Back in the late 1960s, Elvis Presley was still cranking out movies, and one of them could have put him right next to the biggest Western star in the world.
The film was “True Grit.” It came out in 1969, and it starred John Wayne as a one-eyed, hard-drinking old lawman named Rooster Cogburn. Wayne had been a movie cowboy for decades by then, pretty much the face of the American Western. The other big role in it is La Boeuf, a young Texas Ranger who rides along on the manhunt. And the first choice to play that Ranger was Elvis.
That wasn’t some wild idea either. “True Grit” was produced by Hal B. Wallis, the Hollywood producer who had made a long run of Elvis pictures all through the 1960s. Wallis knew Elvis could sit on a horse and carry a scene, and the two of them had plenty of history.
So what went wrong?
Here’s where Elvis’s manager comes in. Colonel Tom Parker ran every corner of Elvis’s career, and he was known for driving a hard bargain. As the story is usually told, the Colonel made one demand of the producers. Elvis had to get top billing, placed above John Wayne himself and above co-star Kim Darby.
Wayne was the whole reason people were going to buy a ticket. Asking for a young singer’s name to sit over his was never going to fly, and the producers said no.
Elvis’s cousin Billy Smith, who grew up close to him, summed it up plainly. He said the Colonel “didn’t want him to play second co-star or second star…with anybody else, so that ruled that out.”
So the role opened back up. And it went to another singer a lot of you will know by heart.
Glen Campbell told the story himself years later, and it’s a good one.
Glen Campbell on the day John Wayne asked him to be in the movie
Yep, the part went to Glen Campbell, the country star behind “Rhinestone Cowboy” and “Wichita Lineman.” Campbell said Wayne and his daughter came backstage after a show and asked him, just like that, if he’d like to be in a movie. He said yes, and “True Grit” turned into his first real acting job.
The film itself was a monster hit. John Wayne had been making pictures for about forty years, and this was the one that finally won him the Academy Award for Best Actor.
You can watch him accept it here.
John Wayne accepts his Best Actor Oscar for “True Grit”
Now, nobody ever got a quote straight from the Colonel about the billing fight, so this is the version that’s been passed around for years. It does fit everything we know about how he worked, though. He guarded Elvis’s name above all else, even when it meant walking away from a good part.
Still makes you wonder what that movie would’ve looked like with Elvis in the saddle next to the Duke.