John Wesley Hardin in popular culture

Depictions

John Wesley Hardin has frequently appeared in books, movies, and music about the Old West. In Larry McMurtry's novel Streets of Laredo, he is shown as a cold and brutal killer. James Carlos Blake's 1995 novel The Pistoleer is a fictionalized account of Hardin's life. L. B. McGinnis published the novel Reflections in Dark Glass in 1996, and Bruce N. Croft released Four Sixes To Beat: The Tale of a Killer in 2004.

On film, John Dehner played Hardin in the 1951 movie The Texas Rangers. Rock Hudson took the role in the 1953 film The Lawless Breed. Jack Elam portrayed him in the 1970 comedy Dirty Dingus Magee, and Max Perlich played him in the 1994 film Maverick. John Wayne's character in The Shootist is loosely based on Hardin. On television, Richard Webb played Hardin in a 1954 episode of Stories of the Century, where the character shoots two Indians in the back, kills a sheriff in an Abilene saloon, and is then killed by an El Paso officer trying to arrest him. James Griffith played Hardin in the February 1, 1959, episode of Maverick titled "Duel at Sundown," in which Hardin asks the Maverick brothers if the town is where John Wesley Hardin was shot. Randy Quaid played Hardin in the 1995 miniseries adaptation of Streets of Laredo.

In a 1998 episode of Antiques Roadshow, a rare, previously unknown photograph of Hardin was appraised at between $30,000 and $50,000. Johnny Cash wrote and recorded the song "Hardin Wouldn't Run" for his 1965 album Johnny Cash Sings the Ballads of the True West, having earlier discussed Hardin on his album Ride This Train. Bob Dylan named his 1967 album John Wesley Harding after the outlaw, though the spelling differs, and the title track describes Hardin as "a friend to the poor" who "was never known to hurt an honest man." Singer-songwriter Wesley Stace performs under the stage name John Wesley Harding. Hardin is also mentioned in the song "Rhymes of the Renegades" by Michael Martin Murphey.