Does anyone know of any other Westerns apart from The Cowboys and The Shootist in which John Wayne dies?
Its part of a presentation for my degree course, as why im asking.
Although i would love to watch all of waynes westerns to find out i dnt have the time between now and the hand in date lol
Thanks.
I'm making my way through the John Wayne westerns the best I can, and so far the only other one where he dies is The Shootist, which is one of his best movies IMO, good way to cap off his great western career.
shareBesides those two, The Duke died in The Alamo and Sands of Iwo Jima.
There were some much older movies that he died in as well:
Central Airport
Reap the Wild Wind
The Fighting Seabees
Wake of the Red Witch
Of course, three of those six are war movies, so they aren't Westerns. "The Alamo" is more of a historical movie (sure, the truth is stretched at points, but that's a different issue) than a true "western". He isn't even credited in "Central Airport", and it's certainly not a western, nor is "Reap the Wild Wind." I think that the two mentioned are, in fact, the only two westerns in which John Wayne dies.
shareWayne also died in another Western - 'The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance'.
shareCan you jog my memory on that one, how did he die?
shareI don't think it was ever said how he died, but after Ranse Stoddard was credited with the killing of Liberty Valance Wayne's character of Tom Doniphon drifted into obscurity, lost his girlfriend, drank heavily and died alone and unloved. Probably he died of alcoholism or due to the failure of various body organs damaged by years of heavy drinking.
shareProbably of boredom in that dead-end town. Did Ranse and his wife ever have children? By then they would have been adults and had kids of their own. Seriously, it was never explained, but as Altho73 said, it was probably alcohol related.
shareAnd also "The Fighting Seabees" and "Wake of the Red Witch," neither of which was a Western. He also died in his last film, "The Shootist." In that one, no one ever explained why the bartender decided to shoot him in the back with a shotgun.
shareHi Pmiano.
There are a lot of unanswered questions regarding the last half hour or so of 'The Shootist'.
I can understand that the Wayne character would wish to avoid a slow,lingering and painful death as the cancer spread among his internal organs. I see why he would invite three of his enemies to a showdown, no doubt preferring a quick death by a gunman's bullet.
But why did he bother shooting at ALL THREE of his enemies????? I can understand him shooting at one or even two of them hoping to take a few more enemies with him. But by shooting at (and in the way it turned out) killing all three of his enemies he merely put himself back at first base, with only a slow lingering death by cancer to look forward to (and if it hadn't been for the bartender shooting him in the back that is how he would have died!!!!!!
I can only guess that the survival instinct was so deeply ingrained in him that it just kicked in and took over. He had lived by the gun for so long that he could no more let someone shoot him than stop breathing. He wasn't religious so he could have always fatally shot himself. Yet he couldn't bring himself to do that either. He wanted to commit "suicide by crook" which is still suicide.
shareAlso it is highly unlikely that he would have killed all three of them on his own!!!!! After all the speed and reactions of a 69 year old are hardly likely to be on a par with those of three men half his age!!!!
shareRichard Boone was 58 and Hugh O'Brian was 55 at the time. I forget who was his third enemy. Was it Bill McKinney (44)? Charles G. Martin, the bartender who shot him in the back, was 63.
shareIt was clear he was going to die of his wounds without the shotgun to the back. He was shot some three or more times. He obviously didn't want anyone to live being the person who killed J.B. Books, he didn't factor in the bartender, but Ron Howard's character fixed that situation, to his own disgust.
The ending was supposed to be Books shooting Hugh O'Brian's Pulford in the back and Ron Howard shooting Books to end his life. Duke had the script change because he never shot anyone in the back in his previous movies, and he wasn't going to do it in his last one, and he didn't want the kid to kill him because of the obvious relationship they developed throughout the film.
Didn't he die in the Green Berets?
shareNo.
The full list:
The Deceiver (bit part as the corpse) (1931)
Central Airport (bit part) (1933)
Reap the Wild Wind (1942)
The Fighting Seebees (1944)
The Wake Of The Red Witch (1948)
The Sands Of Iwo Jima (1949)
The Sea Chase (1955)
The Alamo (1960)
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)
The Cowboys (1972)
The Shootist (1976)
If we all liked the same movie, there'd only be one movie!
[deleted]
He also Died in the movie "The Life of Jimmy Dolan" He had a small part in it as a boxer who gets killed in the ring.
shareYeah The Duke must have forgotten the three men he shot in the back in The Searchers
It behooves the Jews and Arabs to settle their differences in a Christian manner
WARNING: BOOK/MOVIE SPOILER ALERT!!!!!!!!!!! The film, THE SHOOTIST, is from a book by the excellent author (now his name escapes me but he also wrote THEY CAME TO CORDURA and others). Anyway, in the book the character played by Ron Howard in the movie is greatly different from how he was shown in the film. In the book he was shown as gung ho about guns and getting out there in the world and being a gunslinger. So, at the climax of the gunfight when Books is lying on the floor wounded the kid takes his gun and brings the barrel into Books' face and Books nods his head in affirmative as if to say, "Go ahead and finish me off." The kid does just that and shoots him between the eyes and then is able to brag that he killed the famous gunslinger and the kid rides out of town completely opposite of him throwing away his gun in disgust at the end of the movie.
shareHey *beep* can you write "spoilers" next time?
shareThe Shootist
The Cowboys
The Alamo
Sands of Iwo Jima
That's all I can think of. Sorry for the late reply, just saw it.
I don't question this being a good movie and I think The Shootist was a lot better and a dramatic way for John Wayne to finish a successful career. That being said, The Cowboys is one of the few movies of John Wayne's that I have only seen once and have no desire to see it again. I cannot understand to this day why he would turn his back and walk away from someone that even he could see was a cold blooded killer and be shot in the back.
However, one positive thing came from this. I once read that Bruce Dern had always wanted to work with John Wayne, like Hugh O'Brien later, and grew up admiring him. After his character had so shoot John Wayne in the back and kill him, Bruce Dern told his agent that we was through playing phycho villains and if he could not get some good guy parts he was through with acting. Glad to see his agent listened. Mr. Dern has done well in his career without having to play anymore phycho villains.