John Wayne and in them he played cowboys, cavalrymen, and unconquerable loners extracted from the Republic's central creation myth." Wayne's other roles in Westerns include a cattleman driving his herd north on the Chisholm Trail in "Red River" (1948), a Civil War veteran whose young niece is abducted by a tribe of Comanches in "The Searchers" (1956), a troubled rancher competing with a lawyer (James Stewart) for a woman's hand in marriage in "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance" (1962), and a cantankerous one-eyed marshal in "True Grit" (1969). He is also remembered for his roles in "The Quiet Man" (1952), "Rio
John Wayne Corporation, he appeared mostly in small bit parts. His first leading role came in Raoul Walsh's Western "The Big Trail" (1930), an early widescreen film epic which was a box-office failure. Only leading roles in numerous B movies followed during the 1930s, most of them also Westerns. Wayne's career was rejuvenated with John Ford's "Stagecoach" (1939) making him an instant mainstream star. He starred in 142 motion pictures altogether, including the dozens with his name above the title produced before 1939. Biographer Ronald Davis said, "John Wayne personified for millions the nation's frontier heritage. Eighty-three of his movies were Westerns,