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
John Wayne filmography John Wayne filmography A complete filmography of John Wayne from 1926 to 1977, which also includes those films that Wayne only produced, and results pertaining to his long-running box office popularity between 1949 and 1973, during the height of his career after a decade of starring in a succession of low-budget B-movies. Wayne began working on films as an extra, prop man and stuntman, mainly for the Fox Film Corporation. He frequently worked in minor roles with director John Ford and when Raoul Walsh suggested him for the lead in "The Big Trail" (1930), an epic Western shot in an