John Wayne was 'coughing up blood' on set of World War II epic with Kirk Douglas

It’s been 59 years since the release of In Harm’s Way, one of the last black and white World War II epics and John Wayne’s final film not in colour.

Duke starred as Captain Rockwell Torrey opposite Kirk Douglas and Patricia Neal, in the blockbuster that featured Henry Fonda in a lengthy cameo.

Directed by Otto Preminger, the movie followed US naval officers based in Hawaii, from the night before Pearl Harbor through the following year of the Second World War.

This was the first of three movies that co-starred Wayne and Douglas (also Cast a Giant Shadow and The War Wagon), who got along professionally despite their polarising political affiliations.

Yet Duke’s “low-key performance” in the film turned out to be because he was very ill with lung cancer.

By the end of filming on In Harm’s Way, it was so bad that Wayne was coughing up blood on set. Yet despite this, the heavy-smoking Hollywood star would continue to puff away on his six packs of cigarettes a day.

Shortly after the shoot concluded in September 1964, Duke was diagnosed with lung cancer and a month later had his entire left lung and two ribs removed. Following the news, Wayne had told Douglas he could play his role of Eddington in The Sons of Katie Elder, his next picture co-starring Dean Martin.