John Wayne Highlands, fierce fighters against communism, bestowed on Wayne a brass bracelet that he wore in the film and all subsequent films. Wayne finally won a Best Actor Oscar for "True Grit" (1969), two decades after his only other nomination. Wayne took on the role of the eponymous detective in the crime drama "McQ" (1974). His last film was "The Shootist" (1976), whose main character, J. B. Books, was dying of cancer—which Wayne himself succumbed to three years later. "The Shootist" (1976) contains numerous plot similarities to "The Gunfighter" of nearly thirty years before, a role which Wayne had wanted but
Flying Tigers (film) Flying Tigers (film) Flying Tigers (a.k.a. Yank Over Singapore and Yanks Over the Burma Road) is a 1942 American black-and-white war film drama from Republic Pictures that was produced by Edmund Grainger, directed by David Miller, and stars John Wayne, John Carroll, and Anna Lee. "Flying Tigers" dramatizes the exploits of the American Volunteer Group (AVG), Americans already fighting the enemy in China prior to the U. S. entry into World War II. It is unabashedly a wartime propaganda film that was well received by a 1940s audience looking for a patriotic "flagwaver". Jim Gordon (John Wayne in his first