Was John Wayne’s Nathan Brittles Based on a Real Person?

By John McGran

John Wayne was 41 and on the cusp of big-screen greatness when he saddled up as U.S. cavalry officer Captain Nathan Brittles for the 1949 John Ford Western classic She Wore a Yellow Ribbon. Sporting swaths of painted-on silver in his hair and a heavy sadness on his face, Wayne breathes layers of life and breadth into his portrayal of Brittles, a career soldier dispatched on a harrowing final assignment before a forced retirement.

Wayne had appeared in some 85 movies when he was handed the reins and became Brittles. While The Duke may have been 20 years younger than Brittles, his characterization oozes the aches, pains and sorrow of a much-older man.

Wayne’s take on Brittles remains so riveting today that one can’t help but wonder: Was Captain Nathan Brittles a real person?

An exhaustive search of U.S. military archives does turn up a like-named individual. However, it is clear this fellow is nearly a century removed from the version of Brittles that was portrayed by Wayne.

For the Captain Nathan Brittles of 1876, the Army isn’t just a job. It’s his life. His wife Mary—and the daughters she bore him—are dead, presumably having perished at the hands of the Native Americans waging war against the U.S. Army.

Film critic Tim Brayton wrote, “The scenes where Wayne is alone are the most beautiful in his career to that point: the tired look on his face as he addresses his wife’s grave, the red rings around his eyes as he realizes that he has just said goodbye to his troop for the last time, his gentle words … when nobody is watching.”

In becoming Brittles, Wayne transforms a somewhat simplistic story into the stuff of legend—big doings for a box office star often branded a one-trick pony.

Many people had believed that Wayne, no matter the role, was essentially playing himself. That proved a myth as big as Wayne himself.

She Wore a Yellow Ribbon proved a turning point in Wayne’s career. He would no longer be a brute force or unforgiving symbol of heroism. Wayne knew he had mined career gold. He graded his take as Brittles “the best acting job I’ve done.”

She Wore a Yellow Ribbon is based on a short story that had appeared in the Saturday Evening Post. The story is sprinkled with historically authentic details, but the complex character of Captain Nathan Brittles is not one of them.

“Command” by James Warner Bellah was published in June of 1948. It tells the story of Captain Nathan Brittles, who is forced to evacuate the commanding officer’s wife, Olivia, and their niece, from the fort after the fall of Custer and the 7th Cavalry. Olivia catches the eyes of two young officers, and when she starts to wear a yellow ribbon in her hair—a sign that she has a beau in the Cavalry—but refuses to reveal who she’s wearing it for, trouble ensues.

Writing for True West Magazine, Henry C. Parke, an INSP contributor, notes, “Ford always said he liked working with short stories because it’d give you a basic idea that you could grow from, rather than trying to [adapt] a novel, where so much story must be cut out.”

She Wore a Yellow Ribbon co-stars Joanne Dru, John Agar, Ben Johnson, Harry Carey Jr. and Victor McLaglen. Learn more about this inspiring tale—a perennial favorite that always lands on the “top 100 Westerns” lists—here at INSP.


About John McGran

Veteran author and web content creator John McGran has spent the past 40 years blazing trails in the fields of news, food and sports. The guy who grew up binge-watching black-and-white Westerns like The RiflemanGunsmoke and Bonanza has joined the posse of INSP writers to provide a colorful new look at the characters, shows and movies you know and love.