In The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962), John Wayne played Tom Doniphon, a rancher in the town of Shinbone who loves Hallie, played by Vera Miles, and who stands between her and the outlaw Liberty Valance, played by Lee Marvin. Directed by John Ford, the film is told in flashback, as lawyer Ransom Stoddard, played by James Stewart, returns for Doniphon’s funeral and reveals who really shot Valance.
Wayne gave Doniphon a quiet, self-sacrificing nobility. He was the man who did the right thing in the shadows, so that Stoddard could become a hero in the light, and the film’s famous line about printing the legend became a comment on the western itself.
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance remains a signature Wayne role because Doniphon was the old West giving way to the new, and because Wayne played that farewell with rare tenderness.