As I was writing my last blog, in which I mentioned a new statue honoring John Wayne, I started thinking about a rumor I had heard years ago about what really killed him. Oh, there is no doubt it was cancer, but there is more information of which you may not be aware.
In 1954, the 220 members of the cast and crew of The Conqueror rolled into St. George, Utah to begin filming. Mogul Howard Hughes thought Utah would pass for Mongolia. After all, the movie was a love story about Genghis Khan. Although director Dick Powell wanted Marlon Brando for the part of Khan, John Wayne was hot property and Hughes thought it would help the film. The film also starred actresses Susan Hayward and Agnes Moorehead.
The actors had to put up with intense heat (120 degrees), a panther that attempted to make Hayward dinner, and even a flash flood. But that wasn’t the worst part of filming. The military had been conducting atomic bomb testing in Yucca Flats, Nevada. The fallout clouds from that settled in the Utah canyon where the movie was being filmed. For thirteen weeks, cast and crew were exposed to radiation. As if that weren’t bad enough, Hughes even shipped sixty tons of dirt back to Hollywood for retakes.
Some of the people involved with the filming knew about the testing. In fact, people say there is a picture of John Wayne holding a Geiger counter during filming. But, no one seemed to take the threat seriously…until people started getting sick.
Of the 220, 91 contracted cancer by the early 1980s, with 46 known deaths due to cancer, including stars John Wayne (lung and stomach cancer), Susan Hayward (brain cancer), and Agnes Moorehead (uterine cancer). Director Dick Powell died of cancer of the lymph nodes. Actor Pedro Armendariz committed suicide when he learned a mere four years after filming that he had terminal kidney cancer.
Experts claim that of a number like that, it is reasonable to assume that 30 of the 220 would contract cancer in their lives due to normal circumstances. You can read more about the story in Harry and Michael Medved’s book “The Hollywood Hall of Shame.”