The Western movie genre is one of the oldest and richest in cinema history. Along with the gangster genre, Western movies have been around since the start of moving pictures, with The Great Train Robbery recognized as one of the very first Western films ever made in 1903. Since then, the genre has seen great highs, as one of the most beloved genres from the 1930s until the early 1970s, and some lows, with the genre falling out of favor in the 1980s.

Some recognizable iconic stars have led the genre throughout the years. In the sound era, names like John Wayne and Randolph Scott became the biggest names in the industry for Western movies, and through the years, people like Harry Carey Jr. and Ward Bond made their names as beloved supporting stars. In the decades since, names like Kevin Costner, Sam Elliott, and Kurt Russell have added their names to the list, but not everyone has matched up to the brilliance of the Western stars of the past.

10

Randolph Scott

Years Active: 1928-1962

While John Wayne was the biggest star in Western movies in the early days of the genre, Randolph Scott was just as prolific. He starred in over 100 films in his career, and more than 60 of them were in the Western genre. It all started in 1932 when he won the lead role in Heritage of the Desert, the film that made him a Western hero. Among the best Randolph Scott Westerns were Ride the High Country, Seven Men from Now, and Ride Lonesome.

Randolph Scott even starred in a Western with John Wayne, working together in The Spoilers in 1942. Scott was such a beloved Western star that even the movie Blazing Saddles honored him by having someone mention his name and a choir began singing as the townspeople showed reverence. He was inducted into the Western Performers Hall of Fame in 1975 and received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1999.

9

Ben Johnson

Years Active: 1939-1996

Ben Johnson got his career start working with one of Hollywood’s best directors, Howard Hughes, in the Western movie The Outlaw. He received huge opportunities when he began working with John Wayne in several Western movies, including 3 Godfathers, and in the Henry Fonda Western Fort Apache in 1948. Johnson then solidified his Western star status with roles in John Ford’s Cavalry Trilogy in the films She Wore a Yellow Ribbon and Rio Grande.

Johnson was not only a great Western actor, but he was also an accomplished rodeo cowboy and stuntman, and this is a big reason he became so popular. He was more authentic than most Western actors and his handling of horses and familiarity with real-life ranching made him someone who embodied what it meant to be a cowboy. While not a traditional Western movie, Ben Johnson won an Oscar for The Last Picture Show in 1971.

8

Franco Nero

Years Active: 1962-Present

Most people think of Clint Eastwood when speaking of Spaghetti Westerns, but Franco Nero is the real icon of that subgenre. While Eastwood became famous thanks to his Man with No Name Spaghetti Westerns, Nero really emphasized why the genre was so beloved with his role in Django. That movie remains easily the most popular cult Western movie ever made, and it made Nero a mᴀssive star.

The first film sees Nero play Django, a former Union soldier who, along with a mixed-race prosтιтute, ends up in a battle between Confederate Red Shirts and Mexican revolutionaries. Since that movie, Nero has appeared in over 200 movies and television roles, some of which played off his iconic role as Django. Nero even had a cameo in Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained. He is still acting to this day in a variety of genres, including roles in John Wick: Chapter 2 and the Russell Crowe horror movie The Pope’s Exorcist.

7

Henry Fonda

Years Active: 1928-1981

Henry Fonda is much more than a Western movie actor. He was a mᴀssive Hollywood star with roles in all sorts of genres, including dramas (The Grapes of Wrath), screwball comedies (The Lady Eve), war movies (The Battle of the Bulge), and legal dramas (12 Angry Men), However, it is impossible to ignore Fonda’s contributions to the Western genre. He starred in three important early Westerns, including The Ox-Bow Incident, My Darling Clementine, and Fort Apache.

Fonda didn’t stop there. Later in his life, he took on a villain role in one of Sergio Leone’s best movies, Once Upon a Time in the West. While he had roles in some of the Western genre’s most beloved classic movies, he never received award recognition for them, while he did receive Oscar nominations for The Grapes of Wrath and 12 Angry Men and won for On Golden Pond.

6

James Stewart

Years Active: 1932-1991

James Stewart is best known for two things. First is his amazing work with Alfred Hitchcock in movies like Vertigo and Rear Window, and second is his role in the beloved holiday classic It’s a Wonderful Life. However, his career was much bigger than that, including wonderful turns in films like Mr. Smith Goes to Washington and The Philadelphia Story. It is also important to note his importance to the Western genre. In the same year that John Wayne enjoyed his breakout in Stagecoach, Stewart turned in a fantastic performance in Destry Rides Again.

