THE MOVIE WHICH KILLED JOHN WAYNE

Reynold Brown [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

The last film produced by Howard Hughes was The Conqueror. It was made in 1956 and starred John Wayne as Genghis Khan and Susan Hayward as a red-headed Tatar princess. It was a huge flop and has achieved a place on several lists as one of the worst 50 movies ever made. This is not by itself a unique distinction; there are probably 49 other movies on each such list which would also qualify. 

However, most other movies were not made near St. George, Utah, just downwind of the Nevada atomic bomb test range, and most other movies did not have their directors (Dick Powell) and their principle cast members (Wayne, Hayward, Agnes Moorehead, and Pedro Armendariz) die from cancer (although, technically, Armendariz committed suicide as a result of the pain caused by the disease). In fact, 91 out of 220 of the primary persons involved in the production of the film got cancer within 25 years--46 of them fatally. This figure does not include extras or other persons present on the set who also contracted the disease--including John Wayne's son, Michael, who had visited him on the set and died of cancer in 2003.

It probably did not help when Hughes brought back sixty tons of radioactive dirt from Utah to Hollywood for back lot shots. The soil is no doubt still around Los Angeles somewhere.

Hughes felt bad about the carcinoma revelations and bought back all existing prints of the movie for $12 million. He refused until 1974 to allow it to be shown on television.  

For more about the deadliest film ever made, please click here.