Famous smokers who died from smoking related disease

All the celebrities in this list were smokers and have died from diseases that are related to smoking tobacco.

The list is not without irony: notable people in this list are the members of the Reynolds family, the family behind the cigaret brand Camel. Patrick Reynolds has seen many of his relatives die from the consequences of cigarettes and is now an anti-tobacco activist.

Four actors that once played the Marlboro Man have died from smoking related diseases: Wayne McLaren, David McLean, Dick Hammer and Eric Lawson.

Other celebrities appeared in tobacco commercials.

Name Known for Died at Cause of death
Bill Hicks American comedian 32 pancreatic cancer
Lorraine Hansberry actress and painter 34 pancreatic cancer
Andy Kaufman comedian, actor, his life was made into the film Man on the Moon 35 lung cancer
Gerard Smith bass player in the band TV on the radio 36 lung cancer
Carrie Hamilton playwriter, singer and actress 38 lung cancer
Wilhelmina Cooper supermodel from the 60's 40 lung cancer
Eric Carr drummer from the band Kiss 41 heart and lung cancer
Barb Tarbox model, anti-tobacco activist 42 lung cancer
Caroline Knapp writer 42 lung cancer
John Cazale actor, Fredo Corleone in The Godfather 42 lung cancer
Judy Holliday actress 43 throat cancer
Ernie Kovacs actor, comedian, writer 43 car accident, while trying to light his cigaret
John Candy actor from Splash, Planes, trains and automobiles, Spaceballs, Home alone, Cool runnings,... 43 heart attack
Scott F. Fitzgerald writer 44 heart attack
Fred 'Sonic' Smith guitarist in MC5 45 heart failure
Nat King Cole singer 45 lung cancer
Mary Reynolds wife of R.J. Reynolds Jr., son of the founder of R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company 45 stomach cancer
James Hunt Formule 1 pilot 45 heart attack
Kiel Martin actor from the TV-show Hill Street Blues 46 lung cancer
Charles Day gold medal winner in the 1936 Olympics 47 lung cancer
Thomas Schippers conductor 47 lung cancer
Graham Chapman Monthy Python 48 throat cancer
Enrico Caruso opera singer 48 abcesses in the lungs
Jacques Brel singer 49 lung cancer
Jack Cassidy actor 49 died in a fire caused by smoking in bed
Raymond Carver author 50 lung cancer
Marilyn Maxwell actress 50 heart attack, suffered from non-disclosed lung disease
Errol Flynn actor 50 heart attack
Steve McQueen actor, starred in tobacco commercials 50 died from a heart attack the day after an operation to remove a mesothelioma (tumor of pleural cavity, caused by asbestos)
Jim Varney actor, comedian 50 lung cancer
Robert Shaw actor 51 heart attack
Carl Wilson the Beach Boys 51 lung cancer
Wayne McLaren Marlboro Man 51 lung cancer
Roy Orbison singer 52 heart attack
Eddie Kendricks singer-songwriter for The Temptations 52 lung cancer
Frank Zappa singer 52 prostate cancer
Charlie the smoking chimpansee 52 cause of death unknown
Elizabeth 'Blitz' Reynolds first wife of R.J. Reynolds Jr., son of the founder of the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company (Camel) 52 colon cancer
June Pointer a Pointer Sister 52 lung cancer
Spike Jones musician and comedian 53 emphysema
Babe Ruth baseball player 53 cancer of the mouth
Jerry Garcia Grateful Dead 53 heart attack
Robert Palmer singer (Addicted to Love) 54 heart attack
Michael Landon Little Joe uit Bonanza 54 pancreatic and liver cancer
Remedios Varo Mexican surrealist painter 54 heart attack
Krzysztof Kieślowski director (Trois Couleurs Rouge, Blanc, Blue) 55 heart attack
Edward Albert actor 55 lung cancer
Jack Ruby murder of Lee Harvey Oswald 55 lung cancer
Michael Nyqvist actor, best known for his part in Millennium and Mission: Impossible Ghost Protocol 56 lung cancer
Ian Fleming creator of James Bond 56 heart attack
Betty Grable pin-up girl and actress 56 lung cancer
