I have heard some suggest that Wayne had cancer due to his years of smoking, but I have also heard the story that in 1956 when he starred in The Conquerer, that they brought in radio-active dirt from Utah for the set, and that many of the crew and actors in that film, including the Duke, later developer cancer. Is that story true? And does anyone have more information about it?

GSP

I think It was the last one you said, I read It last in an magazine, that there was radio active dirt and also the smoking I think.



Jwfan

It was defiently John Waynes smoking thats resulted in him contracting cancer. However the story about there being radioactive dirt on set is true the name of the bomb was weairdly enough called "Dirty Harry". Although a lot of people from the movie the conqueror did die from cancer Pilar Wayne righly pointed out that they all had one other thing in common and that was that they were all chain smokers. So I think that it was smoking that caused Johns cancer.

B)

GSP,

I am so glad to have you on this board. I haven't officially said my hello, so here is, Hello.

First of all Robbie is right that the smoking was a cause of his lung cancer in 1964. He had a lung removed, and was not in good health during the shooting of Sons of Katie Elder. He stopped smoking after that (this could be debated, but not sure {I think that he didn't have a smoking scene since before Sons of Katie Elder}). He did survive that. He later had stomach cancer that finally did him in 1979.

The cast and crew shoot on location. It was not brought in to a set. Just before the filming of "The Conqueror" the U.S. military dropped the bomb in the desert a few weeks before the crew came in to set up filming. With all the dust stirred up with the war scences and the constant heat in the desert, this didn't make like conditions for any human. Susan Hayward, Pedro Armendariz, Agnes Moorehead, William Conrad, John Hoyt contracted different types of cancer that killed them. The rapid growth of the cancer could be attributed to radio active waste in the desert, but the government disputed that back in the '60's or '70's. If I remember correctly, the government did later recant that report and admitted the error. (Just a note, my next door neighbor who live a heathy life and just smoked a pipe occasionally, died of lung cancer a couple of years ago, and he was working with the government in the area at the time. He was 85 years old when he died, but the doctor never seen such a rapid growth that this cancer did to my neighbor.)

Robbie was right that they were all smokers, but some of the crew were not, and they contracted colon cancer, breast cancer, lung cancer, bone cancer, throat cancer, etc. The director Dick Powell also contracted lung cancer, but I think he wasn't a smoker, if I remember what I read.

The only thing I can say about this, is if the Duke was going to sacrifice his life for a picture, could it have been something better than, The Conqueror. This was not a good movie at all. I am of course joking about that statement, I wish it didn't happen at all.

Cheers,

Hondo B)

Thanks Hondo for that authoritative, well-researched explanation. I have yet to see The Conqueror, but almost don't know if I want to...not because of the quality of the movie, but just knowing what it was doing to the Duke and the others...

GSP

They acutally DID bring that sand from Utha with them to Hollywood. After shooting on location, they used tons of the same sand for the studio sets. But of course no one has definite proof if this harmed the people who worked on this film.
I think the only scene in which you could see JW smoke a CIGARETTE after this lung operation is in True Grit, when Mattie rolls one for him (and he did enjoy this occasion enough to INHALE).

Thanks for the followup itdo,

I knew they had scenes in the studios, but I wasn't aware that they brought in sand from Utah. Seemed silly when they had almost the same type of sand around Hollywood. But they are silly people.

Good heads up on the scene in True Grit. Forgot that one. Sure there were others I missed.

Hondo B)

And the GREEN BERET curse, hmmmm?

By 1985
Duke, David Jansen, Jack Soo , Bruce Cabot , Jim Hutton , and Aldo Ray



Rick