ABSTRACT
This chapter explores tragic and vulnerable heroes duality through some of the Western films of John Wayne and Charlton Heston and how they have coloured our image of men as part of the Western myth. Heston and Wayne made just one movie together, The Greatest Story Ever Told, in which Heston played John the Baptist and Wayne had a much pilloried cameo as the Centurion at Jesus' crucifixion, although they were sometimes considered for the same roles as they got older. Heston was a potential co-star of Wayne in The Comancheros (1961), but his profile post-Ben Hur made Heston unwilling to play second fiddle to the older actor. Heston was also one of a coterie of actors who were earmarked for the role of John Elder in The Sons of Katie Elder (1965) and Rooster Cogburn in the 1975 sequel to True Grit, both played in the end by Wayne.
