Welcome to the John Wayne Mugs website. Many of Duke’s fans are not aware of his fondness for custom made coffee mugs. Beginning with Flying Leathernecks 1951 and through The Shootist 1976, John Wayne had custom mugs made which he gave to the cast and crew of each movie. These beautiful heavy mugs featured an image on the front commemorating the movie and was personalized on the back to it’s recipient from Duke. Through the years, they were produced by several companies. The earliest mugs were actually hand painted by Bob Williams an artist renown for the designs he created. While each movie’s mug is unique, just about all of them feature a distinguishing genuine gold painted handle. For those fortunate enough to be given one, as you can imagine, they are treasured as the works of art they are and especially because they came from Duke. They have become extremely valuable to collectors as there were so few made and they mean so much to those they were given to. Years back, Red Adair’s(Hell fighters) granddaughter, at her late grandfather’s auction, was asked if Red’s mug would be available. She replied “No, not at any price”. Unfortunately because there are so few who own these, information in their regard is very hard to come by. To that end, this site was developed by a couple of John Wayne fans who collect the mugs and want to learn and disseminate as much information about them as possible.
If you have found our site and would like to contribute information, please use the “Contact” link above to inform us. Please understand we may use your information to improve our site… Thank you!