The reclusive Marlboro Man

last updated 8 January 2015

In the 1950s, William Thourlby looked out from billboards and invited smokers to Marlboro Country, said Corey Kilgannon in The New York Times. “I’m the original Marlboro Man,” says the 88-year-old former actor and model. “But I never smoked or drank, and I was no cowboy.” For the past few decades, Thourlby has lived alone in a small room at the New York Athletic Club, surrounded by reminders of his star-studded career. He appeared with Jayne Mansfield on Broadway and with Frank Sinatra in The Manchurian Candidate, and once co-owned a restaurant with legendary athlete and Olympian Jim Thorpe. “Jim adopted me as his son in an Indian ceremony—I called him Dad and he called me ‘My Boy.’” His most famous role came in 1953, when he was sent on a casting call for Marlboro cigarettes. He posed bare-chested with a cowboy hat, and received a one-off fee of $300. “One day I’m walking out of rehearsals [for a Broadway play] and I see a truck go by with my face on it—I couldn’t believe it.” After a life lived in the spotlight, Thourlby now seems content with his own company. “People come over to me [at the club] and ask to sit down, but I’ve always been a loner,” he says.