Few Hollywood stars have left as lasting an impression on American culture as John Wayne, the quintessential hero of the Western genre. Comparable to legends like Clint Eastwood, James Stewart, and Gary Cooper, Wayne worked with renowned directors such as John Ford, Don Siegel, Howard Hawks, and Henry Hathaway.
In his films, Wayne was almost always portrayed as the triumphant hero, rarely dying on screen. However, his first on-screen death occurred in Cecil B. DeMille’s 1942 film ‘Reap the Wild Wind,’ where he meets a creative end at the tentacles of a giant octopus.
Wayne’s death in ‘The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance’ (1962) is notable as the only instance where he dies of natural causes, playing Tom Doniphon, whose funeral brings Senator Stoddard (James Stewart) to town, with much of the story unfolding in flashbacks. Wayne’s final on-screen death was in ‘The Shootist’ (1976), where he plays a retired gunslinger dying of a gunshot wound, a fitting end for the Hollywood icon.
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Here’s a list of movies where John Wayne dies on-screen:
-Farheen Ali