The 1956 historical drama *The Conqueror*, starring John Wayne as Genghis Khan, is widely considered one of the worst films of his career. Wayne was badly miscast as the Mongol conqueror, and critics generally agree the movie was a failure. But decades after its release, the film became the subject of a darker conversation, one focused on whether the production itself endangered the lives of its cast and crew. Of the 220 cast and crew members who worked on the film, 91 developed cancer during their lifetimes, and 46 eventually died from it.
The numbers drew widespread attention, and many observers pointed to the filming locations as the likely cause. Parts of the movie were shot in Utah, including Snow Canyon, Pine Valley, Leeds, and the Escalante Desert near St. George, which lies roughly 137 miles downwind of the Nevada National Security Site. That location received significant nuclear fallout during a period of heavy weapons testing.
In 1953, the year before production, the United States government conducted 11 above-ground nuclear tests at the site as part of Operation Upshot-Knothole. The cast and crew spent several difficult weeks filming there, and producer Howard Hughes later had 60 tons of dirt shipped back to Hollywood so studio reshoots could match the Utah terrain. The filmmakers were aware of the nuclear testing, but federal officials had assured the public that the tests posed no health hazard. Among the cast members who later died of cancer was Susan Hayward.
In March 1972, her doctor found a lung tumor that had metastasized, and after a seizure in April 1973 she was diagnosed with brain cancer. She died on March 14, 1975, after another seizure at her Beverly Hills home, at the age of 57. She was buried at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Roman Catholic Church cemetery in Carrollton, Georgia. Agnes Moorehead, a non-smoker and health-conscious performer, died of uterine cancer on April 30, 1974, in Rochester, Minnesota, at age 73.
Her mother, Mary, survived her and lived to be 106. Moorehead is entombed at Dayton Memorial Park in Dayton, Ohio. Lee Van Cleef continued working despite heart disease and a pacemaker installed in the early 1980s. He collapsed at his home in Oxnard, California, and died of a heart attack at age 64, with throat cancer listed as a secondary cause of death.
He was buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Hollywood Hills. Dick Powell, who directed *The Conqueror*, learned during medical tests that he had malignant tumors on his neck and chest. He died on January 2, 1963, at age 58, and his remains were placed in the Columbarium of Honor at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California. John Hoyt died of lung cancer in Santa Cruz, California, on September 15, 1991, at age 86.
Pedro Armendáriz was diagnosed with kidney cancer in 1960 and took his own life on June 18, 1963, after learning the disease had become terminal. He was 51 years old. John Wayne himself believed his stomach cancer was connected to his heavy cigarette habit, estimating that he smoked as much as six packs a day. He took part in a cancer vaccine study in an effort to fight the disease, but died on June 11, 1979, at UCLA Medical Center at age 72.
He was buried at Pacific View Memorial Park Cemetery in Corona del Mar, Newport Beach, California. Several relatives of Wayne and Hayward who visited the set also faced cancer scares. Howard Hughes reportedly felt guilty about his decisions on the film, particularly about filming in such a hazardous area. He reportedly bought every print of the movie for $12 million and kept it out of circulation for years, until Universal Pictures acquired it from his estate in 1979.
*The Conqueror*, along with *Ice Station Zebra*, was said to be one of the films Hughes watched repeatedly in his final years. Still, the connection between the film and cancer rates remains disputed. With roughly 220 people involved in the main cast and crew, a considerable number of cancer cases would be expected among that group anyway. Statistically, the odds of a man in the United States developing cancer are about 43 percent, and the odds of dying from it are about 23 percent, figures close to what was observed among those who worked on the film.
Whether the tragedy was a curse or a coincidence has never been definitively resolved.