This Week In Cigar History: April 21-27

With his signature arched eyebrow, cigar-chomping actor Jack Nicholson has wowed movie fans for decades. No doubt, the three-time Oscar winner will puff away on a favorite Romeo y Julietas, Cohiba robustos or Montecristos to celebrate his 71st birthday this week, on April 22.

Born in 1937 and raised by his grandparents in New Jersey, Nicholson moved to Southern California in his early 20s, doing odd jobs, including running errands in MGM’s animation department. Encouraged by company higher-ups, he began studying acting and eventually jump- started his career with his depiction of liquor-loving Southern lawyer George Hanson in the counter-culture classic, Easy Rider.

Other legendary Nicholson roles include a Cuban cigar smoking petty officer in The Last Detail, a plain-toast eater in Five Easy Pieces, asylum resident Randle P. McMurphy in the adaptation of Ken Kesey’s novel One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest, a demented hotel caretaker in The Shining, a retired astronaut in Terms of Endearment, the Joker in Batman, and as hot-tempered, cigar-chopping Marine Colonel Nathan R. Jessup in A Few Good Men.

Nicholson had been a cigarette smoker for years, finding tobacco calmed his nerves on the golf course. Reportedly he switched to cigars to avoid rifling through a half pack of cigarettes a round ... and now opts for a stogy to help keep his handicap down. -J. Ecochard

news@doubledownmedia.com

4/21/08

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