Why smoking sucks - by Alan Landers

Sponsored by the Lung Association and You TV, former R.J. Reynolds cigarette model Alan Landers spoke today to students at Sir James Dunn and Bawating Collegiate Institute.

Landers, best known for promoting Winston cigarettes and Tiparillo cigars during the 1960s and 70s, has survived cancer in both lungs as well as open heart surgery and a double bypass.

He blames smoking for all of those health problems.

Earlier coverage

The following is Alan Landers' story, in his own words, as supplied to SooToday.com:

**************************************************************** My name is Alan Landers, I live in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, and I am 57 years old.

I am a professional actor, model, and acting teacher.

My career began with the pilot film "Aloha from Hawaii."

Over the years I appeared in various television shows and motion pictures, including "Annie Hall," "Stacey," "The Tree," "The Web," "Hurricane," "Ellery Queen," "The Dupont Show," "Deadly Rivals," "Cop and 1/2," "South Beach," "America's Most Wanted," "Superboy," "Model of the Year," "Petrocelli," "Kate McShane."

I also appeared as a model and actor in numerous advertising campaigns, including Binaca, United Airlines, Lancer Wine, Brylcreme, M.J.B. Coffee, BelAir Cigarettes (South America), Sony, and Vicks 44.

I owned the Alan Landers Acting Studio in Hollywood, California.

Some of the people who attended the studio and were coached by me include: JoAnne Woodward, Jerry Hall, Ail McGraw, Joe Penny, George Lazinbee, Sara Purcell, Frankie Crocker, Lynn Moody, Lydia Comess, Susan Blakely, Merite Van Kamp, Vinviano Vincenzoni, Shel Silverstein, and Joe Lewis.

During the height of my acting and modeling career, I was courted by R.J. Reynolds to appear as the "Winston Man."

I did the majority of the print ads for the R.J. Reynolds tobacco company in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

I appeared on billboards and in magazine advertising holding a Winston cigarette urging others, young and old, to smoke.

I was expected to portray smoking as stylish, pleasurable, and attractive.

I was required to smoke on the set, constant smoking was required to achieve the correct appearance of the cigarette, ash and butt length, during this time frame I also promoted Tiparillo small cigars.

In television advertisement, my character, dressed in a trench coat utters the rhetorical line, should a gentleman offer a Tiparillo to a lady?"

Despite the fact that I worked closely with cigarette company personnel during the shooting, at no time was I ever told that cigarettes could be dangerous to my health.

I knew some people believed them to be unhealthy, but the cigarette manufacturers denied, and still deny to this date, that their product is harmful.

Looking back on my career I am ashamed that I helped promote such a lethal and addictive product to the children and adults of this country.

Had I understood then what I now understand - that cigarettes are an addictive poison that kills almost 50 of their users - I would never have participated in their mass marketing.

In 1987 the hazard of cigarettes became tragically apparent as I was diagnosed with lung cancer.

Although 95 percent of lung cancer victims do not survive five years from diagnosis, I was determined to beat the odds.

In a painful and dangerous surgical procedure, my doctors removed a large section of lung, hopefully to remove the cancer from my body.

After the surgery, I lived from examination to examination, hoping the cancer would not re-occur.

To read the conclusion of Alan Landers' account, please click here.