(Originally published by the Daily News on June 12, 1979.)
LOS ANGELES — John Wayne, 72, who so embodied the native hero in a half century of movies that he became an internationally known symbol of the strong, patriotic American, died of cancer last night.
Wayne’s death was announced by Bernard Strohm, administrator of the UCLA Medical Center, where Wayne had been hospitalized since May 1 in the latest of a series of recurring bouts with cancer.
Wayne died “with all of his children at his side,” Strohm said. The seven Wayne children left the hospital before the death was announced three hours later.
Wayne fought for life until the end. “He had been in considerable pain since Saturday,” Strohm, but “he would not take much medication. He wanted to be awake when he died. He would tolerate the pain just to be near his family.”
However he lapsed in and out of the coma yesterday.
At Academy Awards
“Sometimes his vital signs would stabilize and he would look over and call, often in a loud voice, for his children. When they would appear, he would lapse back into the coma.”
He was unconscious when he died.
“The family was so tired and fatigued at the time of John Wayne’s death. They were here for five weeks and it was so hard for us to watch them,” Strohm said.
“It was the damndest thing,” he said. “I’ve been around teaching hospitals for 20 years and I’ve never seen anything like the love in that family.”
He said that the medical center had waited three hours to announce Wayne’s death because Wayne’s children wanted to spend some time alone with their father and to leave before reporters arrived.
In the last few months, as it became clear that death was approaching for the rugged, rumbling-voiced Duke, he was given many honors. Congress and President Carter authorized a special gold medal — of the kind given to such national figures as the Wright brothers — and he made his final public appearance at the Academy Awards ceremony in April, drawing an emotional standing ovation from his peers when he strode out to present the Oscar for best picture.
Thanking his audience in his familiar drawl, he said the ovation was “just about the only medicine a fellow’d ever really need. Believe me when I tell you that I’m mighty pleased that I can amble down here tonight.
“Oscar and I have something in common. Oscar first came to the Hollywood scene in 1928. So did I. We’re both a little weather beaten, but we’re still here and plan to be around for a whole lot longer.”
“The Shootist,” released in 1976, was Wayne’s last movie. In it he says a line that could be about himself: “All in all, I’ve had one helluva life.”
In 1978 he tried to get a movie called “Beau John” off the ground, but never could. He also talked of one more “big western” he wanted to do. After “The Shootist,” he did only television commercials, including a series for Great Western Savings with a western theme, and made several television appearances.
John Wayne rollicked, brawled and shot his way through more than 200 movies but though his role might be a marine, a pilot, a cowboy, a sea captain, a prize fighter or a cavalryman, he was always the hero and was always John Wayne.
More cancer
Wayne underwent surgery in 1964 for lung cancer. His second bout with cancer began with what was officially described as a routine gall bladder operation when he entered UCLA Medical Center last Jan. 10. Two days later his stomach was removed in a 9 1/2 -hour operation when a low-grade cancerous tumor was discovered.
Five days later, the hospital said tissue tests revealed cancer in the gastric lymph nodes, “with the probability that it will spread.”
His oldest sons, Michael and Patrick, expressed confidence their father would weather the ordeal. Only 10 months earlier, he had survived open heart surgery to replace a defective valve with a pig’s heart valve.
But on May 1 Wayne returned to UCLA for what was called routine surgery to remove an intestinal obstruction. However, the operation revealed the worst: There was more cancer in Wayne’s body.
True to his two-fisted image, Wayne kept swinging. He volunteered immediately to take part in an experimental cancer treatment program.
As with Wayne’s previous operations, well-wishers from around the world, including many luminaries, flooded the hospital with calls and letters. Queens Elizabeth even sent her greetings and President Carter paid the Duke a bedside visit.
Following the 15-minute session, Carter said Wayne “was in good spirits… made several jokes and thanked everybody for loving him so much.”
It was fitting that the family was at his side when he died. Wayne ruled over a large brood of children and grandchildren like a benevolent despot. He was loving, but strict.
His daughter, Antonia, said in an interview: “We knew we could never get away with anything bad, because he had a “stern” look. He is also old-fashioned. He made me wipe off my lipstick when I was 16. I didn’t smoke in front of him until I was 21 and married.”
He first married Josephine Saenz, daughter of a Panamanian diplomat, in 1933 in Loretta Young’s garden. It was a “social” marriage for the young actor who was then just a “3 1/2 – day Western” star.
They had four children, Michael, born in 1934; Antoni (Toni), born in 1936; Partick, born in 1937, and Melinda, born in 1938.
Bitter divorce battle
Wayne was divorced in 1946 and the same year married Esperanza Baur, a Mexican actress. Their life together was stormy and chaotic and finally ended in a long and bitter divorce battle in 1953 remarked by accusations of violence, infidelity and misery.
There were no children from the second marriage.
He met his third wife, Pilar Palette, daughter of a Peruvian senator, while scouting movie locations in Peru in 1953. They were married on Nov. 1, 1954, in Kona, Hawaii. They had three children, Aissa, born in 1956; John Ethan, born in 1962, and Marisa, born in 1966.
Published via News wire services
