In a career that spanned decades, John Wayne had his fair share of successes and failures in Hollywood.
One of his biggest flops was the 1956 film “The Conqueror,” where he portrayed Genghis Khan after Marlon Brando backed out.
Despite making money at the box office, the movie is now considered one of the worst ever made.
Critics even described it as an “Oriental Western” with a script that elicited unintentional laughter.
However, the true controversy surrounding the film arose after its production.
The movie, produced by Howard Hughes, was partially filmed in Utah while the US government conducted atmospheric nuclear testing in a neighboring state.
The Nevada National Security Site witnessed 11 above-ground nuclear weapons tests in 1953 alone as part of Operation Upshot-Knothole.
Portions of “The Conqueror” were shot in the Escalante Desert near St George, Utah, which was located 137 miles downwind from the testing site.
Although the cast and crew were aware of the nuclear tests, they were allegedly assured by the government that there was no danger to public health.
Tragically, within 25 years of filming “The Conqueror,” 91 out of the 220 individuals involved in the production developed cancer, with 46 of them succumbing to the disease.
In 1980, Dr. Robert Pendelton, a Professor of Biology at the University of Utah, stated that the number of cancer cases could be classified as an epidemic.
While establishing a direct connection between fallout radiation and individual cancer cases proved challenging, the high number of cancer cases among the group indicated a potential link to their exposure on the set of “The Conqueror.”
The director of the film, d–k Powell, passed away from cancer in January 1963, followed by Pedro Armendáriz, who discovered he was terminally ill while shooting “From Russia with Love” and took his own life in June of that year.
In the 1970s, John Wayne, Susan Hayward, and Agnes Moorehead, all stars of “The Conqueror,” died from cancer, further fueling speculation about the film's curse.
John Hoyt passed away in 1991, and Lee Van Cleef listed throat cancer as a secondary cause of death.
Additionally, Michael Wayne, the lead's son, developed skin cancer, while his brother Patrick and Hayward's son Tim Barker had benign tumors removed.
Critics argue that the cancer cases among the cast and crew can be attributed to factors common among adults in the US at the time, such as heavy smoking.
John Wayne, who smoked six packs of cigarettes a day, had a lung removed in 1964 before succumbing to stomach cancer in 1979.
However, there were also individuals like Agnes Moorehead, who neither smoked nor drank alcohol.
Regardless, Howard Hughes reportedly felt guilty about filming “The Conqueror” in a hazardous location and eventually bought every print of the film for $12 million.
He spent his later years watching it repeatedly alongside “Ice Station Zebra.”
Universal Pictures acquired the film from Hughes' estate in 1979, three years after his death.
