# Are there ANY movie stars of the 30's, 40's and 50's who did NOT smoke? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 17, 2003, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-movie-stars-of-the-30s-40s-and-50s-who-did-not-smoke/175833 "2003-05-17T03:58:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![chuckster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b9bd4f/32.png) [@chuckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chuckster)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2003, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-movie-stars-of-the-30s-40s-and-50s-who-did-not-smoke/175833/1 "2003-05-17T03:58:17Z")
The film industry has long been criticised (sp?) for promoting smoking in our culture by making it look cool and glamerous, at the expense of the health of our population. It seems every major star smoked on the screen at one time or other. Even stars that you would think had a homely reputation (James Stewart, Judy Garland for exemple) smoked in their private lives, if not on screen. Even today most stars, it seems, smoke. I have heard of a few movie stars who do not smoke, but their careers date from the 60’s on. What is this thing about the movie industry and smoking? And, are there ANY stars of the golden age of film who did not smoke? ---
**Author:** ![Blake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a9a28c/32.png) [@Blake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blake)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2003, 4:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-movie-stars-of-the-30s-40s-and-50s-who-did-not-smoke/175833/2 "2003-05-17T04:32:12Z")
It seems like every major star smoked because at the time pretty much everyone in urban areas did smoke. At least the men. Once you exclude religious groups etc who were unlikely to accept acting work anyway, I don’t think the number of smoking stars would be any higher than the number of people in the general population, The attitudes to smoking in the 1st half of the century were different to those of today. The health effects were less well known for one thing. The idea that everyman type stars like Stewart should be less likely to smoke doesn’t fit well with the attitude of the day where everyman did smoke, a pipe if nothing else. ---
**Author:** ![MaryEFoo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@MaryEFoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaryEFoo)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2003, 5:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-movie-stars-of-the-30s-40s-and-50s-who-did-not-smoke/175833/3 "2003-05-17T05:55:10Z")
Smoking gives an actor “business” to do during a pause–the hands light the cigarette, the cigarette is drawn on, smoke drifts past a face, etc…Nobody is supposed to be reminded of lung cancer. Is there any evidence that the studios took tobacco money for product placement? ---
**Author:** ![Enola\_Straight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dec6dc/32.png) [@Enola\_Straight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enola_Straight)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2003, 7:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-movie-stars-of-the-30s-40s-and-50s-who-did-not-smoke/175833/4 "2003-05-17T07:11:48Z")
Shirley Temple? ---
**Author:** ![Blake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a9a28c/32.png) [@Blake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blake)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2003, 7:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-movie-stars-of-the-30s-40s-and-50s-who-did-not-smoke/175833/5 "2003-05-17T07:21:00Z")
Remember, Shirley made a few movies as an adult. She may have smoked in those. ---
**Author:** ![Ezstrete](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7ea924/32.png) [@Ezstrete](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ezstrete)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2003, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-movie-stars-of-the-30s-40s-and-50s-who-did-not-smoke/175833/6 "2003-05-17T14:14:01Z")
Those movies,and those of the 20’s also,depicted a very normal[?] piece of life for most of the world. Smoking was common among all walks----------enjoyed by clergy, medical practitioners,nurses,mothers,fathers,policemen,media personalities,soldiers,sailors,marines-----Darn near everybody! [Ash trays were standard equipment in doctor’s waiting rooms] A lot of them/us are still kicking around in our eighties-------having out lasted a depression ,a few wars------and all of the anti-smoking propaganda of our present time. According to all of what we hear today we all should have disappeared by out 40th birthday! Our evil habit is now considered to be for responsible for everything except for,possibly,PMS Go figure! ---
**Author:** ![mangeorge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d78d45/32.png) [@mangeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mangeorge)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2003, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-movie-stars-of-the-30s-40s-and-50s-who-did-not-smoke/175833/7 "2003-05-17T15:08:31Z")
I watched _Wild at Heart_ on the tube last night. If that film doesn’t make smoking look attractive, nothing does. It’s a good thing the local Speedy Mart was closed. Peace, mangeorge (Ex-smoker) ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2003, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-movie-stars-of-the-30s-40s-and-50s-who-did-not-smoke/175833/8 "2003-05-17T15:27:04Z")
Nobody thought there was anything wrong with smoking until the 1960s, so there was no reason not to portray it. It also did give the actors something to do when speaking their lines, one of the reasons why you still see a lot of smokers onscreen today. Since nearly everyone smoked, it wasn’t odd to see people smoking on screen. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2003, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-movie-stars-of-the-30s-40s-and-50s-who-did-not-smoke/175833/9 "2003-05-17T15:40:37Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Blake \* > \*\*Remember, Shirley made a few movies as an adult. She may have smoked in those. \*\* She didn’t. Other actors who did not smoke include James Cagney, Johnny Weismuller, Joel McCrea, Tony Randall, Jeffrey Hunter, Pat Boone. > [@](#): > > **It seems like every major star smoked because at the time pretty much everyone in urban areas did smoke. At least the men.** Smoking peaked in the United States in 1965. For men, the highest number was 52%. For women, the highest number was 34%. ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2003, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-movie-stars-of-the-30s-40s-and-50s-who-did-not-smoke/175833/10 "2003-05-17T15:50:23Z")
Did Cary Grant smoke onscreen? I remember reading that he hated it in his personal life. ---
