True Grit: It’s the Cowboy Way : At age 75, Ben Johnson is still tall in the saddle. For 54 years, the actor has roped, ridden and sailed with the best of ‘em--like the Duke, whose Wild Goose in Newport Harbor wasthe site for the actor’s Walk of Fame star party this week.

NEWPORT BEACH — He taught B-Western hero “Wild” Bill Elliott how to ride a horse, rode as a stunt double for Gary Cooper and Randolph Scott and had roles in such classic Westerns as “Shane” and “She Wore a Yellow Ribbon.”

Along the way, Ben Johnson chummed around with the biggest cowboy of them all: John Wayne.

“I haven’t been on this thing in 40 years,” marveled Johnson, boarding the Duke’s old yacht, the Wild Goose, now a dinner boat docked in Newport Harbor.

“We went out fishing a little bit, drinking a little bit. We were just having fun, just a lot of fellowship,” Johnson, 75, recalled Wednesday in his deep Oklahoma twang, a grin forming beneath his tan cowboy hat.

The occasion was a private party in Johnson’s honor on the eve of the unveiling of his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on Thursday.

A handful of Johnson’s old friends--including fellow actor Harry Carey Jr. and former Western movie bad man Pierce Lyden of Orange--joined about 100 Western movie buffs for the party, which featured music by members of the Sons of the Pioneers.

The host was John Wayne look-alike Ermal Williamson, a Van Nuys actor who met Johnson on the Western film festival circuit.

“We’re all friends of Ben Johnson, and we all got together and figured this is a good time to give him (another) welcome aboard the Wild Goose,” said Williamson. With a Wayne-like sweep of his arm, the ersatz Duke said, “This is all John Wayne country.”

Johnson, who won a 1971 best-supporting Oscar for his role in “The Last Picture Show,” worked frequently with Wayne during a 54-year career that has included more than 300 movies, a majority of them Westerns.

Born on an Oklahoma ranch, Johnson was a working ranch hand in 1940 when producer Howard Hughes purchased a load of horses for his film “The Outlaw.” Johnson was hired to accompany the horses out to Hollywood and began his career as a movie wrangler and stunt double.

In a bygone movie-making era in which most screen cowboys were city-bred, Johnson was the real thing.

“He’s the best I ever saw,” said Carey, a long-time friend who worked with Johnson on “Wagon Master,” “Rio Grande” and other classic Westerns. “I was raised around a lot of cowboys, and I’m talking about shoeing a horse, doctoring a sick horse, hooking up teams, mending harness, doing anything with cattle. He could do everything. He’s an all-around cowboy--and he’s a damn fine actor.”

Sporting a blue blazer with a commemorative Hollywood star on his lapel (“Well, it’s an honor; I’m just sorry they waited until I’m so darn old before they gave it to me”), Johnson graciously signed autographs and posed for pictures--not unlike his old buddy Wayne.

“If somebody wanted his picture, why, he didn’t raise cane with them,” Johnson said. “He was a good fella. He wasn’t like some of these freaks now that don’t want to get their picture taken and don’t want anybody to talk to them. I want to throw them in the creek. I stay in hot water all the time because I can’t quit cussing ‘em.”

In an interview on the ramp leading down to the yacht, Johnson reminisced about the old Hollywood days when he was making films with the likes of legendary director John Ford and once rode 10 bucking horses in one day for a film.

“I was very fortunate in the business in getting to work in a lot of good movies and working with a lot of good people,” he said. “That was really my education in the business, working with John Ford.”

Johnson, who lives in Mesa, Ariz., said he’s glad to see that Westerns appear to be making another comeback.

“Sure, I’d like to be able to make some decent entertainment,” he said, noting that he’ll be running the Ponderosa in an NBC revival of “Bonanza” scheduled to begin shooting in the fall.

“What my goal in the business today is to make something decent that you can take your family to see,” he said. “I don’t appreciate these hippies getting up and using all their four-letter words in front of my family; makes me mad.”

Johnson acknowledges that they never dreamed when making the old Westerns that there would still be an audience for them 50 years later, but he understands the enduring appeal.

“It’s like John Ford always told us, ‘Any time you can put something up on that screen that everybody wants to do or be, you’ve got a success.’ ”

When he’s not working in films or television, Johnson often shows up at Western film festivals around the country. He’s also no stranger at rodeos and, in fact, recently won two silver belt buckles for team roping at a rodeo in Oklahoma City.

He was, after all, the top team roper in 1953.

“Of course at the end of the year I was the world champion, but I didn’t have three dollars. All I had was a worn out automobile and a mad wife. So I went back into the picture business, and I stayed there ever since.”

And Johnson, who turns 76 this month, has no intention of hanging up his spurs and retiring:

“No sir, not as long as I can get on and off my horse, I ain’t gonna quit.”