Actor who played Marlboro Man in ads dies from smoking-related disease

[IDemo]

Source: NBC News

Eric Lawson, a working actor who portrayed the Marlboro Man in cigarette ads during the late 1970s, has died. He was 72.

Lawson's wife, Susan Lawson, said Sunday that her husband died Jan. 10 at his California home. The cause was respiratory failure due to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or COPD.

The ruggedly handsome Lawson portrayed the smoking cowboy in Marlboro print ads from 1978 to 1981. He also had bit parts in such TV shows as "Baretta" and "Charlie's Angels" before injuries sustained on the set of a Western film ended his acting career.

A smoker since age 14, Lawson later appeared in an anti-smoking commercial that parodied the Marlboro Man and an "Entertainment Tonight" segment to discuss the negative effects of smoking.

Read more: http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2014/01/27/22459778-actor-who-played-marlboro-man-in-ads-dies-from-smoking-related-disease?lite

[TheDebbieDee]

1. Wow! I thot this guy died a long time ago...

I guess rumors of his death greatly preceded him. RIP, Marlborough man.

[newfie11]

2. I also thought he died long ago. Nt

[onehandle]

4. More than one character actor played smoking cowboys in those ads.

Several have died. That's what you are remembering.

[Bluenorthwest]

7. Marlboro Man started in 54. Several people have played the role, 3 died from

lung cancer in the past, today's guy would make a 4th, although non cancer, death in the role....

[meegbear]

8. +1

[xocet]

15. I thought that, too: here is an article that mentions the others who also died.

Marlboro Man Dies From COPD, Was Unable To Quit Smoking

"Marlboro Man” Eric Lawson died on January 10 of respiratory failure from COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease). Lawson had been smoking since he was 14 and although he later spoke out against smoking, he was unable to quit until he was diagnosed with COPD. Lawson, 72, was married to Susan Lawson who spoke about her husband’s inability to quit smoking.

...

Wayne McLaren, David McLean, and Dick Hammer all died from lung cancer associated with smoking. Though they did not all carry the title of “Marlboro Man”, each man did appear in the popular cowboy ads. The Marlboro Reds cigarette became known as the “cowboy killer” because of the deaths of so many of its actors and models.

...

http://www.inquisitr.com/1110244/marlboro-man-dies-from-copd-was-unable-to-quit-smoking/#IVrcsKSsshWtP2Id.99

[warrant46]

3. Joe Camel, a Giant in Tobacco Marketing, Is Dead at 23

Joe Camel, the cartoon character that became the focus of perhaps the most intense attacks ever leveled against an American advertising campaign, is being sent packing by the R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, which will replace it with stylized versions of Camel cigarettes' original camel trademark.

The unexpected decision, announced yesterday, ends a nine-year run in this country for Joe Camel. The embattled ad figure and his brethren, bearing names like Buster, Max and Floyd, will disappear from billboards, print advertisements, display signs and even store-door stickers. Joe Camel's goofy grin, oversized nose and exaggerated depictions of masculine behavior had helped Reynolds stem a decades-long sales slide for Camel by imbuing the brand with a hipper image.

But the gains in sales and market share for Camel, the nation's No. 7 cigarette brand, came only at a high cost as anti-smoking activists convinced President Clinton, the American Medical Association, several Surgeons General, the Federal Trade Commission and other authorities that Joe Camel was emblematic of what they maintained were the insidious, underhanded marketing gimmicks by which cigarettes are sold in America. Particularly, the activists hit home with contentions that slick, colorful presentations of a grinning cartoon animal were intended to appeal specifically to children to take up smoking.

[meegbear]

9. Here's a fun trick for the entire family ...

Take a piece of paper and cover the image from the sunglasses up.

Subliminal advertising is not dead.

[Bonobo]

5. So he smoked almost 60 years and died at 72.

It's not exactly a slam dunk to scare off smokers.

