John Wayne’s Final Ever Role Was In… Star Wars?! (Yes, Really)

Star Wars: A New Hope technically features John Wayne’s final role – even if it’s hard to spot. The rise of blockbusters in the late ’70s that included this franchise and other films like Jaws helped to usher out the age of the studio system where Westerns dominated, with John Wayne one of the biggest stars. However, there is a surprising link between John Wayne and Star Wars.

The John Wayne Western The Searchers was a major influence on Star Wars: The New Hope when George Lucas was developing the screenplay. Both feature a veteran and a rookie setting out on a dangerous rescue mission and endless sandy deserts; The Searchers doesn’t feature any epic space battles, however. Wayne’s final onscreen appearance was 1976’s The Shootist, where he played a terminally ill gunfighter. Wayne himself was in poor physical health making the film and would pass from cancer three years later, but it was actually A New Hope that featured Wayne’s final, uncredited role.

Audio Of Wayne Was Used To Voice Alien Spy Garindan

Garindan is recognizable by his dark hood and insect-like snoot. In A New Hope he only plays a brief role, where he leads the stormtroopers to Luke and the rest of the gang at “hive of scum and villainy” Mos Eisley before they escape in the Millennium Falcon. He’s also heard speaking some gibberish alien language, and sound designer Ben Burtt later revealed this was a heavily processed version of Wayne’s voice. According to Burtt (via Star Wars Blog) when he was creating the voice for Garindan, he used an “… electronic buzzing which had come off of my synthesizer that was triggered by a human voice.”

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When revisiting the audio files, he realized the voice was none other than Wayne, taken from trashed audio files left by Fox. Burtt also stated that “… the buzzing was triggered by some dialog like ‘All right, what are you doin’ in this town’ or something like that.” Of course, it’s impossible to make out Wayne’s actual voice in Star Wars: A New Hope, and this little factoid was left undiscovered for decades, but one could argue that John Wayne’s Star Wars voice appearance was, without his knowledge, his last film role.

John Wayne’s Grandson Is Also In Star Wars

John Wayne isn’t the only member of the family who has appeared in the franchise, with his grandson Brendan acting as Din Djarin’s (Pedro Pascal) body double in The Mandalorian. In fact, for the episode “Chapter 4: Sanctuary” guest director Bryce Dallas Howard revealed she only worked with Wayne playing the role, as Pascal was busy rehearsing for a play during filming. Beginning with The Mandalorian season 3, Brendan Wayne is credited in the opening sequence alongside Lateef Crowder due to the two men being primarily the ones under the suit during the filming of the season. With all the inspiration Star Wars, and especially The Mandalorian has taken from Westerns, having connections to John Wayne in Star Wars from A New Hope to the modern day helps to bring things full circle.