While Wayne’s movie was a more serious Western, Stewart’s was a comedy, and that showed the difference between the two actors. Stewart went on to appear in Westerns as iconic as How the West Was Won and Winchester ’73 to his masterpiece, The Man Who SH๏τ Liberty Valance, where he teamed up with Wayne. Stewart won one Oscar in five nominations, although none were for his work in Western movies.

5

Eli Wallach

Years Active: 1945-2010

While Clint Eastwood was the main star of the Dollars Trilogy, the entire series wouldn’t have been as great if not for one of his co-stars. Eli Wallach starred as Tuco in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, and he was just as important as Eastwood in that movie’s success. That only served as a hint at the greatness that Wallach brought to the Western genre.

Before taking on the role as Tuco in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, he also had an early career role as Calvera in The Magnificent Seven, a Western movie remake of Akira Kurosawa’s The Seven Samurai, and in the seminal Western movie How the West Was Won. Wallach received an Academy Award honor for his contributions to the film industry in 2010 when he was 94.

4

Kevin Costner

Years Active: 1978-Present

If there is one modern-day actor who means as much to the Western genre as John Wayne did in classic Hollywood, it is Kevin Costner. The actor remains best known for two genres – inspirational sports movies and Westerns – and his work with Westerns has become his calling card late in his career. After some early leading roles (including the Western Silverado in 1985), Costner hit the big time when he directed and starred in Dances with Wolves, where he won Oscars for Best Picture and Best Director.

From there, he began doing more and more in the Western genre. He starred in Wyatt Earp in 1994 and returned to the genre with Open Range in 2003. Add in the Western drama Let Him Go, the TV show Yellowstone, and his attempt at a new franchise in Horizon: An American Saga, and Costner has done more to promote the Western genre in recent years than almost anyone. Many Western fans anxiously await to see if Costner gets to finish his Horizon movies.

3

Gary Cooper

Years Active: 1925-1961

Gary Cooper was a mainstay in Western movies throughout his career, and he had starring turns in some of the most successful ever produced. As a matter of fact, he became a star thanks to his first role in the Western movie The Virginian in 1929. From there, Cooper took on roles that were often morally complex, refusing to offer up the typical good guy/bad guy roles in many of John Wayne’s movies.

In 1936, Cooper took on the iconic role of Wild Bill Hickok in the Cecil B. DeMille Western The Plainsman and then, years later, in a very different role in The Hanging Tree as a doctor who helps wounded and oppressed immigrants in a mining camp. In between, Cooper took on roles in several Westerns, with his best coming in 1952 when he won an Oscar for his performance in High Noon, a movie John Wayne previously rejected.

2

John Wayne

Years Active: 1926-1979

When it comes to the best Western actors in history, two names sit at the top of the list. One of these is John Wayne, the first true Western movie superstar. Wayne spent most of his career acting in either war movies or Westerns, although he has a few solid dramas to his name as well. He got his big breakout in 1939 when John Ford cast him in Stagecoach, and they remained mostly connected throughout their careers.

The best John Wayne movies include some of the best in genre history. He starred in The Searchers, Rio Bravo, Red River, The Man Who SH๏τ Liberty Valance, True Grit, and many more. He was nominated for three Academy Awards, winning for True Grit. He also received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, a Congressional Gold Medal, and has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

1

Clint Eastwood

Years Active: 1954-Present

Clint Eastwood came into the Western genre two decades after John Wayne and he created his own path to the top. While Wayne was in far more Western movies than Eastwood, both actors proved they were the best of the best and Eastwood did it in a very different manner than Wayne. Though The Duke was almost always a good guy, although sometimes with shades of gray, Eastwood’s cowboys were always drawn in shades of gray, if not completely devoid of morals altogether.

Eastwood’s breakout role was in the Spaghetti Western For A Few Dollars More and his Man with No Name from that trilogy remains one of the Western genre’s greatest creations. He then played even darker characters in Hang Em High, The Outlaw Josie Wales, and Pale Rider, the last movie in which Eastwood basically played Death itself. Eastwood also did something that Wayne couldn’t do. He succeeded as a director (although Wayne tried). Eastwood won an Oscar for his revisionist Western Unforgiven in 1992.