Who directed the 1969 film 'True Grit'?

Henry Hathaway directed the 1969 film “True Grit.”

Hathaway was an experienced filmmaker whose career stretched across several decades and genres, including Westerns, crime films, and adventure movies. His version of True Grit adapted Charles Portis’s 1968 novel and starred John Wayne as the tough, one-eyed U.S. Marshal Rooster Cogburn.

The plot follows teenager Mattie Ross as she hires Cogburn to pursue Tom Chaney, the outlaw who killed her father. A Texas Ranger, La Boeuf, joins the pursuit, creating an uneasy trio whose contrasting personalities drive much of the film’s humor and tension.

The director is sometimes confused with John Ford or Howard Hawks, other major filmmakers associated with classic Westerns. Neither directed this movie. Hathaway’s film became a commercial success, and Wayne won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance—the only competitive Oscar of his career.