[LanternWaste]

11. I guess we're lucky then it was merely a news report and not an attempt to scare off smokers...

I guess we're lucky then it was merely a news report and not a melodramatic attempt to scare off smokers...

[geek tragedy]

17. Maybe they should have included video of him wheezing and coughing

from the last part of his life. Smoking not only shortens life it degrades the quality of life.

[JDPriestly]

6. With maybe two exceptions, my friends who smoked have systematically it seems died

younger than the rest of us. Even the husbands and wives of the smokers seem to die a bit younger than those of us who never smoked.

It is really macabre to watch your friends who are smokers and husbands and wives of smokers die as we non-smokers clearly tend to live longer. That is anecdotal, but so many of my smoking friends have died young that it is really obvious to me at 70 years-old that smoking is a big mistake.

I'm sorry for the family of the Marlboro Man. It's very sad.

[Demeter]

10. Smoking was the basis for retirement at 65

Because actuarially, that's when smokers died, and most workers smoked.

My mother only made it to 63, a definite win for the system there. Her grandmother made it into the 90's, and my mother swore she didn't want to live that long and "suffer".

So she suffered a lot earlier. Her last 5 years were hell.

[JohnnyRingo]

12. Cut down in his prime...

I doubt telling young people they may not see their 80th birthday if they start smoking is going to have much influence.



A better example is that asshole in the Blu cigarette commercials. He's living proof that smoking doesn't make you look cool anymore.

[Tom Ripley]

16. +1000

[Hassin Bin Sober]

22. My mom would have loved to live to 80.

The saddest part of the whole ordeal was trying to comfort her and not let her beat herself up for, in her words, "I should have never smoked those stupid things".

She died at the point the grandkids were old enough to start enjoying their grandma and I was at the point in my career were I (single, gay no kids) could treat them to nice things as a thank you for all they did for me. Instead she got spent the last two years of her life in and out of hospitals and gasping for breath. Dead at 70. Her mom lived to a relatively healthy 85.

I just watched the same thing happen to my partner's dad. An otherwise strong healthy man, gasping for breath like a fish out of water. A brand new grandchild who will never know him. He had two older grandkids he was able to enjoy from the older sister but one can just feel the sadness of the younger sister knowing her baby will never know grandpa.

Comments and cartoons like that are offensive to people who have been through this.

[JohnnyRingo]

25. Lost my mother when she was 53

I was in my early 20s, and it was tough on me too, but I didn't go around telling everyone to walk on eggshells around me for the rest of my life.

[KansDem]

13. Died doing what he loved to do

How many of us will be able to say the same thing?

[geek tragedy]

18. Huh? He did anti-smoking commercials before he died.

Please, no cheerleading for the nation's #1 killer please.

He smoked becaues he was addicted, not because he 'loved' it.

[KansDem]

20. I was referring to his acting career...

Both as a smoker and non-smoker.

[geek tragedy]

21. ahh, that's much different. sorry for misunderstanding you nt

[Aristus]

14. COPD - Killing masculine, rugged, red-blooded, manly American he-men

for over a century.

[1000words]

23. COPD = slow-motion asphyxiation

A particularly uncomfortable way to go

[shanti]

19. my father

a lifelong smoker, made it to 80. he died in december 2009 while receiving hospice care at home. his last 10 years were hell though. he had 1/2 of one lung removed due to cancer, and from then on, was on oxygen continually. he also had emphysemsa, COPD, and asthma. every breath was torture.

i think the only reason he lived so long is that mother was a RN and took care of him. without her, he probably wouldn't have made it to 70. mother was a light smoker, but quit in her late 40's (she's 82 now). healthy as a horse. sis and bro both smoke (still!) in their 50's. i've never smoked cigs, just lucky not to, i guess...

[bkanderson76]

24. Maybe A Good Thing I'm Not Smoking Marlboro's....Or Wait,

maybe oughta switch. Mr. Marlboro Man died at the age of 72 and has smoked since he was 14. That there is some math.