Credit: Far Out / Hugo van Gelderen / Anefo
Sun 31 May 2026 16:17, UK
Many actors tend to name their most recent movie as their favourite solely for promotional purposes, but John Wayne didn’t have any such issues.
Even though he was quite literally on the set of another film when he gave his answer, an eternally blunt fellow, it wasn’t the one he was working on that earned the distinction.
Of course, having accrued more than his fair share of iconic features during a decades-long stint as a Hollywood superstar, ‘The Duke’ was spoiled for choice when it came to settling on which one of his credits stood out to him as a person, performer, and audience member as the cream of the crop.
Unsurprisingly, it was one of his collaborations with John Ford that took top honours, but it wasn’t one of their many seminal Westerns. Instead, it was a movie that saw Wayne do something he was hardly renowned for by not only playing against type but embodying a character who was almost two decades older than him in real life.
Post-Civil War drama She Wore a Yellow Ribbon stars ‘The Duke’ as Nathan Brittles, a veteran soldier gearing up for retirement. However, he’s handed one last mission to try and resolve the tensions between the Cheyenne and Arapaho. In addition, he’s tasked to safely transport the wife and niece of his commanding officer across the country. Naturally, things don’t quite go according to plan, forcing the aging cavalryman to try and prevent conflict and bloodshed.
During an interview for The Merv Griffin Show on the set of 1967’s The War Wagon, the host asked Wayne which of his own films was a personal favourite. Although there was some mild deliberation on his part, as is expected when you’ve starred in hundreds of productions (he would retire with more than 170 credits under his belt), Wayne nonetheless made his choice.
“I think my favourite was She Wore a Yellow Ribbon,” he said. “I think I did a pretty good job there,” he proudly confirms. More measured and nuanced than most of his roles, Ford’s unique story allowed Wayne to bring a different side of himself to the fore.
Further reading: Cutting Room Floor
All the same, it wasn’t good enough to earn him an Academy Award nomination, though, which rankled the star. War drama Sands of Iwo Jima was released just two months after She Wore a Yellow Ribbon and landed The Duke on the ‘Best Actor’ shortlist, but he didn’t think it was his best performance of 1949.
Referring to his turn as Brittles as “my best achievement in pictures,” Wayne admitted he was “disappointed at not even being nominated for Yellow Ribbon.” To be fair, it was hardly one of the Academy’s favourites either, considering it only earned a solitary nomination for ‘Best Cinematography’, which did at least give it a 100% success rate when Winton C Hoch took home the trophy.
For Wayne, though, his personal favourite entry in his filmography was overlooked and underappreciated by those in charge of deciding which movies get showered in awards season adulation, but there was nothing he could do about it. In the years since, however, he has largely been validated in his view with Yellow Ribbon increasingly remarked upon as a classic.
Perhaps more importantly, he won Ford’s approval with the performance. Initially, given the fact that Wayne was 41 and the role was designed for a man in his 60s, the director was dead-set on not casting Wayne. But after seeing the American icon in Red River from ‘48, Ford allegedly proclaimed, “I didn’t know the big son of a bitch could act!”
That became all the more clear when they began shooting. At the wrap party, Ford supposedly presented Wayne with a cake with the message, “You’re an actor now.” Clearly, rather than feeling belittled by this gesture, Wayne was brimming with pride.
ADD AS A PREFERRED SOURCE ON GOOGLE
The Far Out John Wayne Newsletter
All the latest stories about John Wayne from the independent voice of culture.
Straight to your inbox.
