In True Grit (1969), John Wayne played Rooster Cogburn, a one-eyed, hard-drinking US Marshal hired by fourteen-year-old Mattie Ross, played by Kim Darby, to track down the man who killed her father. Directed by Henry Hathaway, the film follows Rooster, Mattie and Texas Ranger LaBoeuf, played by Glen Campbell, into Indian Territory.
Wayne gave Rooster bluster, humour and a core of decency. He was a flawed hero, but one who came through when it mattered, and the role finally won Wayne the Academy Award for Best Actor, after decades as a star.
True Grit remains a signature Wayne role because Rooster Cogburn was the Duke at his most human: funny, stubborn and brave, and because the film gave him the award that had long eluded him.