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John Wayne’s final movie The Shootist hit cinemas in 1976, three years before he died from stomach cancer.
The 69-year-old starred opposite Lauren Bacall, James Stewart and Ron Howard as an old gunslinger dying from the disease, which he didn’t have at the time of filming.
During production, Duke struggled with the high altitude at the Carson City set, having had a cancerous lung removed in 1964 and having to rely on an oxygen mask.
Yet principle photography was shut down when Wayne was hospitalised with influenza and had also been suffering from an enlarged prostate.
At one point the star’s doctors almost forbid him from finishing the movie. Still, the tenacious Hollywood veteran did manage it, appearing in better shape during the final day of filming.
Now the John Wayne estate has shared a behind-the-scenes clip from the last day of filming The Shootist.
Duke laughs and hugs director Don Siegel in one shot before chatting to a British journalist outside about how he got into the film business 50 years prior.
Asked if he felt more at home doing a Western than other movies, Wayne gave a revealing reply.
Wayne said: “When you have a good personal story and you feel everything fits together, then that’s when you’re relaxed. Otherwise, it’s really torture to work on a picture you feel isn’t going to be good and that you’re a pawn in somebody’s hand. But I think this is gonna be a good’un.”
Duke wasn’t wrong, his final movie The Shootist would be awards nominated and received widespread critical acclaim.