06/04/2026
If John Wayne liked your work, chances are you got to stick around. Ward Bond, Harry Carey Jr., Bruce Cabot, all made great films alongside John Wayne, even Duke’s favorite horse Dollor made the cut more than once. But on this day we celebrate, likely, the only actor to share the screen with John Wayne in his Oscar-winning performance in True Grit, and Duke's only (post Western serial) sequel, Rooster Cogburn.
Three major characters made the transition from True Grit to Rooster Cogburn. Judge Parker and Rooster’s friend Chen Lee both appear in both films, but are played by different actors; both of the original actors passed away between films. The only major character to make an appearance in both films and be played by the same actor is none other than General Sterling Price, Duke’s cat. Since June 4 is Hug Your Cat Day, it’s a good time to show some appreciation to the glue that holds the two Rooster Cogburn films together, General Sterling Price, played by none other than Orangey the cat, a Hollywood star in his own right.
Trained by Frank Inn, the genius animal trainer behind Benji, Lancelot Link, and Arnold Ziffel, Orangey is the only double-winner of the Patsy, the animal actor version of the Oscar. Orangey won his first for Rhubarb, a baseball team owning cat, and his second for Breakfast at Tiffany's.
Unfortunately, Orangey didn't get to share an award with Duke for True Grit. John Wayne had that award season all to himself. Orangey's final role was a pair of episodes of Green Acres alongside John Wayne’s costar, Eddie Albert, from The Longest Day and McQ, neither of which had major feline roles.
John Wayne understood his co-star on and off the screen and, as Rooster Cogburn, he uttered a line that could not be truer. "General Price don't belong to me. He just rooms with me. Cats don't belong to nobody.”
