Type Casting

The early Hollywood era, also known as "The Golden Age", was known for employing actors that would rarely, or never, break free from their established fictional persona. In other words, John Wayne would always be John Wayne: a hard-boiled cowboy who was typically associated with gun duels and horseback riding. As a result people would not go watch a "western" movie, but instead a "Wayne" movie.

This directly affected how movies would be categorized. Since stars served as a symbol of audience preferences, Hollywood did not resort to genres as a means of classification. Rather, they used the actors to indicate the nature of the film. This can be good or bad depending on which way you look at it. Good in the sense that actors essentially became icons but bad in the sense that they became type casted. "Sorry Mr. Wayne, I guess you can't be in The Breakfast Club."

A great of example of of this, is the long list of movies that John Wayne has been in and how he has deviated little from this western vaquero model. In nearly all of his "Top 20 Movies" Mr. Wayne is associated with a pistol, a horse, and a mean attitude to go with it. There's no doubt there will be bloodshed, let alone epic stand-offs. Everything from In Harm's Way to The Searchers, has some sort of violence associated with it.