<< Cigarette induced lung cancer..🙁 >>
Actually, the Lung cancer had been removed previously, and never returned.......to his lungs............The Duke was found to have stomach & colon cancer during his January 1979 gall bladder operation, so his stomach was removed along with his gall bladder, turning the procedure into a nine-hour operation. He appeared one final time in public in April '79 to accept an Academy award for "The Deer Hunter" and died June 11th, 1979.