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.
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...