John Wayne death newspaper los angeles times Dies 6/12/79 Cambodian Genocide

John Wayne death newspaper los angeles times Dies 6/12/79 Cambodian Genocide

June 12th 1979 vintage

John Wayne

Dies at 72 of Cancer

In Coma Since Sunday at UCLA Hospital;

Sons Were at His Side

BY ROBERT KISTLER

Times Staff Writer

John Wayne, the biggest box office attraction in motion picture history and a man whose unique style-both on screen and off-transformed him into one of America's few living insti-tutions, is dead.

The actor, whose screen portrayals of men of duty. honor and courage, coupled with his own off-camera

brand of personal true grit, endeared him to nearly three generations of Americans, succumbed to cancer at 5:35 p.m. Monday at the UCLA Medical Center. He was 72 on May 2.

Wayne lapsed into a coma Sunday and never

regained consciousness,

hospital administrator Barney Strohm said. The actor's three sons were with him when he died.

"He hadn't been doing well lately for the last couple of days," Strohm said. "He would feel poorly, then he would tend to recover."

Then,

with his

family gathered

around him, he died.