There will never be a Hollywood movie star quite like John Wayne again. The Duke was the face of the Western genre for nearly 40 years, and though he played parts in other crime dramas, romances, war pictures, and even musicals, he was always America’s favorite cowboy first and foremost. His tough cadence, distinct vocals, and all-around heroic image made the actor an idol for many in the mid-20th century. But if you’ve been around the internet long enough, you’ve probably heard a rumor about Wayne crossing over from horse operas to space westerns in his final years. Yes, John Wayne is actually featured in one of the greatest science-fiction films of all time, and most audiences didn’t even know it.
This wasn’t just any “space western” that the Duke is said to have appeared in for his final performance, it’s the original “Star Wars” itself. Though the legendary actor’s final few pictures were Westerns, it’s true that the Duke cameos as a certain character in George Lucas’ original 1977 space opera, though not the in way you’ll likely expect. But to better understand John Wayne’s work in “Star Wars,” we ought to take a look back at the end of his career, and see how this is even possible.
What happened to John Wayne? His tragic final days, explained
After being featured in countless Hollywood pictures since the 1920s, it wasn’t until 1970 that the Duke won his first Oscar for his work as Rooster Cogburn in “True Grit” — one of the best films John Wayne ever made. The film was received with universal acclaim, and ushered the Western star into the final leg of his career. In the early 1970s, Wayne starred in iconic Westerns such as “Chisum,” “Big Jake,” “The Cowboys,” and “Cahill U.S. Marshal.” He made his first traditional sequel in 1975 with penultimate feature “Rooster Cogburn,” reprising his “True Grit” role, and played his last starring role as J.B. Books in “The Shootist,” the following year.
But the Duke had some off-screen health troubles that plagued him into the ’70s. In 1964, Wayne was first diagnosed with lung cancer. Due to his history as a smoker, his left lung, along with multiple ribs, had to be removed, to which he replied, “I licked the Big C” (via CR Magazine). Unfortunately, that wasn’t the end of the Duke’s health struggles. About a decade later, two years after “The Shootist,” he went under the knife for open-heart surgery in order to replace a valve. The next January, he learned that his battle with cancer wasn’t through. It was discovered that Wayne had an advanced stage of stomach cancer, one that would ultimately prove fatal.
After one final public appearance at the Academy Awards that April, John Wayne died on June 11, 1979 due to complications from cancer. Two days before his death, Wayne’s son Patrick asked his father if he wanted to call a priest to his bedside. “Yeah, I think that’s a good idea,” the Western star replied (via Our Sunday Visitor). It wasn’t long before Wayne was baptized into the Church and received his last rites.
John Wayne’s last starring role was not his final movie
But what about John Wayne’s last picture, “The Shootist,” is that not his final performance? Well, technically it is. As Wayne’s last starring role, and his swan-song to the Western, the Duke played J.B. Books in this 1976 picture, an aged gunfighter with one last adventure in him. Heavily inspired by the Gregory Peck film, “The Gunfighter,” a film Wayne initially was slated to star in, Wayne’s final gunslinger had a medical secret of his own. He too was dying of terminal cancer, “The Shootist” feel somewhat prophetic in hindsight. It’s hard to tell if Wayne knew about his condition while making the picture, but some sources note that he wasn’t surprised when he discovered his diagnosis.
“Star Wars” came out nearly an entire year after “The Shootist” first hit theaters, though Wayne wasn’t in the top billing. In fact, John Wayne isn’t credited for his contributions to “Star Wars” at all, probably because he didn’t even know he was featured in it in the first place. By the time “Star Wars” came out, Wayne had retired, and left the movie business behind in the final years before his death. It wasn’t until 2007 that fans ever discovered the truth, that John Wayne’s final on-screen role wasn’t in “The Shootist” at all.
Wait, John Wayne was in Star Wars?
Yes, John Wayne really is in “Star Wars,” but only in a vocal capacity. You see, according to original “Star Wars” saga sound designer Ben Burtt, the unique buzzing sound that the character Garindan ezz Zavor (best known as “Long Snoot” by fans) makes in the original 1977 film is actually warped dialogue from one of the Duke’s older films. “And I was wondering back a few months ago how I did it – because I keep notes and tapes – and I discovered it was an electronic buzzing which had come off of my synthesizer that was triggered by a human voice,” Burtt revealed on the official Star Wars Blog in 2007. “And I listened to it and realized it was John Wayne.”
Garindan was the Imperial spy sent to watch Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill), Han Solo (Harrison Ford), and Ben Kenobi (Alec Guinness) on Tatooine in the original film. The character is the one responsible for sending an array of Storm Troopers to catch them just before the Millennium Falcon takes off. Turns out, some old John Wayne dialogue that 20th Century Fox had held onto was at the heart of Garindan’s speech. “The buzzing was triggered by some dialog like ‘All right, what are you doin’ in this town’ or something like that,” Burtt revealed. Of course, this same audio would be repurposed and used again for video games such as “Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy” and “Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga” decades later.
While John Wayne never physically appeared in “Star Wars,” his famous vocals were responsible for bringing one of the film’s most distinct-looking characters to life. But, strangely, this isn’t Wayne’s only connection to the Star Wars franchise. The Duke’s grandson, Brenden Wayne is the primary actor who plays Din Djarin (voiced by Pedro Pascal) in “The Mandalorian” series (itself a space western), and has gone on to play Lt. Lander in “Ahsoka.”