I can concede that point with no shame. In fact, I would have real trouble thinking of anybody in Wayne’s category when it comes to that quality. Here are just a few who do that for me, but not to Wayne’s level:
Yul Brynner
Robert Mitchum
Richard Burton
Brando
Those with names perhaps as big as Wayne’s but whose screen presence is so much weaker to me:
Humphrey Bogart
James Stewart
Peter O’Toole
Alec Guinness
Charlton Heston
Nice side-track idea, Southern Yankee.
I think Clint Eastwood is a far better director or musician than he is actor but I think John Wayne is simply the most wooden big name star of his time. He was in a lot of movies that remained good despite his presence but I only recall liking his portrayals in The Shootist and The Cowboys where both times he played John Wayne.
Wayne’s iconic status is a mystery to me as I don’t recall many interesting things he ever did or said. So Eastwood by a long way. At least he is a genius.
Yeah… and LIBERTY VALENCE, and EL DORADO, and RED RIVER and… Please.
Yes, this is an old zombie of a thread but it bears on a current issue (of sorts) in that these guys (Eastwood and Wayne) are becoming the clear front runners in
Your Top 5 All-Time Westerns Stars which has been collecting votes since 04-21-2015.
It looks to me as if the real issue in the “Top 5” question is more like, “Who besides Wayne and Eastwood deserve that consideration?”
Instead of beginning yet another discussion thread maybe we can expand on this one to hash out what (or who) really ought to be up for votes.
Is it worth conceding that #1 and #2 will be Eastwood and Wayne – in some order?
If so, what do we really want to determine as far as All-Time Favorite Westerns Stars are concerned?
I’ll quote myself from another thread by way of refutation:
[QUOTE=BrotherCadfael]
I’m going to throw in In Harm’s Way. John Wayne gives a hell of a performance, demonstrating once and for all that he can in fact play characters other than John Wayne. Patricia Neal and Kirk Douglas round out the cast.
Wayne is an aging Naval officer whose career had somewhat stalled before the war. Neal is an older nurse (again, a career officer), and Douglas is a hell raiser whose adulterous wife was killed at Pearl Harbor.
The film explores the emotional toll taken on these and other characters as the Pacific campaign moves slowly on towards a successful conclusion. Some good action, but the focus is really on the characters.
Highly recommended.
[/QUOTE]
I’ll go Wayne for the way he basically played the same character across different types of films. War, westerns, cop, businessman, boxer – all were basically the same person but still fit all the myriad circumstances of the films.
Didn’t Eastwood make that terrible movie where he played Attila the Hun, or something?
Without John Wayne there would be no Eastwood. Wayne was just bigger in every respect. Not a knock against Eastwood but Wayne was the pioneer and what every Western and indeed Westenr actor is judged against.
Would you be thinking of The Conqueror (1956)?
That seems unlikely, unless you know something about Eastwood’s parentage that nobody else does. 
Wayne was hugely popular and successful, but if he’d never gone to Hollywood, the Western genre would still have existed, still have been one of the most popular genres in early film, and would still have employed largely the same tropes and themes. Most of Wayne’s movies, particularly the earlier ones, would still exist, just with a different actor in the lead. When Eastwood’s generation came around, they’d have been reacting to pretty much the same stable of films, pushing mostly the same vision of 19th century America.
Here’s the latest breakdown of the ongoing poll Your Top 5 All-Time Westerns Stars
View Poll Results: Your Top 5 All-Time Westerns Stars
This poll will close on 06-20-2015 at 10:43 AM
Clint Eastwood (1930- ) 66 80.49%
John Wayne (1907–1979) 51 62.20%
Jimmy Stewart (1908–1997) 26 31.71%
Gary Cooper (1901–1961) 22 26.83%
Jack Palance (1919–2006) 21 25.61%
Lee Marvin (1924–1987) 21 25.61%
James Garner (1928–2014) 21 25.61%
Henry Fonda (1905–1982) 20 24.39%
Paul Newman (1925–2008) 17 20.73%
Robert Duvall (1931- ) 14 17.07%
James Coburn (1928–2002) 12 14.63%
Glenn Ford (1916–2006) 10 12.20%
OTHER (post and name up to FIVE) 10 12.20% <===
Steve McQueen (1930–1980) 9 10.98%
Slim Pickens (1919–1983) 8 9.76%
Jack Elam (1920–2003) 7 8.54%
Walter Brennan (1894–1974) 5 6.10%
Burt Lancaster (1913–1994) 5 6.10%
Robert Redford (1936- ) 4 4.88%
Strother Martin (1919–1980) 1 1.22%
Multiple Choice Poll. Voters: 82
I’d like some input on what to do with this information.
My thinking runs like this:
Have one poll with one vote per voter to determine if the Wayne vs. Eastwood division is as it appears here.
Have another poll, again with one vote per voter, to see how valid the ranking is for Stewart through Newman.
Similarly with Duvall through McQueen (minus the OTHER category).
Disregard the remainder.
Depending on how voting turns out, either let that do it, or else devise some Final Poll to resolve any remaining gray area(s).
What’s wrong with this approach? What would be better?
Ha!
Wayne’s fifth child?
All true but Wayne as the dominant male lead became the archetype of the western character. Eastwood either directly coped that or became a sort of anti-hero version of Wayne but building on everything Wayne had done beforehand.
Like 'em both, for very different reasons. Just joining the thread.
John who?
It’s actually kind of hard to say since both are from two different eras. I mean, Wayne was acting until the early '70s, yes, but he’s more known for his earlier stuff.
I like them both, but I’d have to go with John Wayne.
Other choices: Glenn Ford, Henry Fonda, Lee Marvin.
Morrison?
John Wayne vs. Clint Eastwood
What, like, in a fight?
Should be a snap for Clint, eh?
Ya feel lucky? Duke?
Jazz piano skills are the tiebreaker.