As Doc O’Meara relates in Guns of the Gunfighters, the script of The Shootist called for Ron Howard, who had just killed Wayne’s assassin with Wayne’s revolver, to fling down the gun in disgust. But ill as he was, Wayne took care of his guns. Decline of the SAA Anybody who’s seen The Shootist, John Wayne’s final movie, is bound to be struck by the parallel between the on-screen plot involving a dying old gunfighter and the real-life spectacle of a terminally ill Wayne giving his last on-camera performance.
