Even Western star Sam Elliott has his own favorite Western stars! Elliott is reportedly a fan of John Wayne, Jimmy Stewart, and Gary Cooper, for starters, and would watch a lot of John Wayne films growing up.
“Oh God, I’ve got a lot of them. ‘The Searchers’ was probably a favorite as I was growing up, along with ‘Red River,’” Elliott says. “And you know, I don’t just single out those two because John Wayne was in both of them. Jimmy Stewart was my guy and my favorite actor was probably Gary Cooper. He and Jimmy Stewart are guys that I most appreciated with the kinds of roles that they played. They always seemed to be guys with real integrity in their lives.”
Sam Elliott has a lot of love for certain Western stars who inspired him as a young actor
“It was never about making money for me, it was about doing good films or TV projects. That’s not to say there aren’t a few stinkers out there, but for the most part, I’ve done stuff that I can hold my head up about.”
Meeting one of his all-time favorites
“He was doing ‘The Shootist,’ his last film. I had this collection of water-colored prints called a John Ford Collection — beautiful paintings done by 14 of his favorite 20 actors he ever worked with. Wayne was among them. … I went in and talked with him for a few minutes. He didn’t know me from Adam but he knew I was an aspiring actor.”