10 Actors Who Paid Terrible Prices For Movie Roles

Widely regarded as one of the worst movies in cinema history, Howard Hughes 1956 film The Conqueror saw John Wayne take on the role of 13th century Mongol emperor Genghis Khan.

Yes, you heard that right. John Wayne – an actor of Irish and Scottish descent born in one of the USA’s most Caucasian states (Iowa) known for playing all-American cowboys – as Genghis Khan. As you’d imagine Wayne wearing make-up to suggest stereotypically epicanthic eyes topped off with Fu Manchu-style facial hair didn’t fool anybody.

But the result of Wayne’s yellowface antics wasn’t the end of his career – racism was a lot more acceptable in Hollywood back then – or Mongolia declaring war against him but a cancer diagnosis. You see, The Conqueror was filmed downwind from a nuclear testing site and over the next few decades 91 members of its cast and crew would be diagnosed with cancer including Wayne who lost a lung to cancer in 1964 and died of stomach cancer in 1979.

Wayne’s six-pack-a-day smoking habit probably didn’t help and though he didn’t die until a good few years later, it’s fair to say that The Conqueror’s toxic shooting location was a major contributing factor in finishing off The Duke.