John Wayne Would Have Been A Terrible Dirty Harry (These 2 Cop Movies Prove It)

John Wayne famously turned down Dirty Harry before Clint Eastwood took the role, which is ultimately for the best, as Wayne’s two 1970s cop thrillers show he was a bad fit for the part. The waning popularity of Westerns throughout the ’60s and ’70s in Hollywood did little to slow down Wayne’s output in the genre. He was fronting Westerns into the final years of his career and won praise for his work in 1972’s The Cowboys. His final film was The Shootist, another Western where he worked with Dirty Harry helmer Don Siegel.