John Waynes last movie was "The Shootist". The 1976 Western film co-starred Lauren Bacall, James Stewart, and Ron Howard, and saw Wayne play JB Books, an aging gunfighter with cancer at the turn of the 20th century. Although it is an urban legend that Wayne was terminally ill like his character when filming "The Shootist," he had been cancer-free after having his left lung and several ribs removed in 1964 after a diagnosis of the disease. However, in early 1979, metastases were found in his stomach, intestines, and spine, and he died that summer.