King George VI father of queen Elisabeth II of England 56 lung cancer
Sinéad O'Connor Irish singer 56 COPD exacerbation and asthma
Robert Taylor actor 57 lung cancer
Patrick Swayze actor 57 pancreatic cancer
Humphrey Bogart actor 57 esophageal cancer
Vincent Schiavelli actor (One flew over the Cuckoo's nest, Ghost, Batman Returns, The People vs. Larry Flint) 57 lung cancer
Wolfman Jack disk jockey, musician 57 heart attack
George Harrison Beatle 58 throat cancer.
Gary Moore musician 58 heart attack
Dick Powell actor, musician, producer 58 lymphoma
Sean Lock British comedian 58 lung cancer
Clark Gable actor 59 heart attack
Andreas Katsulas actor 59 lung cancer
Alex Chilton singer/songwriter 59 heart attack
R.J. Reynolds, Jr. heir of the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company (Camel) 59 emphysema
Amanda Blake actress 60 died from AIDS, while suffering oral cancer caused by heavy smoking
R.J. Reynolds, III heir of the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company (Camel), son of R.J. Reynolds Jr. His wife Marie died from ovarian cancer 60 emphysema and congestive heart failure
Ibrahim Rugova president of Kosovo 61 lung cancer
Alex Higgins twofold world champion snooker 61 throat cancer
John Gotti mobster 61 throat cancer
Alain Bashung french singer 61 lung cancer
Andre Braugher Actor, Captain Holt in Brooklyn Nine-Nine 61 lung cancer
J. Robert Oppenheimer father of the atomic bomb 62 throat cancer
Serge Gainsbourg singer 62 heart attack
Gary Crosby actor 62 lung cancer
Franklin D. Roosevelt American president during WWII 63 stroke
Ulysses S. Grant president of the USA 63 throat cancer
Edwin Hubble famous astronomist 64 cerebral thrombosis
Howard Carter discoverer of Tutankhamun's tomb 64 Hodgkin's disease
Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis president J.F. Kennedy's wife 64 cancer
Sammy Davis Jr. singer and actor 64 throat cancer
Walt Disney founder of the Walt Disney studios 65 lung cancer
Yul Brynner actor, anti-tobacco commercial 65 lung cancer
George Peppard actor, John « Hannibal » Smith in The A-Team 65 lung cancer, pneumonia
Giacomo Puccini opera composer (Madame Butterflie, La Boheme, Tosca) 65 throat cancer
Muriel Marston Reynolds ex-wife of R.J. Reynolds Jr. from the R.J.Reynolds Tobacco Company 65 lung cancer
Paul Avery American reporter 66 emphysema
Jesse Owens four time 1936 Olympic gold medallist, appeared in Lucky Strike advertisements 66 lung cancer
Tom Petty musician 66 heart attack
Gert 'Kralle' Krawinkel member of the band Trio, known for their hitsingle 'Da da da' 66 lung cancer
Patrick O'Neal actor 66 lung cancer, respiratory failure
Spencer Tracy actor 67 heart attack
R.J. Reynolds founder of the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company (Camel) 68 pancreatic cancer
Tex Williams singer from Smoke! Smoke! Smoke! (That Cigarette) 68 lung cancer
Johan Cruijff legendary Dutch football player and coach 68 lung cancer, suffered from heart problems earlier
Muriel Cooper Book designer, digital designer, researcher, and educator 68 heart attack
Dmitri Shostakovich Russian composer and pianist 68 lung cancer, had several heart attacks in his life
Gracie Allen actress en vrouw van George Burns 69 heart attack
David Bowie Ziggy Stardust, The Thin White Duke 69 liver cancer, previously recovered from a hearth attack at the age of 57
Freddy Fender country singer 69 lung cancer
Michelle Delpeche French chansonnier - best known for Pour un flirt avec toi 69 cancer of the throat and tongue
Dick Hammer Marlboro Man 69 lung cancer
Alan Rickman actor, known as Professor Snape from Harry Potter 69 pancreatic cancer
King Edward VII British monarch 69 pneumonia, had several heart attacks and suffered from emphysema
Renaldo Benson singer in the Four Tops 69 lung cancer
Jean-Pierre Bacri French-Algerian actor and screenwriter 69 cancer
