John Wayne was among the most popular and well-known actors of the 1940s and ‘50s, to the extent that almost every role he adopted in his later career was the protagonist of the film. Wayne’s star power alone was enough to entice most audiences to watch his new projects, regardless of the story or the filmmakers that were attached. It was a kind of Hollywood draw that’s rarely seen today, and it meant that John Wayne’s best movies almost always had him at their core.

However, John Wayne’s movies weren’t always Westerns or war films and didn't always feature Wayne at the forefront. The actor had a surprising range that wasn’t often seen in mid-century Hollywood. It was much more common for stars to carve out their niche within the industry and stick to it - but although Wayne certainly found his niche in Westerns and war films, he was always willing to step out of his comfort zone and try something new. This made him one of the most versatile stars of the time, even when he wasn't absolutely top billing in a particular project.

10 Three Girls Lost (1931)

Directed By Sidney Lanfield

Three Girls Lost was one of John Wayne’s first credited roles, and his character is far from the macho heroes that he would later come to play so frequently. The film centers around three young girls who abandon their small town and leave their previous lives behind in search of fame and fortune in the big city, where they encounter a series of figures who prove that glitz and glamor aren’t everything it’s made out to be.

In Three Young Girls, Wayne plays Gordon Wales, the neighbor of one of the titular girls who introduces her to a local gangster and triggers her slippery descent into crime and secrecy. It’s a thrilling story of deceit, love, and crime that embodies all the melodramatic theater of the era, giving Wayne a complex and multi-faceted role that’s very different from his trademark.

9 Maker Of Men (1931)

Directed By Edward Sedgwick

Although it’s one of the actor’s lesser-known projects, Maker of Men is surprisingly one of John Wayne’s most rewatchable and entertaining films. It’s much less intense and dramatic than the projects he later gravitated towards, centering instead around a football coach and his son who are torn apart when the son decides to play on a successful rival team. It’s filled with great drama, thrilling sports action, and even some comedy that’s held up surprisingly well.

Maker of Men is far from the traditional John Wayne movie, but the actor still manages to shine in his brief turn. He plays the character of Dusty Rhodes, a ing character who plays an interesting role in tearing this family even further apart and hammering home the intensity of such low-stakes sports. It’s a great watch for anybody who’s unfamiliar with Wayne’s work, simply because it’s so different from everything else.

8 Texas Cyclone (1932)

Directed By D. Ross Lederman

Texas Cyclone was one of John Wayne’s very first Westerns, and while he didn’t land the main character, his role was arguably even more entertaining to watch. The story centers around a man named Texas Grant who stops at a small town in the American West during his travels, where he’s shocked to learn that everybody there recognizes him as a suspected dead man. From there, the film slowly unravels this mystery with fascinating relationships, dynamic characters, and surprising twists.

Wayne plays a character named Steve Pickett, an honest resident of the small town who develops a close friendship with Texas Grant and helps him with his duties once he’s fully adopted the identity placed on him.

Wayne plays a character named Steve Pickett, an honest resident of the small town who develops a close friendship with Texas Grant and helps him with his duties once he’s fully adopted the identity placed on him. It’s a very entertaining and well-written John Wayne Western that nobody ever talks about, but it’s a pivotal moment in the star’s career.

7 Two-Fisted Law (1932)

Directed By D. Ross Lederman

The second of John Wayne’s collaborations with filmmaker D. Ross Lederman in 1931, Two-Fisted Law is a very different kind of Western that finally gives Wayne the more mature, bravado role that he’d later become renowned for. The story follows an American rancher who finds himself the victim of a complex scam by a group of crooked farmers, forcing him to take revenge, settle the score, and prevent them from swindling the other residents of his town.

Wayne’s role in Two-Fisted Law is ittedly small, but the actor still leaves an impression whenever he’s on the screen. It’s easy to see the beginnings of his Hollywood charm in this project, working alongside a filmmaker that he’s familiar with and beginning to find his footing in the Western genre. It’s not one of Wayne’s most well-known or popular projects, but it’s undeniably one of his most formative.

6 Lady & Gent (1932)

Directed By Stephen Roberts

Lady & Gent was a classic Hollywood drama that incorporates everything audiences had come to love about going to the movies: high-stakes drama, romantic relationships, beautiful visuals, and a sweeping score that soundtracks the entire narrative. The story follows two very different individuals, a retired fighter and a beautiful nightclub singer, who are faced with the challenge of raising their friend’s newly orphaned son. While it’s not one of the defining John Wayne movies, it’s certainly one of his most underrated.

