See this post for more information or look at Your Top 5 All-Time Westerns Stars for a more complete background.
Heh. I’m a little slow. I just realized that these two guys represent a shift in American movie goer tastes.
Wayne generally played in fairly straight forward “good guys v. bad guys” type stories and roles, which was more popular in the forties and fifties.
Eastwood played more realistic (or ambiguous) characters, when audiences were more willing to watch “grey area” heroes. (I never saw any of the Rawhide stuff.)
Is it possible that a viewers story telling tastes is going to determine which actor they like better?
Eastwood.
I’m simply not old enough to be able to appreciate John Wayne as a contemporary figure; he’s a dead guy who starred in a lot of “old” movies (not saying that’s a bad thing, it’s just my perception of him).
“Call me Snake.”
Kurt Russel’s entire performance in EFNY is a Clint impersonation. I swear Christian Slater did a movie like that as well, but I can’t remember it.
And head to head, I’d give it to Eastwood for the total range of work, including his directing. Wayne made a lot of great movies, but so did Eastwood. Heck I even like some of their “lesser” movies, such as Brannigan, and* Honkytonk Man.*
But* The Shootist* is the Greatest Western Evah, even more so than Josie Wales.
I love them both but think John Wayne wins on amount of dialogue.
Rooster on a Hot Tin Roof is amazing.
Wayne was a greater Western star.
Eastwood is a greater star overall.
Same here. Also, Eastwood did Kelly’s Heros.