By Glenn Whipp, Special to the Los Angeles Times

Jeff Bridges had to sort through what he calls an "interesting batch of emotions" when the Coen brothers approached him with the idea of playing Rooster Cogburn in "True Grit."

"I said, 'Why do you want to remake that,' you know?" Bridges recalls. "But they were thinking about the book and not the movie, which was a relief for me. I didn't want to be emulating John Wayne. Who would?" He pauses, shakes his head and lets out a laugh. "Who could?"

Bridges made the whiskey-soaked marshal enough of his own man to win an Oscar nomination, making Cogburn the 16th film character to earn more than one actor love from academy voters. Here are highlights of that gallery along with who fared best in the role.