The problem with many of Wayne’s Westerns is that the stories can feel quite similar and repetitive, as the genre developed a formula and rarely dared to stray too far away from it. However, with these kinds of sentimental dramas, the writers had much more freedom to try new ideas and fresh concepts that audiences perhaps hadn’t seen before. That’s what made Lady & Gent so popular at the time, and it’s the romanticized Hollywood love story that keeps it so enjoyable today.

5 Baby Face (1933)

Directed By Alfred E. Green

Baby Face was arguably John Wayne’s first step into the noir genre, which grew in popularity enormously throughout the ‘30s and ‘40s. The film starred Barabra Stanwyck as Lily Powers, exploring the character’s exploitation of sex and romance to climb the social ladder and advance her financial status. Wayne appears briefly as one of Powers’ lovers, but his role in this project is ittedly very minor.

Censorship saw plenty of iconic films banned in the USA, but Baby Face’s gripping story and immense popularity kept it in the discussion for many years.

What’s so fascinating about Baby Face its is open and transparent discussions of femininity and sexuality. This made it a huge talking point of the pre-Code era of filmmaking, before censorship was widely applied to all Hollywood releases and these discussions became more widely restrained. Censorship saw plenty of iconic films banned in the USA, but Baby Face’s gripping story and immense popularity kept it in the discussion for many years.

4 The Life Of Jimmy Dolan (1933)

Directed By Archie Mayo

There’s no denying that The Life of Jimmy Dolan is one of John Wayne’s lesser-known projects, but that doesn’t mean there’s nothing of merit in this classical Hollywood drama. The film stars Douglas Fairbanks Jr as the titular character, an acclaimed boxer who finds himself accidentally culpable for the death of a reporter at one of his matches. After an intense legal battle that he manages to win, another lawman hunts down the celebrity boxer and sets out to prove his crime for good.

The Life of Jimmy Dolan has all the drama and twists that audiences could have wanted from this kind of film, but the project hasn’t aged all that well in the years that followed. Some of the storytelling is very messy, the performances aren’t as committed as they could have been, and the visual style is nothing new.

3 The Spoilers (1942)

Directed By Ray Enright

Once John Wayne’s career had fully taken off in the mid-1930s, it took until 1942 for the Hollywood star to adopt another ing role and sacrifice the lead to somebody else. This project was The Spoilers, a big-budget Western from Universal Pictures that told the story of an Alaskan prospector who gets into a tangle with an American lawman over the affections of an elusive saloon singer.

The 1940s housed some of the most influential Western movies ever made, as filmmakers began to subvert the audience’s expectations and try some new ideas that had previously been considered too bold and risky. One of these ideas was to blend the high-stakes action of the Western genre with a tamer, more sentimental romance that helps balance the tone of the storytelling - and The Spoilers does this perfectly,

2 Pittsburgh (1942)

Directed By Lewis Seiler

Pittsburgh is a very interesting project for 1940s Hollywood, in that the story has no clear protagonist. There’s a case to be made for several of the main characters to be the "lead", just as there’s a case to be made that none of them are. John Wayne is certainly the most recognizable member of the cast, but the project is essentially an ensemble. The film follows several figures whose lives all center around Wayne’s character Markham, a greedy coal miner who exploits others to his benefit.

Pittsburgh is one of Wayne’s least traditional and most experimental projects, but it worked in his favor and was fairly successful with audiences.

Although the story revolves around Markham, the other characters in this tale are just as important to the progression of the narrative. It’s almost the story of a place rather than any of the people in it, as suggested by its vague title. Pittsburgh is one of Wayne’s least traditional and most experimental projects, but it worked in his favor and was fairly successful with audiences.

1 They Were Expendable (1945)

Directed By John Ford

They Were Expendable was John Wayne’s third collaboration with John Ford, the hugely popular filmmaker who essentially monopolized the Western genre throughout the ‘40s and ‘50s. They’d previously worked together on Stagecoach, which arguably made Wayne the star that he was destined to become, and the lesser-known The Long Voyage Home.

They Were Expendable was another huge success that cemented this hard-working duo as an all-time great collaboration, telling the story of a naval commander who fights to get his ship battle-ready at the beginning of the Second World War. It’s arguably the only time John Ford cast John Wayne in a non-lead role, as he quickly recognized the actor’s screen presence and capitalized on it for years to come.