Why Clint Eastwood Turned Down A Chance To Work With John Wayne On A Western Classic

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The fact we never got to see a Clint Eastwood/John Wayne team-up remains one of the great tragedies of 20th century cinema. Eastwood and Wayne's feud basically ensured these two Western legends never united, but it seems they came close at the end of the 1960s when Eastwood was offered a role opposite his predecessor in "True Grit." At the time, the young actor felt the part was too slight, and with his star on the rise, he also happened to be too busy to commit — though there was probably a bit more to it than Eastwood himself let on.

"True Grit" famously saw Wayne portray U.S. Marshal Reuben J. "Rooster" Cogburn, a role that allowed the aging star to showcase a little more range than he did with his typical Western heroes. Cogburn was a drunk and a burnout well past his prime, and the Duke seemed to relish playing such a part. He did so opposite Glen Campbell's Texas Ranger La Boeuf, who joined Cogburn and Kim Darby's Mattie Ross on their mission to track down Jeff Corey's outlaw Tom Chaney. Had Eastwood accepted an offer to appear, however, he would have joined Cogburn and Ross on their odyssey.

In "Conversations with Clint: Paul Nelson's Lost Interviews with Clint Eastwood, 1979-1983," Eastwood revealed that he was approached to play the role eventually given to Campbell in "True Grit." At the time, he was trying to establish himself stateside following his Spaghetti Western trilogy, so starring opposite John Wayne would have surely helped him gain some extra prestige. Alas, Eastwood turned down the offer to play La Boeuf because, in the actor's words, it "wasn't much of a role."

Though Clint Eastwood and John Wayne had quite a contentious relationship during the 1960s and 1970s, every now and then, they expressed respect for one another. In the early '70s, for instance, Wayne wrote Eastwood an angry letter complaining about his film "High Plains Drifter." But just a few years prior, it seems the Duke was eager to work with his younger counterpart.

In "Conversations with Clint," Eastwood told Paul Nelson that, when he first met Wayne, the Duke suggested making a film together: 

"The first time I ever met him, he said, 'We ought to do a movie, kid.' I said, 'Yeah, it would be great.' We never did come up with one." 

That phrasing glosses over the fact that Eastwood did, indeed "come up with one." In the early '70s, Larry Cohen sent both actors a script titled "The Hostiles," which he'd penned with them in mind. The project seemed to impress Eastwood, at least, so he pursued Wayne to co-star. Unfortunately for him and Cohen, the older star was having none of it, repeatedly turning his nose up at the screenplay and refusing to joining Eastwood in what would surely have been a thrilling Western.

There was a lot that went into Wayne's refusal to entertain "The Hostiles," but in a sense, he was merely returning the favor. As Eastwood explained in "Conversations with Clint," "Originally, the producer at Universal who did 'True Grit,' he had the idea of me playing the part that Glen Campbell did, but it wasn't much of a role, and I was occupied."

Clint Eastwood's claim that the Ranger La Boeuf part in "True Grit" wasn't much of a role was almost certainly just the tip of the iceberg. In the film, Glenn Campbell plays second fiddle to John Wayne's U.S. Marshal, and one gets the sense that Eastwood could see as much from the script. The young actor's revisionist sensibility wouldn't allow him to pay respect to his forbears in such a conspicuous way, but there was also the fact that Eastwood was fast becoming a star in his own right.

At the time "True Grit" debuted, Eastwood had just come off "Hang 'Em High," his first U.S. Western after the "Dollars" trilogy. With that film, not only did he prove himself to audiences stateside, he began to demonstrate just how enterprising and ambitious he was. "Hang 'Em High" was the first project produced by his Malpaso production company. To go from that to playing an obsequious follower of the Duke just didn't make sense for Eastwood at the time.

Ultimately, he made the right decision by turning down "True Grit." "The Hostiles" was a much better project that would have allowed the two stars to meet on a level playing field. Sadly, Wayne just flat out refused to entertain the idea. While much of that came down to his dislike of the script and its non-traditional approach to the Western, he must have felt, deep down, that Eastwood hadn't earned his place as the Duke's equal and instead deserved to be playing a La Boeuf to his Rooster Cogburn. That, and Wayne always regretted handing "Dirty Harry" to Eastwood.