Irony Alert: Marlboro Man Dies From Smoking
It was announced yesterday that Marlboro Man actor Eric Lawson died from smoking-related chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases on Jan. 10. During the late 1970s, Lawson appeared in print Marlboro ads as a ruggedly masculine cowboy and was himself a lifelong smoker since the age of 14. In later years, he parodied the famous ads with an anti-smoking commercial, but continued to struggle with smoking until his diagnosis of COPD. “He knew the cigarettes had a hold on him,†said his wife. “He knew, yet he still couldn’t stop.”
