John Wayne is one of the best-known actors in the Western genre, but he almost wasn’t chosen for the role that launched his career in Stagecoach. Wayne first rose to national prominence in the late 1930s, when the entire film industry was undergoing a revolution for several reasons. During this era, stars signed contracts with the studios, who then produced their films. Before John Wayne’s iconic movie career began, he was a B-list actor, which meant that he was hired for lower-budget films that didn’t involve well-known stars.
The bigger studios had mostly abandoned Westerns by this point. The genre was popular during the silent film era, but once the ability to have sound had been perfected, the studios backed away from them. Wayne had a leading role in one of the last Westerns in the 1920s. but it was not a success. However, 1939’s Stagecoach revitalized the genre. John Wayne starred in 80 Westerns over his career, but none of it would have happened had he not played Ringo Kid in Stagecoach.
Big Studios Did Not Want John Wayne To Star In Stagecoach
Director John Ford Was Pressured To Cast Gary Cooper Instead
Stagecoach was a blockbuster Western that director John Ford insisted on making at a time when big studios had mostly lost interest in the genre. The film had an ambitious premise: it featured a group of nine strangers traveling by stagecoach through New Mexico, where they had various interactions and confrontations with locals. Although this may seem like a typical premise today, in the 1930s it was revolutionary, making it even less likely the film would be produced. To make matters worse, Ford had already decided he wanted John Wayne to star despite Wayne’s status as a B-list actor.
Despite their concerns, the big studios offered to fund the film on one condition: Ford replace Wayne with Gary Cooper (via JohnWayne.com). Ford had a vision for his film that did not match this demand, so he refused. Thus, he had to rely on an independent producer to get the film made and eventually chose Walter Wanger, who agreed to make the film with Wayne as its star despite his preference for Cooper.
John Wayne Himself Almost Turned Down The Role
He Recommended Actor Lloyd Nolan Instead
Although Wayne was Ford’s first choice, he had to be convinced to go along with the idea of playing Ringo Kid. Wayne recommended actor Lloyd Nolan when Ford asked him who he thought should play the now-iconic role. However, Ford didn’t listen to Wayne’s suggestion and instead asked him if he could take the part himself. Wayne agreed to do so even though he didn’t expect this role to be any more successful than any of the B-list roles he had taken in the decade before this opportunity came along.
Ford’s instincts turned out to be right, as both test audiences and real audiences loved Wayne as Ringo Kid. Although Stagecoach was an ensemble film that had nine characters taking part in the story, it is more associated with Wayne than with other actors because of what he brought to his role. Ringo Kid’s first scene is especially memorable because it is vintage John Wayne, introduced for the first time holding a saddle in one hand and a gun in the other.
How Stagecoach Launched John Wayne’s Western Career
The Film Introduced The Moral Outlaw Archetype That Made Wayne Famous
Stagecoach introduced a new type of Western. Many of the characters on the stagecoach journey were outcasts from society who would ordinarily be considered villains. Wayne’s Ringo Kid was an escaped convict hellbent on revenge against the person who killed his father and brother, and he was joined by the alcoholic Doc Boone and a prostitute named Dallas.
Although there were more respectable characters on board as well, these outcasts are more memorable and heroic, which was a marked departure from the past.
Considering that he had played cowboys in B-movies for a decade without getting much recognition, it’s likely that Wayne would not have had the highly successful career that he did without Stagecoach.
Wayne made an entire career out of playing such characters. He enjoyed playing the moral outlaw and believed that was what the heart of the Western genre should be, even turning down roles toward the end of his career that he felt did not fit that archetype. Considering that he had played cowboys in B-movies for a decade without getting much recognition, it’s likely that Wayne would not have had the highly successful career that he did without Stagecoach.
Stagecoach’s inclusion of the moral outlaw archetype was so popular that big studios began to produce Westerns with similar characters, many of whom Wayne was able to play. It’s ironic that John Wayne feuded with Clint Eastwood over Eastwood’s changes to the genre in the 1970s, considering that John Wayne owed his career to Stagecoach revolutionizing and revitalizing what had been a dying genre up to that point.