When The Conqueror premiered in 1956, it was meant to be a Hollywood epic. Directed by Dick Powell and starring industry icons John Wayne, Susan Hayward, and Pedro Armendariz, the film depicted the fictionalized love story of Temujin—later known as Genghis Khan—and the daughter of his sworn enemy.

Despite a high-profile cast and decent box office performance, the film was critically panned, later being named one of the “50 Worst Films of All Time” in 1978. But the film’s true legacy is far darker than any review could have predicted.

Over the decades, The Conqueror has become infamous for a chilling statistic: 92 out of the 220 people involved in its production reportedly died from cancer, including its main stars and director. The suspected cause? Radiation exposure during filming.

The movie was shot near St. George, Utah, a quiet desert town situated just over 160 kilometers downwind of the Nevada Test Site—a location where the U.S. government conducted nearly 100 atmospheric nuclear bomb tests in the 1950s, including 11 in 1953 alone. Only a year later, production began on The Conqueror.

While authorities at the time declared the filming area safe, earlier surveys had recorded abnormal radiation levels. Later studies even found that certain regions near St. George remained contaminated well into 2007.

The health toll was staggering:

  • John Wayne died in 1979 from stomach cancer, after a prior lung cancer diagnosis.
  • Susan Hayward, an Oscar-winning actress, passed away in 1975 at age 57 from brain cancer.
  • Director Dick Powell succumbed to cancer in 1963, just months after being diagnosed with malignant tumors in his neck and chest.
  • Pedro Armendariz, already suffering from neck cancer, tragically took his own life in 1963 as treatment ravaged his family’s finances.
the conqueror cancer deaths

Though direct scientific evidence linking the cancer cases to radiation has never been definitively proven, experts and observers alike argue that the numbers are too high to dismiss as coincidence.

Notably, John Wayne attributed his illness to smoking six packs of cigarettes a day rather than any radioactive fallout. However, both his sons—Patrick and Michael Wayne—also underwent tumor-removal surgeries after visiting the film site in 1954, adding weight to the radiation theory.

On the other hand, Howard Hughes, the film’s producer and legendary tycoon, reportedly believed the radiation link. Wracked with guilt for approving the location, Hughes spent $12 million buying back every copy of the film in a desperate bid to erase its legacy.

Today, The Conqueror stands as a cautionary tale—not just for its cinematic failures, but for the real-life tragedy that followed, still echoing through Hollywood history.