Before he was one of Hollywood's most iconic Western movie stars, actor John Wayne was an Iowa-born USC lineman named Marion Morrison. After losing his football scholarship to a bodysurfing injury, Morrison landed a job as a prop guy on the Fox Studios lot in 1927. Three years later, he snagged his first lead role in "The Big Trail," and the movie's producers changed his name to John Wayne.
Though Wayne was most famous for Westerns, he also starred in war dramas and directed films like the Academy Award-winning "The Alamo." He won Best Actor in 1970 for "True Grit," died on June 11, 1979, and was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1980 by Jimmy Carter.
The Duke appeared in more than 175 films. In 2024, Mel Brooks revealed that Wayne turned down "Blazing Saddles" because it was "too dirty" and also passed on "Dirty Harry."
Stacker ranked John Wayne's 50 best movies from lowest to highest according to IMDb ratings, with ties broken by votes and Metascores. This ranking spans from his first starring role in 1930 to his final turn in 1976's "The Shootist."
Read on to find out if your favorite made the cut.
#10. Baby Face (1933)
- Director: Alfred E. Green
- IMDb user rating: 7.5
- Metascore: Data not available
- Runtime: 71 minutes
Made in 1933, "Baby Face" follows an ambitious young woman (Barbara Stanwyck) as she sleeps her way up the corporate ladder at a big city bank. Wayne appears in a supporting role as Jimmy McCoy Jr., one of the woman's earliest conquests.
#9. El Dorado (1966)
- Director: Howard Hawks
- IMDb user rating: 7.5
- Metascore: 85
- Runtime: 126 minutes
In what is basically a retread of "Rio Bravo," this film finds a gunslinger (Wayne) and an alcoholic sheriff (Robert Mitchum) teaming up to take on a thieving cattle baron. Actor James Caan appears in a supporting role. Though Wayne, in his role as producer, had previously fired Mitchum from "Blood Alley," the two were on very good terms when "El Dorado" went into production.
#8. The Shootist (1976)
- Director: Don Siegel
- IMDb user rating: 7.6
- Metascore: 77
- Runtime: 100 minutes
A dying gunslinger (Wayne) arrives in a small town to visit a doctor (Jimmy Stewart) and upon diagnosis searches for ways to leave the world quickly without suffering. "Blood Alley" co-star Lauren Bacall appears as a widow who rents Wayne's character a room. Based on a novel and directed by Don Siegel of "Dirty Harry" fame, the film would be Wayne's last. Like the very character he portrays in "The Shootist," Wayne was diagnosed with terminal cancer. He died three years later.
#7. Red River (1948)
- Directors: Howard Hawks, Arthur Rosson
- IMDb user rating: 7.7
- Metascore: 96
- Runtime: 133 minutes
Like John Ford, director Howard Hawks was a master of the Western genre. His best efforts routinely starred John Wayne. The first important collaboration between Hawks and Wayne was this film about a man named Thomas Dunson (Wayne) whose tyrannical behavior invokes a mutiny during a cattle drive to Missouri. While it goes without saying that Wayne was no stranger to the Western genre by 1948, this film was special because it exposed a more subtle and complicated side to his cowboy persona.
#6. The Quiet Man (1952)
- Director: John Ford
- IMDb user rating: 7.7
- Metascore: 85
- Runtime: 129 minutes
After helming "Rio Grande" for Republic Pictures, director John Ford was given the money he needed to make his lifelong passion project. The movie stars Wayne as retired American boxer Sean Thornton, who falls in love with a fiery maiden, played by Maureen O'Hara, after returning to the Irish village where he was born. Part of the film was shot on location in Ireland, with glorious hues of Technicolor green to show for it.
#5. The Longest Day (1962)
- Directors: Ken Annakin, Andrew Marton, Gerd Oswald, Bernhard Wicki, Darryl F. Zanuck
- IMDb user rating: 7.7
- Metascore: 75
- Runtime: 178 minutes
It's D-Day from both the Allied and German perspectives in 1962's "The Longest Day." It took $10 million to produce the 1962 epic war film, making it the most expensive black-and-white film of its time. At age 54, Wayne portrayed Lt. Col. Benjamin Vandervoort, who was 27 years old on D-Day, which Vandervoort was none too pleased about.
#4. Stagecoach (1939)
- Director: John Ford
- IMDb user rating: 7.8
- Metascore: 93
- Runtime: 96 minutes
Despite playing the lead role in 1930's "The Big Trail," Wayne struggled to achieve major success in the years that followed. That all changed after John Ford's "Stagecoach" was released in 1939. In the movie, a group of people traveling by stagecoach catches word that Geronimo and his violent clan might be headed their way. Legendary filmmaker Orson Welles reportedly watched "Stagecoach" 40 times while making "Citizen Kane," taking inspiration from its architecture. This movie was Wayne's big break; after its release, his career as an A-list movie star officially began.
#3. The Searchers (1956)
- Director: John Ford
- IMDb user rating: 7.8
- Metascore: 94
- Runtime: 119 minutes
More than just a John Wayne and John Ford collaboration, "The Searchers" is widely regarded to be the greatest Western of all time. In the film, an American Civil War veteran (played by Wayne) sets out to rescue his niece after she's kidnapped by Comanches. Wayne was so enamored with the role of Ethan Edwards that he named one of his children John Ethan Morrison, who would come to be known professionally as Ethan Wayne.
#2. Rio Bravo (1959)
- Director: Howard Hawks
- IMDb user rating: 8.0
- Metascore: 93
- Runtime: 141 minutes
With the help of a motley crew (including a not-exactly-against-type Dean Martin as a boozy deputy), a small-town sheriff (Wayne) keeps a powerful rancher's brother behind bars in "Rio Bravo." It's just a matter of time before the rancher comes around, aided by a mob of angry men. The film is said to be a direct rebuttal to Gary Cooper's somewhat timid performance in "High Noon," a 1952 film sharing a similar premise.
#1. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)
- Director: John Ford
- IMDb user rating: 8.1
- Metascore: 94
- Runtime: 123 minutes
Just when you thought it couldn't get any better than "The Searchers," here comes "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance." The film tells the story of Sen. Ransom Stoddard (Jimmy Stewart), who is celebrated in the town of Shinbone as the man who shot ruthless outlaw Liberty Valance (Lee Marvin). But when Stoddard returns to the town and recounts his tale, it's revealed that Wayne's character—a gunslinger named Tom Doniphon—was the true hero all along. The film marked the first time Wayne and Stewart shared the screen, and the cast also included frequent Wayne co-stars John Carradine and Strother Martin.