Ian Fraser 'Lemmy' Kilmister rock god, founder of the band Motörhead 70 metastasized prostate cancer, cardiac arrhythmia, and congestive heart failure
King George V British monarch 70 COPD
Johnny Cash singer 71 complications of diabetes
Buster Keaton actor 71 lung cancer
George C. Scott actor 71 aortic aneurysm
Rudi Carrell entertainer 71 lung cancer
Margaret Windsor Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon 71 stroke, heart disease
Cec Linder Actor 71 Emphysema
Marion Robert Morrison aka John Wayne 72 stomach cancer - underwent a successfully surgery for lung cancer earlier
Lou Rawls soul singer 72 lung cancer
Eric Lawson Marlboro Man 72 COPD
Frank Oppenheimer Younger brother of J. Robert Oppenheimer, particle physicist and founder of the Exploratorium in San Francisco 72 lung cancer
David McLean Marlboro Man 73 emphysema
Ed Sullivan television host 73 esophageal cancer
Julie London singer, actress, pin-up model, performed the Marlboro song 74 stroke
Paul Kantner founder and guitarist of the band Jefferson Airplane 74 complications of heart attack, previously suffered from cerebral hemorrhage at the age of 39
Jean-Paul Sartre French philosopher and Nobel prize winner 74 pulmonary edema after heart attacks
Phil Everly The Everly Brothers 74 COPD
Mark Twain famous writer 74 heart attack
Gilbert Bécaud French chansonnier 74 lung cancer
Johnny Hallyday The 'French Elvis Presley' 74 lung cancer
Bing Crosby singer, actor 74 heart attack
Duke Ellington composer-band leader 75 lung cancer and pneumonia
Václav Havel Czech President 75 suffered from COPD - official cause of death was not made public
Nancy Reynolds daughter of RJ Reynolds, founder of the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company 75 lung cancer and emphysema
Alexander Graham Bell inventor of the telephone 75 complications of diabetes
Marianne O'Brien atrice, ex-wife of R.J. Reynolds Jr. 75 aneurism
Albert Einstein nobel prize winner and inventor of theory of relativity 76 aneurism
T.S. Elliot poet and Nobel laureate 76 emphysema
Lucille Ball actress, starred in tobocca commercials 77 aortic aneurysm
King Edward VIII British monarch 77 throat cancer
Jan Hoet connoisseur of the arts 77 heart problems
Ayn Rand author and pilosopher 78 lung cancer
Zeppo Marx actor, comedian 78 lung cancer
Dean Martin actor 78 emphysema
Walter Matthau actor in The Odd Couple and Grumpy Old Men 79 heart attack
Robert Mitchum actor 79 emphysema and lung cancer
Johnny Carson talk show host 79 emphysema
Richard Briers British actor - Tom Good from The good life, a TV-show from the 70's 79 emphysema
Boris Karloff actor 81 emphysema, pneumonia
Don Knotts actor 81 lung cancer
Pat Nixon former first lady of the USA, Richard Nixon's wife 81 emphysema, lung cancer, mouth cancer, suffered from several strokes
John Huston director 81 emphysema
Bette Davis actress, often smoked in film and in real life 81 multiple strokes after breast cancer surgery
Frank Sinatra singer, actor, producer, director and conductor 82 heart attack
Vincent Price actor 82 COPD
Frank Sinatra singer, actor 82 heart attack, bladder cancer
Leonard Nimoy Mr Spock from the original Star Trek series 83 COPD
Aaron Spelling famous producer 83 stroke, suffered from oral cancer earlier
Paul Newman actor 83 lung cancer
Omar Sharif actor, 'Lawrence of Arabia' 83 heart attack, also suffered from Alzheimer's disease
Sigmund Freud psychiatrist 83 euthanasia because of cancer of the mouth
Thomas Edison inventor 84 complications of diabetes
Henry Corden Fred Flintstone's voice 85 emphysema
Groucho Marx actor, comedian 86 pneumonia, suffered from heart attacks and strokes during his life
Claude Monet painter 86 lung cancer
Jim Trimble Football coach 87 emphysema
Winston Churchill Prime Minister of the United Kingdom during WWII 90 stroke