The Only Major Actors Still Alive From McLintock!

John Wayne was a humbled man early in the 1960s. His passion project, "The Alamo," had fallen well short of box office expectations in 1961. An epic Western about the siege of the basement-less San Antonio mission, Wayne directed the film and took its failure personally. He didn't need a hit; even at his lowest point in the 1970s, a Wayne picture at a certain budget level was an automatic greenlight. Still, Wayne was a prideful man who actively tended to his legacy; he was mindful of his fan base, and sought their approval. So Wayne came charging out of his corner in 1962, and knocked out every last naysayer with Howard Hawks' "Hatari!," "How the West Was Won," "The Longest Day" and John Ford's "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance."

The Ford movie could've been Wayne's Western swan song, but a rifle-toting Wayne astride a horse still held commercial appeal, so he quickly returned to the genre with "McLintock!" The comedic Western was a family affair. A rowdy riff on Shakespeare's "The Taming of the Shrew," Wayne entrusted the direction of the film to Andrew V. McLaglen, whose father, Victor, was a good friend and frequent co-star of The Duke. "McLintock!" was also made via Wayne's Batjac Productions and featured his son Patrick, who was struggling to make headway as a star in his own right.

Wayne's box office instincts were rarely more on target: "McLintock!" was a smash hit, grossing $15 million on a reasonable $4 million budget. Audiences lined up to see Wayne spar with his "The Quiet Man" co-star Maureen O'Hara, and they were utterly delighted. They also got a firm sense of Wayne's worldview, which was conservative as ever but mindful of the country's mistreatment of indigenous Americans (this ain't exactly "Dances with Wolves," but a star of Wayne's magnitude taking this kind of stance mattered).

"McClintock!" was released in 1963, so I hope you won't be shocked to learn that just about everyone who had anything to do with its production has been dead longer than many of you have been alive. Wayne died of stomach cancer in 1979, but O'Hara managed to slug it out until 2015, when she died at the age of 95.

There are, however, two major players from the film still with us, and a character actor of note as well. Let's give 'em a little love while we've got 'em!

The Kentucky-born-and-raised Faulkner (pictured right in the above image) became a professional actor in his twenties when he became buddies with "McLintock!" director Andrew V. McLaglen. He made his uncredited big screen debut in 1960's "G.I. Blues" starring Elvis Presley, and worked with The King again five years later in "Tickle Me." Due to his friendship with McLaglen, he worked far more frequently with The Duke, starting with "McLintock!" Faulkner plays the son of a rancher (Bruce Cabot), and gets to take a tone with Wayne's cattle baron without getting punched out.

Other Wayne films featuring Faulkner include "Hellfighters," "The Green Berets," "Chisum," and Howard Hawks' final film "Rio Lobo." Faulkner took a break from acting in the 1970s to work for Sea Containers Inc. which, as you might surmise, leased out sea containers for cargo ships. He's taken acting gigs here and there over the last 50 years, including a good deal of voice work. He currently lives just outside of San Diego, and is hopefully enjoying every second of his 92nd year on the planet.

The soon-to-be star of "Hart to Hart" was only 21 years old when she took on the role of G.W. McLintock's sassy daughter Becky, who's being pursued by the son of one of G.W.'s rivals. Becky is also being pursued by Dev Warren (Patrick Wayne). G.W. likes Dev enough to let the young man spank Becky with a coal shovel after she asks her daddy to shoot him. You may wince, but this got one of the film's biggest laughs; it was so memorable that it wound up on the poster.

Powers possessed the talent and the beauty to be a major star, but her first shot as the lead of a TV series, "The Girl from U.N.C.L.E." (a spinoff of "The Man from "U.N.C.L.E.") was canceled after its first season. She booked supporting roles in films and television series throughout the 1970s, and finally got the break everyone knew was coming when she cast opposite Robert Wagner in the lighthearted mystery series "Hart to Hart." Powers and Wagner played a wealthy married couple who keep winding up in situations where a crime or, gasp, a murder needs to be solved. It's basically "The Thin Man," and the Powers/Wagner pairing was appealing enough to keep the show on the air for five seasons. "Hart to Hart" returned during the 1990s via a series of television movies, and has remained in this lane for the last 30 years. She made a rare film appearance in 2020 with "The Artist's Wife," which starred Lena Olin and Bruce Dern. She hasn't been credited in anything since then, so the 81-year-old Powers is either retired or just waiting for something interesting to hit her agent's desk.

The son of the Duke was a handsome, photogenic actor, but he had a completely different presence. He was never going to have his father's career or come anywhere close to it, and it's to his credit that, outwardly, this never seemed to bother him. He frequently appeared in his father's films, and probably gave his most memorable performance as the impetuous Dev in "McLintock!" He took a swing at stardom as the lead in 1977 with "The People That Time Forgot," a sequel to 1974's popular "The Land That Time Forgot," but, like the rest of the cast, he was overshadowed by the dinosaurs. He got a second shot in the Ray Harryhausen-produced "Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger," which had the horrible misfortune to showcase pretty nifty stop-motion visual effects three months after the release of George Lucas' "Star Wars." That was a wrap on Patrick Wayne's bid for stardom.

Wayne bounced back and forth between movies and television, and found steadier work in the latter. I will go hard to the mat for his work as villain Bob Barber in Hugh Wilson's underrated Western spoof "Rustler's Rhapsody," and think he got a bum deal by not getting to reprise his "Young Guns" portrayal of Pat Garrett in "Young Guns II. They went with William Petersen, who's certainly a more accomplished actor, but I get the sense they did so because they didn't want to deal with the noise of The Duke's kid playing a prominent role in a studio Western. Wayne turned 85 this year, and while he has not officially announced his retirement, he hasn't appeared in a film or television show since 1999. Hopefully, he has no regrets. He gave it a good run.