During his last couple of decades, John Wayne’s health seriously deteriorated.

The lifelong heavy smoker and drinker lived without one of his lungs and a couple of his ribs from the mid-1960s onwards, after being diagnosed with lung cancer.

Nevertheless, Duke tenaciously battled on, playing roles he was too old, fat and physically challenged for.

Relying on a toupee, makeup and a secret oxygen mask, he was eventually diagnosed with stomach cancer which he died of on June 11, 1979.

Just six…