Credit: Far Out / Paramount Pictures
When it comes to naming the definitive cowboy of American cinema, John Wayne is either going to be the first or second name that comes to mind alongside Clint Eastwood. That is the kind of impact they each made on the genre across multiple generations.
While ‘The Duke’ did make plenty of movies that didn’t feature a single dusty plain, wide-brimmed hat, or six-shooter, it would be fair to say that he’s more closely associated with one genre above any others. When people think of classic Hollywood stories featuring stoic heroes righting wrongs, Wayne starred in a great deal of them, leaving behind a lasting legacy as the figurehead of an entire era.
That association didn’t happen in a vacuum. By the time Wayne was establishing himself, the western was already a cornerstone of American cinema, built on a foundation laid by earlier stars who helped define the genre’s codes of heroism, morality and frontier mythology.
Among those figures was Buck Jones, a performer whose influence loomed large during Wayne’s formative years. Long before Wayne became the face of the genre, Jones had already carved out a reputation as one of its most recognisable cowboys, setting a template that future stars would inevitably follow.
Cowboys were big business in cinema long before Marion Morrison even got his stage name, though, and he even co-starred alongside one of his heroes before making it big. In 1931, Wayne took second billing behind Buck Jones in The Range Feud, with his opposite number having long since been regarded as one of the biggest names in the western genre.
After beginning his career in the 1910s, Jones gradually gained more and more prominence as one of the faces of the medium, even if it did eventually lead to typecasting. By the end of the 1930s, his star was on an irreversible decline, but he was never afforded the opportunity to mount a late-stage career comeback after passing at the age of 50 in November 1942.
Jones was one of 492 lives claimed by a fire that broke out at the Cocoanut Grove nightclub in Boston, and while Wayne belittled the industry for failing to give the actor his due in an interview with Merv Griffin when he was asked to name his favourite cowboy, ‘The Duke’ didn’t relay the facts entirely correctly.
“I guess my favourite cowboy was probably Buck Jones, who really died a hero’s death,” Wayne said. “And the great Motion Picture Society of Arts and Sciences have never given him any recognition. He went back into that Boston fire three times, bringing people out, third time he didn’t come out. I’ve never heard his name mentioned.”
Not to piss on Wayne’s indignant chips, but Jones didn’t repeatedly return to the burning building to save others. He was taken out of the Cocoanut and spent two days in hospital before dying of the injuries he’d suffered, but an urban legend surrounding the incident has suggested that it was his manager, Scott R. Dunlap, who perpetuated the myth of his heroism for publicity and career purposes if he were to survive.
Still, Jones was a hero to Wayne either way, regardless of the apocrypha that surrounded his demise.
