50 free True Grit trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This True Grit trivia quiz covers all three tellings of Mattie Ross's story: Charles Portis's 1968 novel, the 1969 Henry Hathaway film that finally won John Wayne his Academy Award, and the Coen brothers' 2010 adaptation with Jeff Bridges and a 13-year-old Hailee Steinfeld. There is also a short detour into the 1975 sequel Rooster Cogburn, in which Wayne and Katharine Hepburn shared the screen for the only time. Expect questions on Fort Smith and Yell County, Tom Chaney and Lucky Ned Pepper, Little Blackie, the snake pit, the eye patch, the actors who nearly played Mattie and LaBoeuf, the fence jump Wayne insisted on doing himself, the hymn that runs through Carter Burwell's score and the ten Oscar nominations that turned into none. About a third of the questions are easy for anyone who has seen either film, a third need a closer memory of plot and cast, and the rest reward people who know the production stories and the book's differences from the screen. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on the novel, the films and Charles Portis before publishing, and each question carries the sentence that establishes it. If you think one is wrong, use the report button and we will look again.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Who wrote the 1968 novel True Grit?
Charles Portis
Portis served as a Marine sergeant in the Korean War and studied journalism at the University of Arkansas before he ever wrote fiction.
Q 02In which magazine was True Grit first serialised in 1968?
The Saturday Evening Post
Only later did it appear as a standalone novel that some critics now call one of the great American novels.
Q 03The novel is narrated by Mattie Ross as an elderly woman looking back on events from how far in the past?
A half century
She was 14 when she set out to avenge her father, and tells the story as an old spinster.
Q 04In the novel, how much money does Frank Ross take with him to buy horses on the trip where he is killed?
$250
He spends only $100 on the horses, and Chaney robs the body of the remaining $150 and two gold pieces.
Q 05In which Arkansas county is the Ross family farm, near the town of Dardanelle?
Yell
Mattie later has Rooster buried in the family plot in Yell County in the 2010 film.
Q 06What is Rooster Cogburn's full first name in the novel?
Reuben
Marshal Reuben J. Cogburn is described as aging, one-eyed, overweight, trigger-happy and hard-drinking.
Q 07How does Portis's novel say the name LaBoeuf is pronounced?
La-beef
The Texas Ranger has been tracking Chaney for four months for killing a senator and his dog.
Q 08Which outlaw leader's gang does Chaney join after the murder?
Lucky Ned Pepper
A future Godfather star played him in 1969, and Barry Pepper, no relation to the character, played him in 2010.
Q 09In which Arkansas town does Mattie hire Rooster Cogburn?
Fort Smith
Fort Smith sat on the edge of Indian Territory, which is why federal marshals rode out from there.
Q 10Why has LaBoeuf been chasing Chaney for four months in the novel?
He killed a Texas senator and his dog
The Ranger wants to take Chaney back to Texas dead or alive for the reward, while Mattie insists he hang in Arkansas.
Q 11Who directed the 1969 film True Grit?
Henry Hathaway
Hathaway said he tried to make the film like "a fairytale... a fantasy that I couched in as realistic terms as possible."
Q 12Who played Mattie Ross in the 1969 film?
Kim Darby
Darby was a 21-year-old dancer-turned-actress when she was cast as the 14-year-old.
Q 13Which singer played the Texas Ranger La Boeuf in the 1969 film?
Glen Campbell
Campbell said Wayne approached him backstage at one of his shows and asked if he wanted to be in a movie.
Q 21In the 1969 film's final scene, what does Rooster do to answer Mattie's jibe that he is too old and fat to jump horses?
Jumps a four-rail fence
Wayne insisted on doing the jump himself, on his horse Twinkle Toes, and it was left as the last shot in case he could not make it.
Q 22What was Wayne's favourite horse, seen in True Grit's last scene, called?
Dollor
Wayne would not let anyone else ride Dollor; the lone exception was Robert Wagner, on Hart to Hart after Wayne's death.
Q 23What rating did the 1969 film receive after the makers cut "four-letter words" from some scenes?
G
It had initially been given an M rating by the MPAA.
Q 14Which singer was the original choice for La Boeuf until his agent demanded top billing?
Elvis Presley
The producers refused to bill anyone above Wayne and Darby, and the part went to a singer with no acting experience.
Q 15Which actress, cast as Mattie in 1969, quit after Mitchum warned her about the director?
Mia Farrow
Farrow asked producer Hal Wallis to replace Hathaway with Roman Polanski, who had just directed her in Rosemary's Baby, and Wallis refused.
Q 16John Wayne recommended which future pop star for the role of Mattie after meeting her at a talent show?
Karen Carpenter
The producers turned her down because she had no acting experience.
Q 17Who wrote the 1969 screenplay, which Wayne called "the best script he had ever read"?
Marguerite Roberts
Roberts had been blacklisted for alleged leftist affiliations, and the conservative Wayne was instrumental in getting her credited.
Q 18Where was the 1969 film mainly shot, despite its Arkansas and Oklahoma setting?
Ouray County, Colorado
The town of Ridgway is now home to the True Grit Cafe, and courtroom scenes used the Ouray County Courthouse.
Q 19What was Wayne's eye patch made of so that he could still see?
Gauze
Hathaway used the patch to calm Wayne's nerves about playing a part outside his comfort zone.
Q 20What is the name of Mattie's horse in the 1969 film?
Little Blackie
Rooster carries the snakebitten Mattie on Little Blackie in a scene shot at Hot Creek in California's Sierra Nevada.
Q 24What did John Wayne win for playing Rooster Cogburn?
Academy Award for Best Actor
It was his only competitive Oscar; he also won the Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Drama.
Q 25Accepting his Oscar, Wayne joked that if he had known, he would have put on what "35 years earlier"?
That patch
The line played on the eye patch that defined his Rooster Cogburn look.
Q 26Which real deputy US marshal do historians believe Rooster Cogburn was based on?
Heck Thomas
Henry "Heck" Thomas brought in some of the toughest outlaws of the Indian Territory era.
Q 27Which actor played Ned Pepper in the 1969 film and reportedly nearly came to blows with Wayne?
Robert Duvall
Hathaway also had constant shouting matches with Duvall during the shoot.
Q 28Who co-starred with John Wayne in the 1975 sequel Rooster Cogburn?
Katharine Hepburn
Wayne and Hepburn were born two weeks apart in May 1907, yet this was the only film they made together.
Q 29What is the name of the spinster who teams up with Rooster in the 1975 sequel?
Eula Goodnight
The plot was widely called a rehash of True Grit mixed with Hepburn's own The African Queen.
Q 30What stolen cargo drives the plot of Rooster Cogburn?
Nitroglycerin
The nitro has to be moved slowly by wagon so it does not explode, which sets up the raft finale.