Few Westerns are more deserving of the "classic" moniker than 1969. True Grit, one of John Wayne's best movies and a model for the genre that continues to be influential today. That's partly because the film was thrust back into the public consciousness in 2010 when Joel and Ethan Cohen reworked "True Grit" with Jeff BridgesHailee Steinfeld, Josh Brolin and Matt Damon. However, the original still stands on its own and remains notable for giving Wayne his only Oscar.

Both the original and the 2010 film are adaptations of a 1968 novel by Charles Portis, but given how old the 1969 version is, you might not be surprised to hear that most of its stars have died in the decades since. Wayne died in 1979 and Glenn Campbell died in 2017. Dennis Hopper and Jeremy Slate, who play two of the film's main villains, have also died.

Today, only two of the main cast members of the original True Grit are still alive. Here's what they're doing today.

It shouldn't come as too much of a shock to learn that Kim Darby, who plays the main protagonist Matty Ross on True Grit, is thankfully still with us. After all, Darby was still quite young when she was cast in the film - the youngest of the main cast. Today, Darby is 77 years old and has over 80 acting credits to her name, although she hasn't been as active in the past few decades.

After True Grit, Darby starred in films such as The Strawberry Statement, Norwood and The Grissom Gang, although she was often cast in supporting roles as love interests or women in need of rescuing. However, she received a Primetime Emmy nomination for her role in the 1976 miniseries Rich Man Poor Man. Darby had several notable theater roles through the late 80s, playing Jenny Mayer in John Cusack's 1985 comedy Better Off Dead and Professor Brooks in Teen Wolf Too. However, until the 1990s, most of her screen credits came in the form of one-off TV series or non-theatrical films.

In a 2014 interview with Hidden moviesDarby discussed how much professional pressure and media scrutiny she was under in the early '70s after "True Grit," explaining her struggles with "the uppers and the lowers" as she was forced to constantly lose weight for roles. Darby hasn't had a new screen credit since 2017's The Evil Within, which was filmed years before it was released.

Robert Duvall will turn 94 in January 2025, and over the course of his long life, he has built an impressive acting resume. In "True Grit," he played the villainous Ned Pepper, and the decade after the Western's premiere catapulted Duvall to Hollywood stardom. The following roles in "M*A*S*X", George Lucas' THX 1138. and most famously, The Godfather, playing Corleone's adopted son and legal advisor Tom Hagen.

Duvall received a Best Supporting Actor nod at the Oscars for his performance as Tom — his first of seven Oscar nominations, which include Apocalypse Now, The Great Santini and 2015's The Judge. He took home his only Oscar in 1984 for Tender Mercies. Duvall's other accolades include a 1980 BAFTA win for Apocalypse Now, two Critics' Choice Award nominations and five Primetime Emmy nominations, including a nod for the beloved western miniseries Lonesome Dove, and two wins in 2007 for another western miniseries "Broken". Path".

Duvall's last credit as of this writing was for a supporting role in Christian Bale's thriller Pale Blue Eye, but just because we haven't seen the veteran actor in anything in the last two years doesn't mean he's done. "There are still a few left," he said WBUR in 2021, "maybe".