John Wayne made some of the greatest Westerns of all time with his favourite collaborator director John Ford, but without a doubt, their greatest was the highly influential The Searchers.

The masterpiece is considered one of the greatest films of all time and saw Duke play a Civil War veteran spending years searching for his abducted niece, played by Natalie Wood.

Wayne took his role as Ethan Edwards incredibly seriously; a far cry from his usual light-heartedness during most of his movie shoots.

The star was witnessed being much more focused and reticent during the making of the 1956 classic, which is also his favourite of his movies.

Duke loved the character so much that he named his youngest son Ethan after the character.

The 62-year-old actor and stuntman went on to feature in two of his father’s movies Rio Lobo and Big Jake.

And today he oversees his legacy as manager of John Wayne Enterprises and director of the John Wayne Cancer Foundation.