Darrell Winfield, cowboy who played a Marlboro Man, dies at 85

Darrell Winfield, one of the Marlboro Men who appeared in dozens of ads over several decades, died Monday at his home in Wyoming. He was 85.

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Winfield stood out from the other men featured in the ads because he was an actual cowboy. Described by friends as a "man's man," he worked on his ranch every day. In a 1992 interview with The New York Times, a Philip Morris spokesman said, "You could look at the different cowboys that we’ve used and you could argue that they were all the Marlboro man. But Darrell is really the Marlboro man."

Born in Oklahoma, Winfield moved to California as a child, and married his wife, Lennie Spring, in 1948. In 1968, Winfield, his wife, and six children moved to Pinedale, Wyoming, where he was spotted by a photographer working for Philip Morris while working as a ranch hand. He ended up being the inspiration behind most of the company's advertising until 1998, when the use of humans or cartoon in tobacco advertisements was banned. During his time as the Marlboro Man, Winfield wore his own clothes to every shoot, and many of the cattle and horses in the photos belonged to him as well.