Posted on 08/10/2005 6:45:51 AM PDT by Mike Bates
A select list of notable people who've died of lung cancer over the years:
Aug. 7: ABC anchorman Peter Jennings, 67.
July 1: Renaldo "Obie" Benson, 69, member of the legendary Motown singing group the Four Tops.
May 9, 2004: Comedian Alan King, 76.
Jan. 22, 2004: Dancer-actress Ann Miller, 81.
Sept. 8, 2003: Singer-songwriter Warren Zevon, 56.
Oct. 13, 2002: Best-selling author/historian Stephen Ambrose,66.
June 29, 2002: Singer Rosemary Clooney, 74.
Oct. 16, 2001: Jazz singer Etta Jones, 72 (and breast cancer).
June 18, 2000: Actress Nancy Marchand, 71, who played the matriarch of a Mafia family on "The Sopranos" and the patrician publisher Mrs. Pynchon on "Lou Grant."
March 25, 1999: Baseball coach Cal Ripken Sr., 63.
March 8, 1999: Baseball great Joe DiMaggio, 84.
Feb. 6, 1998: Beach Boy guitarist Carl Wilson, 51.
July 1, 1997: Actor Robert Mitchum, 79.
Feb. 3, 1996: Audrey Meadows, 70, famous for her role as Alice Kramden in the TV comedy "The Honeymooners."
March 6, 1994: Actress Melina Mercouri, 68, best known for her role was as a prostitute in the 1960 film "Never on Sunday."
Oct. 25, 1993: Actor Vincent Price, 82, known for horror movie roles.
June 22, 1993: Pat Nixon, 81, wife of former President Richard M. Nixon.
Oct. 5, 1992: Eddie Kendricks, 52, one of The Temptations' original members.
Nov. 10, 1992: Actor Chuck Connors, 71, best known for TV show "The Rifleman."
Feb. 2, 1992: Bert Parks, 77, best known as master of ceremonies for the Miss America beauty pageant.
July 2, 1991: Actress Lee Remick, 55.
April 4, 1990: Jazz singer Sarah Vaughan, 76.
June 10, 1988: Popular western writer Louis L'Amour, 80.
Aug. 2, 1988: Short story writer Raymond Carver, 50.
April 11, 1987: Writer Erskine Caldwell, 83.
March 21, 1987: Actor Robert Preston, 68, best known for his role as Professor Harold Hill in the stage and film versions of "The Music Man."
Dec. 2, 1986: Desi Arnaz, 69, best remembered for starring with Lucille Ball in "I Love Lucy."
Oct. 25, 1986: Actor Forrest Tucker, 67, best known for his portrayal of Sgt. Morgan O'Rourke in the popular "F Troop" TV series of the 1960s.
June 14, 1986: Composer Alan Jay Lerner, 67, best known, with Frederick Loewe, for musicals "My Fair Lady," "Camelot" and "Paint Your Wagon."
Oct. 10, 1985: Yul Brynner, 65, best known for his portrayal of the king in "The King and I."
May 16, 1984: Comedian/actor Andy Kaufman, 35, known for his role of auto mechanic Latka Gravas in sitcom "Taxi." The Jim Carrey movie "Man on the Moon" was based on him.
March 31, 1980: Jesse Owens, 66, Olympic gold medal winner in track.
May 24, 1974: Jazz great/bandleader Duke Ellington, 75.
April 30, 1974: Actress Agnes Moorehead, 73.
June 8, 1969: Actor Robert Taylor, 57.
Feb. 1, 1966: Comedian/actor/director Buster Keaton, 70.
April 25, 1965: CBS newscaster Edward R. Murrow, 57. (Always a heavy smoker, Murrow had investigated the connection between cigarettes and cancer for his news show "See It Now.")
Feb. 15, 1965: Singer Nat King Cole, 47.
Jan. 10, 1961: Writer Dashiell Hammett, 65.
From the JW Cancer Institute web page:
"In April 2003, my brother Michael Wayne, the founder of the Institute, passed away. Michael’s commitment to cancer research began in 1979, when our father, John Wayne, succumbed to stomach cancer."
My Dad, fifteen years ago today.
If I may, my condolences on a sad anniversary.
Found a website about celebs and smoking. Per the site, Gary Cooper and Walt Disney also died of Lung Cancer, and Humphrey Bogart died of throat and esophageal cancer. Didn't give their ages at death.
Could have been. Just thought it was lung cancer.
The celebs and smoking website says that John Wayne HAD lung cancer but did not die of it.
They did a bypass on the man, apparently knowing he already had lung cancer, and found that he had stomach cancer as well. He survived the bypass surgery but died of the gastric cancer, not the lung cancer. Perhaps, and I only guess because I don't know, the gastric cancer had spread to his lungs, and they just caught the lung cancer earlier than the gastric.
I know this, that my father was diagnosed with liver cancer, then they did more tests and said, oops, he has colon cancer which has now spread to his liver.
Or maybe the great Duke Wayne had two seperate cancers at once. Wow, how sick he was!
And what a strong fighter he was, too...
As a Navy man and an Power & Light employee he was exposed to asbestos.
He was exposed to radiation in Nagasaki 15 day after we nuked it, when he picked up the POW's to bring them home.
He also smoked for years in his younger days. Although he did quit 30 or so years before his death.
All could be contributing factors to his cancer.
I don't know about Johnny Carson, but John Wayne survived lung cancer (he had a lung or part of a lung removed ...the next movie he made after the surgery was "The Sons of Katie Elder") but died in 1979 of stomach cancer.
Bogie was 57. Died in January 1957. Birthday was Christmas day, 1899.
Okay, okay, I got it now. (LOL!) Well, at least I was right that the Duke HAD lung cancer. So few do survive that.
I also read in a biography of John Wayne, the he filmed a movie in 1956, titled "The Conqueror" that was filmed near one of the atomic bomb testing sites in the Nevada/California desert. The biography states that a large number of people that were on that location later died of some form of cancer.
The biography is "John Wayne: American" by Randy Roberts and James S. Olson.
I thank you for your condolences. It's a horrible thing to watch someone die of this disease, and far too many of us have that personal experience.
Somehow, that sounds vaguely familiar. Wayne did smoke, as did likely lots of the people who were on site of that movie location. Radiological fallout and smoking would both be risk factors of getting cancer. As is hereditary disposition...
Didn't Yul Brenner also do some PSA's about not smoking? That was long ago and I don't remember so well either:)
He tried to quit smoking.
Quote to remember him by..."I have a deep and abiding love for cigarettes."
RIP, Dad.
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