When John Wayne named his personal favorite top five out of the movies he’d starred in, he left out the classic that finally earned him an Academy Award: 1969’s True Grit. Over the course of his legendary, decades-long film career, Wayne starred in some truly great movies. He starred in hits like Big Jake and El Dorado and appeared alongside fellow screen legends in the sprawling ensembles of classic epics like The Longest Day and How the West Was Won.
So, when Wayne was asked to name the best movies he’d starred in, he had a lot of gems to choose from. Wayne co-starred with Jimmy Stewart in the character-driven western drama The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. He made Rio Bravo, one of the greatest hangout movies ever made, as a response to the cowardice displayed by Gary Cooper in High Noon. But surprisingly, when Wayne named his top five, he left out the movie that won him an Oscar for Best Actor.
John Wayne’s 5 Favorite Movie Roles Didn’t Include His Oscar-Winning True Grit
Wayne Ranked Five Other Westerns Higher Than True Grit
During a 1971 interview with Playboy after he’d won the Oscar (via Far Out Magazine), Wayne was asked if he thought True Grit was his finest film and the actor bluntly replied, “No, I don’t.” Despite the fact that it earned him one of acting’s highest honors, Wayne didn’t even consider True Grit to be in the top five. He named his five best movies as Stagecoach, Red River, The Searchers, The Quiet Man, and The Long Voyage Home, four of which were directed by John Ford (all but Red River, which was helmed by Howard Hawks).
- Stagecoach (John Ford, 1939)
- Red River (Howard Hawks, 1948)
- The Searchers (John Ford, 1956)
- The Quiet Man (John Ford, 1952)
- The Long Voyage Home (John Ford, 1940)
Stagecoach was the early masterpiece that not only established Wayne’s heroic on-screen persona, but many of the familiar western movie tropes. The Searchers was the first time Wayne stepped outside his comfort zone with a darker role — the kind of darker role that earned him an Oscar for True Grit. Red River is a hugely influential classic; The Quiet Man is a lighthearted romcom uncharacteristic of Wayne; and The Long Voyage Home, according to Wayne, is popular among cinematography students.
Why True Grit Deserves To Be Considered One Of John Wayne’s Top 5 Movies
Rooster Cogburn Is Wayne’s Most Challenging Role
All five of the movies that Wayne named as his best are great movies that deserve a shout-out. But at the same time, True Grit is undeniably one of Wayne’s finest films. Wayne ditched his clean-cut image as the noble hero who doesn’t hesitate to spring into action to play a more reluctant antihero in hard-drinking, washed-up lawman Rooster Cogburn. Cogburn’s begrudging father-daughter dynamic with Mattie Ross makes True Grit one of John Wayne’s most emotional movies, too, along with The Cowboys and The Shootist.