Who Is Still Alive From John Wayne’s ‘The Searchers’?

Gabrielle Moss Yesterday, 10:00 am

THE SEARCHERS, John Wayne on poster art, 1956 — Everett Collection

69 years ago, on May 26, 1956, John Ford‘s The Searchers hit movie theaters, and Western films were never the same. John Wayne plays Ethan Edwards, a Civil War veteran determined to save his niece, Debbie (Natalie Wood), who has been kidnapped by the Comanche — a role that Roger Ebert called “one of the most compelling characters Ford and Wayne ever created.” One of the first films to be added to the National Film Registry, The Searchers isn’t just one of the best Westerns ever made — it is one of the most important films in the history of American cinema.

In the decades since its release, most of the cast has passed away — some, like Wood, far too soon. But some of the stars are still with us.

Vera Miles (95)

Laurie Jorgensen

Everett Collection

A former Miss Kansas, Miles got her first big break in The Searchers as Laurie, love interest of Jeffrey Hunter‘s Martin Pawley. But while the role would be a career high point for most, Miles was just getting started. In the same year that The Searchers was released, she starred in Alfred Hitchcock‘s The Wrong Man, and was widely considered the director’s new leading lady, replacing Grace Kelly, who had recently retired from acting following her marriage to Prince Rainier of Monaco. Though she missed out on the lead role in 1958’s Vertigo due to a pregnancy, she and Hitch reteamed for 1960’s iconic Psycho — Miles played Lila Crane, sister of Janet Leigh‘s doomed Marion, who travels to the Bates Motel to investigate her sister’s disappearance.

In 1962, she reunited with both John Wayne and John Ford, playing Hallie Stoddard in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. She also acted widely in television, appearing on everything from Rawhide to Bonanza to Murder, She Wrote to My Three Sons to The Twilight Zone, where she starred in the infamous 1960 episode “Mirror Image.”

In a 1983 interview with The Spokesman-Review, Miles said that “It is true… [Hitchcock] wanted to make me into a superstar, but I just wasn’t interested,” and expressed no bitterness about losing out on Vertigo, saying “Kim Novak got the movie, but I got a son.” Miles, who had four children and married four times, prioritized her family above fame; she shifted to TV work to be able to spend more time with her kids. She worked steadily as a TV guest star through the early ’80s, but then began to scale back work; her final credit is the 1995 Jim Belushi thriller Separate Lives. She was the subject of a 2025 biography, Vera Miles: The Hitchcock Blonde Who Got Away.

Pippa Scott (89)

Lucy

Everett Collection

Scott made her film debut playing Lucy, Debbie’s sister, who is also kidnapped in the raid; she is not as lucky as her sibling and ends up dead in the film. Two years later, she appeared alongside Rosalind Russell in Auntie Mame, and later had a recurring role in the first season of The Virginian. She also logged guest appearances on The Twilight Zone, F Troop, The Dick Van Dyke Show, Perry Mason, The Fugitive, and The Waltons.

Her last major movie role was in 1971, when she co-starred as Dick Van Dyke’s wife in Cold Turkey, the only feature film written and directed by Norman Lear. Though she largely retired from acting by the early ’80s, she did return to film in the 2011 indie movie Footprints.

Patrick Wayne (85)

Lt. Greenhill

Everett Collection/ JC Olivera/Getty Images

Patrick was the second child born of John Wayne’s first marriage to Josephine Alicia. He acted alongside his father in a number of films, including Rio Grande, The Quiet Man, and the original TV version of Rookie of the Year. Wayne also appeared in a number of films on his own, starring in the 1977 fantasy Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger. He found a home on TV in the ’70s and ’80s: he starred on Shirley Jones‘ 1979 TV show, Shirley, and netted numerous guest star roles, including six episodes of The Love Boat, six episodes of Married… with Children and three episodes of Fantasy Island. He appeared as Pat Garrett in the 1988 neo-Western Young Guns, and hosted the 1990 run of Tic Tac Dough.

His final acting credit is the 1997 film Deep Cover, but Patrick remains active maintaining his father’s legacy. He serves as chairman of the John Wayne Cancer Institute, a role he’s held since 2003, and appeared in the 2023 documentary The Conqueror: Hollywood Fallout, speaking about the 1956 film The Conqueror — a movie that both he and his father appeared in, which is infamous for having been shot near a government nuclear testing facility, a situation which led 41% of the crew to develop cancer.

Lana Wood (79)

Young Debbie

Everett Collection/ David Livingston/Getty Images

Lana, younger sister of Natalie Wood, made her official film debut as the younger version of Natalie’s character Debbie in The Searchers. But you likely recognize her from a far different role: Bond girl Plenty O’Toole in 1971’s Diamonds Are Forever. She also starred on the TV adaptation of Peyton Place, and guest-starred on shows including Bonanza, Night Gallery, Starsky & Hutch, and The Fall Guy. Wood has published two books about her sister, the last, Little Sister, in 2021.