**Author:** ![mangeorge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d78d45/32.png) [@mangeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mangeorge)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2003, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-movie-stars-of-the-30s-40s-and-50s-who-did-not-smoke/175833/11 "2003-05-17T19:26:37Z")
I’ve seen **Walloon** ’s stats before, and I doubt their accuracy. I was 20 in '65, and it seem’s to me that a lot more than half of the men I knew, or even just saw, smoked. I know mine is a small sample, but it did include a pretty good variety of people. Remember the early non-smoking areas in restaurants? They were pretty small, IIRC. ---
**Author:** ![Ringo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/779978/32.png) [@Ringo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ringo)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2003, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-movie-stars-of-the-30s-40s-and-50s-who-did-not-smoke/175833/12 "2003-05-17T19:52:17Z")
[This](http://www.lcolby.com/b-chap4.htm) page cites the 1964 Surgeon General’s Report as the source for a statement that in 1961 “68% of all males in the United States over the age of 18 were smokers.” Somewhere else I’ve seen a figure of 75% for the period of WWII, but I can’t find that now. I never saw Howdy Doody with a butt. ---
**Author:** ![Booker57](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Booker57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Booker57)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2003, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-movie-stars-of-the-30s-40s-and-50s-who-did-not-smoke/175833/13 "2003-05-17T19:52:21Z")
Two big stars popped to mind \*\* Rin Tin Tin \*\* and \*\* Lassie \*\* ---
**Author:** ![slipster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df705f/32.png) [@slipster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slipster)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2003, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-movie-stars-of-the-30s-40s-and-50s-who-did-not-smoke/175833/14 "2003-05-17T20:50:16Z")
Tony Randall, who has already been cited was, IIRC, an opponent of smoking from way back. In the 70s he was widely considered odd or eccentric for giving Johnny Carson trouble about smoking while on air; time change. Debbie Reynolds was vehement in her opposition to smoking at least by the early 70s, and demanded that a cigarette company be barred from sponsoring her short-lived TV show. I believe that her opposition to smoking was already of long standing. As for not smoking _on screen_, there were any number of stars who did not because of the peculiarities of the roles they portrayed. Johnny Weissmuller and Sabu come to mind immediately. ---
**Author:** ![handsomeharry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9c0ed/32.png) [@handsomeharry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handsomeharry)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2003, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-movie-stars-of-the-30s-40s-and-50s-who-did-not-smoke/175833/15 "2003-05-17T21:05:31Z")
i’m thinking of freddy bartholomew and mickey rooney. ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2003, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-movie-stars-of-the-30s-40s-and-50s-who-did-not-smoke/175833/16 "2003-05-17T21:51:26Z")
Op-ed page article by **Kirk Douglas** in yesterday’s NY Times, in which he descibes how he never smoked as a student or as a Broadway actor, but how Lewis Milestone asked him to light up during the filming of _The Strange Love of Martha Ivers_, his first Hollywood picture, in 1946. By 1950 he’d quit smoking for good. > [@](#): > > Is there any evidence that the studios took tobacco money for product placement? \*\* Kirk mentions that cig companies provided him with free cartons of product during his smoking years. **RealityChuck** : Hey, don’t you remember “smoking stunts your growth” ? ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2003, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-movie-stars-of-the-30s-40s-and-50s-who-did-not-smoke/175833/17 "2003-05-17T21:58:00Z")
**Mae West** was a health fanatic who wouldn’t even let anyone smoke _near_ her, as far back as the 1930s. When she had to smoke onscreen, she had special “empty” cigarettes made up. This is going back a bit further, but **Anna Held** also did not smoke and asked people not to smoke near her. ---
**Author:** ![mangeorge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d78d45/32.png) [@mangeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mangeorge)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2003, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-movie-stars-of-the-30s-40s-and-50s-who-did-not-smoke/175833/18 "2003-05-17T22:26:14Z")
> [@](#): > > Hey, don’t you remember “smoking stunts your growth” ? I remember that, **Ukulele Ike**. I think clichés like that were an outward manifestation of the common sense that told us that sucking smoke into our bodies had to be bad. ---
**Author:** ![Sylkyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/da6949/32.png) [@Sylkyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sylkyn)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2003, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-movie-stars-of-the-30s-40s-and-50s-who-did-not-smoke/175833/19 "2003-05-17T22:40:41Z")
My own grandmother never smoked a day in her life. However, as a flapper, in the '20’s, it was sooooo daring and bold (for a woman) to smoke. There are several pictures of her holding a cigarette…albeit in ebony cigarette holders. Looking Joan Crawford cool, I assure you. 😉 I’m not sure about movie stars, but during the 50’s-60’s television era, the male stars smoked like chimneys, as a rule. The ladies (like June Cleaver, Donna Reed, etc.) didn’t. Lucille Ball did smoke in her earlier days on “I Love Lucy”, but not as much during the “Lucy & Desi Comedy Hour” and not at all (that I remember) during her much later shows. And wasn’t Larry Hagman another fanatical non-smoker? I seem to recall little fans he’d whip out (in public!) if somebody lit up near him. I don’t remember anybody on the set of “I Dream of Jeannie” smoking, and only one or two other cast members of “Dallas” being smokers. Of course, this was in the 80’s…when smoking was becoming unstylish. ---
**Author:** ![Ale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@Ale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ale)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2003, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-movie-stars-of-the-30s-40s-and-50s-who-did-not-smoke/175833/20 "2003-05-18T02:53:57Z")
Cartoons were also non cigarette free those years; I reacall many W. Disney and other producer´s cartoons were characters smoked quite a bit. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-movie-stars-of-the-30s-40s-and-50s-who-did-not-smoke/175833.md?page=2)