John Wayne warned Bruce Dern that there would be consequences for taking the role. At the same time, Dern was shooting down several future prospects. When Anderson goes down, the villain puts another slug in him for good measure. After a little trash talk, he shoots Anderson in the back of his arm. Longhair pulls a pistol from his partner’s holster. Then, after Duke’s Wil Anderson bests Dern’s Longhair, things go south fast. There is no denying that John Wayne and Bruce Dern both turn it all the way up for this scene. Video can’t be loaded because JavaScript is disabled: John Wayne killed by Bruce Dern (The Cowboys / 1972) () Fans may have forgotten a lesser actor with or a weaker performance. He is such a believable villain in the scene that you can’t help but hate him just a little bit.

After that movie came out, fans branded him “The Man Who Killed John Wayne.” He was one of the most hated men in Hollywood.Īs a matter of fact, Dern’s performance alongside John Wayne may have made things worse. In fact, he had no control over the aspect of the role that nearly tanked his acting aspirations. That wasn’t what made it hard for him to get work. That role almost killed his career.īruce Dern turned in a stellar performance in The Cowboys. In that film, he starred alongside John Wayne. However, the role that had the most impact on his carer was Longhair in The Cowboys. Dern also held film roles in movies like Hang ‘Em High and They Shoot horses Don’t They. He was on hit westerns like Rawhide and Bonanza. Like many actors who started in the sixties, Dern cut his teeth on small TV parts. By 1972, Bruce Dern’s career was off to a great start.

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