21. Stewart went into semi-retirement following The Shootist
While filming the scene in which Stewart, portraying a doctor, informed Wayne’s character that he had cancer, so many takes were required that John Wayne joked with the director. “If you want the scene done better, you’d better get yourself a couple of better actors”, he said. Stewart repeatedly blew his lines, which Wayne later said privately because he couldn’t hear the cues. Stewart confirmed he had a worsening hearing impairment, and often couldn’t follow the dialogue as it was prepared from the script as a result. He continued to act, relegating himself to supporting roles, and turned down the role eventually played by Henry Fonda in On Golden Pond.
John Wayne died in 1979, Henry Fonda in 1982. Stewart’s only public comment on Fonda’s death was “I lost my best friend“. Stewart continued to work periodically in film and television, including in commercials for Campbell’s Soup. He made frequent visits to the White House during the Reagan presidency, having actively campaigned for the former actor in California. His politics and Reagan’s were similar, despite Stewart’s long friendship with the liberal Henry Fonda. He also wrote poetry, which he sometimes recited or read during appearances on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson.