, with a full-time restaurant. She is now a full-time restaurateur, who, in more recent years, owned Pilar's.[12] She has worked as a lecturer in Newport Beach, California.[20]
Pallete authored Pilar Wayne's Favorite and Fabulous Recipes (ISBN1-55859-474-4), a cook book, which was published by PAX Pub Co. in 1983.[21][22][23] She authored John Wayne: My Life With the Duke (ISBN9780070686625), a biographicalmemoir, which was co-written with the Irvine-based freelance journalist, Alex Thorleifson, and published by McGraw-Hill in 1987.[11] She went on a five-week nationwide book promotion tour, sponsored by the National Enquirer, which paid US$50,000 for serialization rights to the book. She received many offers after Wayne's death to write a book about their marriage, but always declined. She said she wrote the book to "protect his image and to do it for my kids, so they know the real story."[24]
Pallete appeared on The John Wayne Gritcast podcast series, where she was interviewed by her son, Ethan Wayne. The episode, "Episode 3 – Pilar Wayne", was released on 14 October 2021. Her younger daughter, Marisa, was also present.[10]
Pallete devotes up to six hours a day to her paintings. Her work is featured on her website, pilarwayneart.com,[25] and has been exhibited all over the world.[26]
Pallete painting Wayne in 2023
Personal life
Pallete married her first husband, Richard Junior Weldy (1921–1995), who was seven years her senior, an Irish executive at Pan American-Grace Airways, in Lima[27] on 8 July 1950.[28] She was known as Pilar Weldy. The couple separated in 1952, when she discovered that Weldy had not finalized his January 1950 divorce from his first wife, Ida Katherine Weldy. She obtained an annulment in the Los Angeles Superior Court[29] on 28 October 1953, after three years of marriage.[30][31]
Pallete met her second husband, John Wayne, an Americanactor, who was 21 years her senior, in Tingo María in 1952,[24] while she was still married to her first husband. Wayne was in Peru scouting locations for The Alamo.[32] She ran into Wayne for a second time upon her move to Los Angeles, California in 1953.[33] The couple were married in the garden of the Keauhou, Hawaii home of Senator William Henry Hill[34] on 1 November 1954,[35] the same day as Wayne's divorce from Esperanza "Chata" Baur, a Mexican actress, was finalized.[15][36] Pallete had an abortion in the months leading up to their wedding.[11][24] They had three children together;[37] Aissa Maria Wayne (born 31 March 1956),[38][39]John Ethan Wayne (born 22 February 1962)[40] and Marisa Carmela Wayne (born 22 February 1966).[41] Upon her marriage to Wayne, she gained four stepchildren; Michael Wayne (1934–2003),[42] Mary Antonia "Toni" Wayne LaCava (1936–2000), Patrick Wayne (born 1939), and Melinda Ann Wayne Munoz (1940–2022),[43] from her husband's first marriage to Josephine Alicia Saenz.[44][45][46][47] The couple traveled extensively during the next ten years of their marriage, usually on location for Wayne's many films. She became a neutralized citizen of the United States on 16 November 1962.[48][49] The Wayne family moved to Newport Beach, California in 1965,[32] where, two years later, as an avid tennis player, she encouraged Wayne to build the John Wayne Tennis Club. She moved out of their house in 1971, however, she stated they were never separated or divorced and has maintained her stance that they remained married until Wayne's death from stomach cancer on 11 June 1979, at the age of 72. Pallete was 50 years old at the time of Wayne's death.[50][51] Wayne left an estate worth US$6.85M, which she was excluded from, having been provided for in the separation agreement.[52] She has five grandchildren, including Jennifer Wayne, from the country music group Runaway June.[53][54] In 2023, she said that she keeps Wayne's memory alive through painting.[26]
Pallete on her wedding day to Wayne in 1954Pallete and Wayne with their elder daughter, Aissa, aged 20 days old, in 1956Pallete and Wayne with their only son, Ethan, on the set of The Sons of Katie Elder in 1964Pallete and Wayne with their younger daughter, Marisa, aged 18 days old, in 1966Pallete with her eldest granddaughter, Jennifer, in 2012
Pallete married her third husband, Stephen Charles Stewart (1933–2013),[55][56] who was five years her junior, an American municipal courtjudge, in Orange, California on 6 October 1984, five years after Wayne's death. Upon her marriage to Stewart, she gained two stepchildren. She was known as Pilar Wayne Stewart. She later described their brief marriage as a "two-week mistake".[57][58] The couple divorced in 1997, after 12 years of marriage.[24][59]
Pallete married her fourth husband, Jesse Lloyd Upchurch (1924–2018),[60][61] who was four years her senior, an American travel company executive, in Johnson, Texas on 22 May 1998. Upon her marriage to Upchurch, she gained four stepchildren. She was known as Pilar Wayne Upchurch. They split their time between their homes on the Back Bay in Newport Beach[62] and Dallas.[63] The couple divorced in Tarrant on 10 March 2010, after 11 years of marriage.[64][59]
Pallete was best friends with Koi, the older sister of Bob O'Hill, a very close Wayne family friend. [65]
Pallete was previously diagnosed with cancer. She underwent surgery at the John Wayne Cancer Institute in Santa Monica, California on 24 May 2006 and revealed that she was cancer-free that August.[12]
Pallete often lends her name to numerous charity events.[58]
1956 Confidential hoax
In September 1956, Confidential magazine founder Robert Harrison generated front-page headlines around the world when he allegedly was shot in the shoulder during a safari in the Dominican Republic by Richard Weldy, a travel agency owner and Pallete's first husband.[69] The shooter, Weldy, variously described as a "jungle trapper and guide"[70] or "a big game hunter,"[71] purportedly harbored a grudge over a Confidential story about Pallete. The nonexistent Confidential article depicted Pallete as having an affair with John Wayne while married to Weldy. According to newspaper accounts, Weldy fled the scene, leaving Harrison to die alone in the jungle with his blonde girlfriend; the two were eventually rescued by either the Dominican Army or local police and boy scouts. Newspapers reported that Weldy was later arrested by police. But Harrison refused to press charges against Weldy and the two publicly reconciled.[72] Later the whole story was revealed to be a hoax—the shooting never took place. Photos of a wounded Harrison in a hospital were staged, complete with an actor playing a physician. Even the "girlfriend" was an actress that Harrison hired for the publicity stunt.[73][74]
^Munn, Michael (2004). John Wayne: The Man Behind the Myth. NAL Hardcover. p. 147.
^"Deep In Jungle—Shooting Follows Loud Quarrel". The Odessa American. Associated Press. 6 September 1956. p. 1.
^"Shot Publisher Found In Wilds". Valley Morning Star. Harlingen, Texas. United Press. 6 September 1956. p. 1.
^"Case Closed: Weldy Released by Dominicans in Shooting Fracas". Monroe Morning World. United Press. 8 September 1956. p. 3.
^Bernstein (2006), pp. 201–213 harvp error: no target: CITEREFBernstein2006 (help). Bernstein is one of the few authors to note that no Confidential Pallete article was on the newsstands at the time of the "shooting" incident. The Confidential article that did eventually appear admitted that Pallete was already divorced from Weldy when she met Wayne.
^Samuel Bernstein, (Walford Press, 1st edition, 27 November 2006), Mr. Confidential: The Man, His Magazine & The Movieland Massacre That Changed Hollywood Forever, pp. 201–213. Bernstein is one of the few authors to note that no Confidential Pallete article was on the newsstands at the time of the "shooting" incident. The Confidential article that did eventually appear admitted that Pallete was already divorced from Weldy when she met Wayne.
