10 Actors From Classic Hollywood Who Could Have Played Superheroes

8. Wolverine/ John Wayne

Wayne Wolverine Wolverine is the archetypal superhero loner, someone whose rage, memory loss, and seeming immortality has isolated him from society. John Wayne might be cinema's all-time best loner and in Wolverine, he would find a character that was ideal for his personality and acting gifts. Wayne specialized in action westerns and war movies so he would be well-suited for the rigors of filming a superhero epic and although he is regarded as almost a mythical figure, people often forget just how well regarded and talented an actor he was. He was nominated multiple times for Best Actor, winning for True Grit, but it's one of his roles in John Ford's series of westerns that gave him the role that shows how good he would be as Wolverine. In The Searchers, arguably the most acclaimed western of all time, Wayne created what might be his most affecting character; his Ethan Edwards is a loner governed by his prejudices and someone with an obsessiveness that has a great deal of similarity to Wolverine. A legend of American movies, John Wayne would be more than up to the task of portraying one of the most ferocious of all comic book heroes. Just about the only drawback is that Wayne, standing well over six feet tall, is a good deal taller than the comic book incarnation but it would be a small price to pay for a perfectly realized match of actor and character.
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I love movies, literature, history, music and the NBA. I love all things nerdy including but not limited to Star Wars, Star Trek, Lord of the Rings, and Firefly. My artistic idols are Dylan, Dostoevsky, and Malick and my goal in life is to become like Bernard Black from Black Books. When I die, I hope to turn into the space baby from 2001: A Space Odyssey.