Throughout the history of television shows and movies, there are a number of smoking characters that have made their mark in the public’s mind.  Sometimes, it is about the whole character that will make its mark, but other times it can take just a single scene to be unforgettable.  To the viewers’ mind their smoking characters will always hold a certain distinction.

Robert de Niro

Robert de Niro took on the role of a tattooed, cigar-smoking psychotic rapist in the movie “Cape Fear”.  De Niro is actually seen in his other movies smoking a cigar such as “Goodfellas” but makes his mark in this one because of the character’s intensity.  De Niro’s character reportedly smoked a Casa Blanca Half Jerobaum Maduro for his Max Cady role.

Clint Eastwood

Clint Eastwood was “the Man with No Name” in the western movie “A Fistful of Dollars”.  Eastwood’s laconic performance catapulted the character to the coolest stature ever.  No Name is characterized by a poncho, sparse words, and a cigar.   It is interesting to note that Eastwood is a non-smoker and didn’t even like the idea of smoking cigars for the movie.  He later admitted that the cigar put him in a certain mood fit for his character.

Arnold Schwarzenegger

Arnold Schwarzenegger smoked cigars endlessly in the Running Man.  This movie about the future America had Schwarzenegger mouthing all sorts of witty dialogues while killing the bad guys.  The cigar smoking was just one of the chosen differentiating factors for this character created by Stephen King a.k.a. Richard Bachman.

Nicholas Cage

Nicholas Cage plays the role of Yuri Orlov in the movie “The Lord of War”, who is the close approximation of post-Soviet arms dealer Viktor Bout.  The sporting of the cigar is probably to complete the image of an illegal arms dealer and an opportunistic businessman.  After all, there was a point in time that cigar came with a picture of a well-dressed, suave man.

Al Pacino

Al Pacino is said to have portrayed a real character in enacting the role of Tony Montana in the movie “Scarface”.  Cigar smoking came with the territory of the character of a high-profile Cuban drug dealer.  Pacino incidentally, has made a mark playing mobster roles.

When old movies are seen in cable, viewers come across many movies that show characters in their smoking glory.  The movie world is now being discouraged from “glorifying” smoking.  Smoking for some time has been highly glamorized in movies. Find the best cable TV service through Cable TV Advisor and start watching these movies and your favorites.

Originally posted on March 10, 2013 @ 9:54 pm