Cigars on the silver screen

We’ve already touched on how cigars have a seemingly eternal appeal in Hollywood, from being enjoyed by directors, to being used to illustrate character, so it seems only fitting to throw into spotlight some of the iconic characters that are well-known cigar lovers – both on the big and small screen.
 

The long association between tobacco and masculinity, means they often pop up in action movies, from cigarette toking John McClane in the Die Hard series, to cigar puffing Arnold Schwarzenegger, roaming the jungle in Predator. Cigars probably reached their peak on TV in the late 70s and early 80s, perhaps most iconically of all with Tom Selleck’s Magnum PI, and The A Team’s Hannibal. Their pleasures were even enjoyed in outer space by Starbuck in the original Battlestar Galactica series.
 

Westerns are packed full of tobacco lovers too, from the classic chewing tobacco and spittoons, to skinny cigars, as smoked by Clint Eastwood as ‘the man with no name’ in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, and a Fistful of Dollars. Edgy and mysterious were also the watchwords with Wolverine, from the X-Men movies, where Hugh Jackman was seen with one in his mouth, even though it wasn’t lit.
 

As well as being enjoyed by heros, cigars are often popular with anti-heroes and villains. From Tony Montana in Scorsese’s classic, Scarface, to the Devil himself in George Burns’ “Oh God, You Devil.” And speaking of demons, perhaps the most striking silver-screen- smoking image of recent years, must be that of red-skinned cartoon movie hero HellBoy, puffing away on a cigar almost as fat as his hands.