<P> After producer Mike Frankovich announced that he had purchased the movie rights to Glendon Swarthout's novel The Shootist, Wayne expressed a strong desire to play the title role, reportedly because of similarities to the character Jimmy Ringo in The Gunfighter, a role he had turned down 25 years previously . He was not initially considered due to the health and stamina issues he had experienced during filming of his penultimate film, Rooster Cogburn . Paul Newman passed on the role, as did George C. Scott, Charles Bronson, Gene Hackman, and Clint Eastwood before it was finally offered to Wayne . Although his compromised lung capacity made breathing and mobility difficult at Carson City's 4,600 foot (1,400 m) altitude, and production had to be shut down for a week while he recovered from influenza, Wayne completed the filming without further significant medical issues . </P> <P> The Shootist was Wayne's final cinematic role, concluding a 50 - year career that began during the silent film era in 1926 . Wayne was not, as sometimes reported, terminally ill when the film was made in 1976 . A heavy cigarette smoker for most of his life, he had been diagnosed with lung cancer in 1964, and underwent surgical removal of his left lung and several ribs . He remained clinically cancer - free until early 1979, when metastases were discovered in his stomach, intestines, and spine; he died later that year . </P> <P> The film's expansive outdoor scenes were filmed on location in Carson City . Bond Rogers' boarding house is the 1914 Krebs - Peterson House, located in Carson City's historic residential district . The buggy ride was shot at Washoe Lake State Park, in the Washoe Valley, between Reno and Carson City . Though it was a Paramount production, the street scenes and most interior shots were filmed at the Warner Bros. backlot and sound stages in Burbank, California . The horse - drawn trolley was an authentic one, once used as a shuttle between El Paso and Juarez, Mexico . </P> <P> Wayne's contract gave him script approval, and he made a number of major and minor changes, including the location (from El Paso to Carson City), his character's terminal illness (from bladder cancer, which he considered "unmanly", to prostate cancer), and the ending . In the book and original screenplay, Jack Pulford was shot in the back by Books, and Books, in turn, was shot by Gillom; Wayne maintained that over his entire film career, he had never shot an adversary in the back, and would not do so now . He also objected to his character being shot by Gillom, and suggested that the bartender do it, because "no one could ever take John Wayne in a fair fight". </P>

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