He successfully made the shift from silent movies to "the talkies," though many of the former are lost. 1939's "Stagecoach," which was inducted into the National Film Registry in 1995, was his first western talkie and earned him his second Academy Award nomination for best director. When fans of the director and genre discuss their favorites, it's clear that it's difficult to pick just one. While the jury is still out on which western is John Ford's best, his impact on the genre and industry is clear, with 11 movies included in the National Film Registry and four best director Academy Awards in his career. In the words of famed critic Roger Ebert, Ford "did more than any other to document the passages of American history."