Dec. 29, 1964 - John Wayne said today that his recent hospital stay was for removal of “cancer of the lung —and I’ve licked it.”
The 57‐year‐old movie actor (pictured after his release from the hospital) said he had withheld news of his malignant condition because “my advisers all thought it would destroy my image.”
“But,” the actor added, “there’s a hell of a lot of good image in John Wayne licking cancer — and that’s what my doctors tell me.”
Wayne said he had brooded over withholding the news, which was first announced as removal of an abscess from the lung.
“I was lucky,” he said. “I’d never been sick before in my life, but I always took an annual checkup at the Scripps Clinic at La Jolla [Calif.]. The X‐rays showed a spot on my lung. They brought me up to Los Angeles to Good Samaritan Hospital and opened me up.”
Wayne, who smoked five packs of cigarettes a day before the operation, was under intensive‐care treatment for more than a week after the malignancy was removed.
“I thought to myself: ‘I was saved by early detection. Movie image or not, I think I should tell my story so that other people can be saved by getting annual checkups.’”
Wayne entered Good Samaritan on Sept. 16. When he was admitted, a spokesman said it was for treatment of an old ankle injury.
But after a few days, it was announced that he was being treated for an abscess in one lung. The surgery was performed, and Mr. Wayne was sent home. Doctors ordered him not to smoke.
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