John Wayne’s Son Patrick Struggled to Rewatch ‘The Shootist’ After His Father’s Death — But Calls It His Finest Performance
For many fans, The Shootist (1976) stands as a poignant farewell to the legendary John Wayne. But for his son, Patrick Wayne, the film carries a far deeper, more personal weight. In an interview with Jeremy Roberts via Medium, Patrick opened up about the emotional journey of growing up in the Wayne household and the unique burden of revisiting his father’s film legacy after his passing.
Patrick candidly revealed that while he was generally able to watch his father’s movies, there was one significant exception: The Shootist. “I’d have to say no to that question with the exception of one film, The Shootist,” Patrick admitted. “I couldn’t watch that Western as it was so close to reality. He played an old gunfighter who was an anachronism dying of cancer.” The parallels between the character John Bernard Books and John Wayne himself were simply too raw. In real life, Wayne was diagnosed with stomach cancer, and while he battled valiantly, the disease would ultimately take his life just three years after the film’s release.
The striking resemblance between fiction and reality made it emotionally unbearable for Patrick. “Too many of the elements in there were just too close to what actually happened to him in his real life,” he said, “so that film took me about 10 years to watch again [of course I saw it when it was originally released in 1976].” The long gap was not just about time — it was about healing.
Yet when Patrick did finally return to The Shootist, what he discovered wasn’t just grief—it was admiration. He came to view the film not only as a fitting goodbye to a cinematic icon but also as a showcase of his father’s greatest acting achievement. Despite John Wayne’s Oscar win for True Grit and nominations for Sands of Iwo Jima and The Alamo, Patrick doesn’t consider those his best work.
“When I did finally watch it for the second time,” Patrick said, “I have to say that it’s probably his finest performance as a pure actor, using all his skills and being more than just a cardboard cutout, but more of a real human being — a vulnerable human being — and I think he pulled it off really well.” In The Shootist, Wayne abandons the untouchable hero persona that defined so much of his career, instead portraying a man facing his mortality with grace and grit. It’s a layered performance filled with subtlety, dignity, and emotional truth.
For Patrick Wayne, The Shootist may have once been a painful reminder of loss, but it ultimately stands as a tribute to the man behind the legend—a father who, in his final role, revealed more of his humanity than ever before.
