The Conqueror
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The Conqueror was a 1956 motion picture starring screen legend John Wayne which was a portrayal of the life of the Mongol conqueror Genghis Khan. Other notable performers appearing in the picture include Susan Hayward and Agnes Moorehead, and the picture was directed by noted actor/director Dick Powell. NOTICE: No plot details are disclosed in this article.
The picture is not particularly an outstanding one (critics often rank it as one of the worst films of the 1950s), especially given the stature of the cast, and perhaps would largely be forgotten today except for the circumstances surrounding its shooting and their apparent aftermath. The picture was largely shot on location in St. George, Utah, located downwind of the U.S. Government's Nevada Test Range, which was the site of extensive above-ground nuclear tests during the 1950s.
The link between exposure to radioactive fallout and cancer was less conclusively-proven in that era than it subsequently has been, and it has been noted that far more of the people involved in the making of this film subsequently developed cancer than could reasonably have been expected in a typical population of the age group and background of those involved. In fact, all of the performers named above died of cancer, Powell only a few years after the picture's completion; Hayward, Wayne, and Moorehead many years later. Another notable actor in this movie, Pedro Armendáriz, was diagnosed with kidney cancer four years later, and committed suicide after he learned the cancer was terminal. It is widely surmised that their association with this picture, shot where it was, contributed to all of their deaths, although skeptics point to other factors such as tobacco use (Wayne was a heavy smoker) and the fact that radiation-caused cancer does not have such a long incubation period.
The cast and crew totaled 220. Of that number, 91 had developed some form of cancer by 1981 and 46 had died of cancer by that same time.
External link
- Did John Wayne die of cancer caused by a radioactive movie set? (http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2_016.html) (from The Straight Dope)
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