Famous People who Smoked

Famous smokers

Cigars


Sir Winston Churchill

Winston Churchill Smoking a Cigar – several minor strokes culminating in a subsequent large stroke that lead to his death
Public Domain


Al Capone

Al Capone  Had  syphilitic paresis stroke
Acknowledging Getty Images


Groucho Marx

 

Groucho Marx.   Died – Multiple minor strokes
Wiki Commons


George Burns

George Burns in 1986
by Allan Warren

Cigarettes

Humphrey Bogart

Humphrey Bogart Katharine Hepburn in The African Queen (1951) Died of esophageal cancer at 57
Public Domain

Mae West

Mae West Died of a stroke at 87
1936 Public Domain

Lauren Bacal

Lauren Bacall Humphrey Bogart died of a massive stroke
and Marcel Dalio in To Have and Have Not (1944)
Public Domain

John Wayne
Had Lung Cancer and Stomach Cancer

John Wayne, a six-pack-a-day smoker, lost his left lung in 1964 at age 57 to lung cancer. He went on to star in 27 more movies, inlcuding “Rooster Cogburn” and his all-time classic “True Grit”.
Jacques Brel, legendary poet, performer, musician, actor, director. In 1974 he had an operation in Brussels.

John  Wayne in The Comancheros (1961) Died of stomach cancer
Public Domain

Jaque Brel
Had Lung Cancer and Died of a Pulmonary Embolus

Jacques Brel,  1971
Had lung cancer died of pulmonary embolism at the age of 49
Rob Mieremet / Anefo

Walt Disney

Walt Disney lost a lung to cancer, which later recurred and took his life.

Walt Disney
Disney had been a heavy smoker since World War I. He did not use cigarettes with filters and had smoked a pipe as a young man. In early November 1966, he was diagnosed with lung cancer and was treated with cobalt therapy
Died of lung cancer public domain
Jimi Hendrix
Died of an Overdose and Aspiration
Hendrix on stage at Gröna Lund in Stockholm, Sweden in June 1967
 aspirated on his own vomit and died of asphyxia while intoxicated with barbiturates
public domain

George Harrison

Died of head and Neck and Lung Cancer

George Harrison of the Beatles died of pharyngeal cancer at age 57.

George Harrison at a Beatles press conference in Amsterdam in 1964
Head and neck cancer and non small cell lung cancer metastatic to the brain
http://www.gahetna.nl/over-ons/open-data

he and his wife were also attacked by a psychiatric patient with a knife and he sustained a pneumothorax

King George VI
Died of Lung Cancer

The reign of George VI was marked by the relinquishment of the title of Emperor of India, following the partition of India in 1947 into Pakistan and India. George VI had cancer of the lung, resulting in resection of the lung

King George VI developed lung cancer among other ailments, including arteriosclerosis and Buerger’s disease.
Public Domain
The Duke and Duchess of York (centre, reading programmes) at Eagle Farm Racecourse, Note the cigarette Brisbane, Queensland, 1927

Bob Eberly
Died of Lung Cancer

Bob Eberly in 1963
Public Domain

Lung Cancer – had a pneumonectomy in  1980, but still continued to sing and passed in 1981.

Kiel Martin
Died of Lung cancer

HILL STREET BLUES — “Film at Eleven” Episode 106 — Pictured: (l-r) Kiel Martin as Det. Johnny “J.D.” LaRue, Taurean Blacque as Det. Neal Washington, Michael Warren as Officer Bobby Hill — (Photo by: NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images via Getty Images)

Kiel Martin of Hill Street Blues died of lung cancer at age 46.

The two co-founders of Alcoholics Anonymous (Bill Wilson and Bob Smith) both died of lung cancer at ages 75 and 71 respectively.

Bill Wilson
Co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous
Emphysema

Bill Wilson  Co Founder of Alcoholics Anonymous Former alcoholic, heavy smoker, Wilson eventually suffered from emphysema and later pneumonia
Credit Craig Line

Morton Downey Jr.
Television Talk Show Host and Actor
Died of lung cancer at age 67.

Morton Downey Jr 1980s Died of lung cancer at age 67
Credit Alex Lozupone

Graham Chapman,

Monty Python comic,
died of throat cancer metastatic to spine at age 48.
Was an alcoholic

Graham Chapman
Credit http://www.cardinalfang.net/biographies/chapman_biog.html
Graham Chapman ended several Monty Python’s Flying Circus sketches mid-flow dressed as The Colonel, complaining they were “too silly”
Credit British Broadcasting Corporation

Eric Carr (Paul Caravello), the drummer for Kiss, died of lung cancer at age 41.
William Talman, lawyer on Perry Mason, died of lung cancer at age 51.

Jagziekte in Sheep


There is a disease in South African sheep called “jagziekte” which histologically is similar to bronchioalveolar cancer. Efforts to use this knowledge to identify a transmissable agent have not been successful, but it is important to continue pursuit since ther certainly must be a transmissable agent.