The film rights to
The Gunfighter were purchased by
Columbia Pictures, which offered the lead role to
John Wayne. However, Wayne declined, despite having expressed a strong desire to play the part, because of his longstanding hatred for Columbia's president
Harry Cohn. Bowers had written the role with Wayne in mind but refused to sell the rights to him, hoping to sell it for a higher price. (Bowers said Wayne did offer him $10,000 for the script but the writer felt that was too little and Bowers sold it for $70,000.) Columbia sold the rights to
Twentieth Century-Fox, where the role was awarded to Peck. Wayne's final film,
The Shootist (1976), is often compared to
The Gunfighter and contains numerous plot similarities. The script was loosely based on the purported exploits of an actual Western gunfighter named
Johnny Ringo, a distant cousin of the outlaw
Younger family and enemy of
Doc Holliday and the
Earp brothers. As in the film, Ringo sought a reconciliation with his estranged family in California in 1882, but unlike the character in the film, his conciliatory gestures were rejected. After a 10-day alcoholic binge, he died of a gunshot wound, probably self-inflicted. Many of the circumstances and legends surrounding Ringo's life and adventures have been challenged in recent years. The film was directed by
Henry King, the second of his six collaborations with Peck. The others included ''
Twelve O'Clock High (1949), David and Bathsheba (1951), The Snows of Kilimanjaro (1952), The Bravados (1958) and Beloved Infidel'' (1959). In the original ending, Hunt Bromley is arrested by the town marshal, but studio chief
Darryl F. Zanuck was enraged at this resolution, so King and Johnson rewrote the final scene. The studio hated Peck's authentic period mustache. Zanuck, who had been abroad when production began, reportedly said, "I would give $25,000 of my own money to get that mustache off Peck." ==Reception==