John Wayne's Final Western Was A Perfect Goodbye To The Entire Genre As He Knew It

In 1976, 69-year-old John Wayne offered his farewell to Hollywood and the Western genre withThe Shootist, which tells the tale of an aging gunfighter dying of cancer in Nevada at the turn of the 20th century. The film would become Wayne's final screen performance, as the actor himself passed away from stomach cancer just three years later,following a half-century career that spanned 80 Westerns. In addition to being his last Western, The Shootist is now remembered as one of John Wayne's best movies.