True Grit Trivia
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49 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 49 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Who wrote the 1968 novel True Grit?
Charles Portis
Charles Portis, an Arkansas-born journalist and Korean War Marine, wrote True Grit in 1968; his other novels include Norwood (1966) and The Dog of the South (1979).
Q 02In which magazine was True Grit first serialised in 1968?
The Saturday Evening Post
True Grit first appeared as a 1968 serial in The Saturday Evening Post; Simon & Schuster published the full novel in book form the same year.
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
Mattie, 14 during the 1870s manhunt, narrates roughly a half century later as an unmarried old woman who lost an arm to the snakebite she suffered in the pit.
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 the novel say the name LaBoeuf is pronounced?
La-beef
In the novel Mattie notes that the Texas Ranger pronounces his surname La-beef, though it is spelled LaBoeuf; she finds his Texan vanity tiresome.
Q 08Which outlaw leader's gang does Chaney join after the murder?
Lucky Ned Pepper
Chaney falls in with Lucky Ned Pepper's gang of robbers in the Indian Territory; Barry Pepper, no relation to the character, played Ned Pepper in the 2010 film.
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
LaBoeuf says Chaney killed a Texas senator and his dog in Waco; the Ranger wants the Texas reward, while Mattie insists Chaney hang in Arkansas for her father.
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.
Which singer was the original choice for La Boeuf until his agent demanded top billing?
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
True Grit was rated G after Paramount trimmed the profanity that had first earned it an M, the MPAA's mature-audiences rating of the time.
Elvis Presley
Elvis Presley was offered La Boeuf, but his manager Colonel Tom Parker insisted on top billing over Wayne; producer Hal Wallis refused, and the part went to another singer.
Q 15Which actress, cast as Mattie in 1969, quit after Mitchum warned her about the director?
Mia Farrow
Mia Farrow, then filming Secret Ceremony with Mitchum, asked producer Hal Wallis to replace the director with Roman Polanski, who had just directed her in Rosemary's Baby; Wallis refused and she left.
Q 16John Wayne recommended which future pop star for the role of Mattie after meeting her at a talent show?
Karen Carpenter
Karen Carpenter, not yet famous with the Carpenters, was suggested by Wayne after he met her at a talent show, but the producers passed because she had never acted.
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
Filming centered on Ridgway and Ouray in Ouray County, Colorado, standing in for Arkansas and the Indian Territory; the Ouray County Courthouse served as Judge Parker's courtroom.
Q 19What was Wayne's eye patch made of so that he could still see?
Gauze
Wayne's eye patch was made of gauze so he could see through it and keep his balance on horseback; the one-eyed marshal became his signature late-career role.
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
Wayne won the Academy Award for Best Actor at the April 1970 ceremony, his only competitive Oscar; he also took the Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Drama.
Q 25Accepting his award for Rooster, Wayne joked he should have put on what "35 years earlier"?
That patch
Wayne's line was 'Wow! If I'd known that, I'd have put that patch on 35 years earlier', a joke about the eye patch he wore as the one-eyed Rooster.
Q 26Which real deputy US marshal is often cited as a model for Rooster Cogburn?
Heck Thomas
Heck Thomas (Henry Andrew Thomas), one of Oklahoma's 'Three Guardsmen' with Bill Tilghman and Chris Madsen, hunted outlaws across the Indian Territory and is often cited as a model for Rooster Cogburn.
Q 27Which 1969 cast member played the gang leader and reportedly nearly came to blows with Wayne?
Robert Duvall
Robert Duvall, playing the gang leader, clashed constantly with the director on set, and Wayne reportedly threatened to punch him if the arguing did not stop.
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
Hepburn's Eula Goodnight is a missionary's daughter who joins Rooster to avenge her father's killing, a pairing critics likened to The African Queen.
Q 30What stolen cargo drives the plot of Rooster Cogburn?
Nitroglycerin
A gang led by Hawk steals a wagon of nitroglycerin and a Gatling gun; the unstable nitro must be moved slowly, setting up the river-raft finale.