You may not recognize the name of Robert Norris, but if you’re of an older generation, you know him.
Norris, who died at 90 of natural causes on Nov. 3, in Colorado, never smoked in his life. For 14 years, he nonetheless gained enduring fame as The Marlboro Man, an iconic advertising figure on TV, billboards and print.
Many different men served as The Marlboro Man over its 1955-1999 run, but Norris was probably the most recognizable. Some sources called him "the original,'' though that seems in question.
A non-actor chosen over models and trained actors for his naturally rugged look, Norris voluntarily gave up his famous role after lecturing his own children never to smoke - only to have one of them ask how he could do cigarette commercials and still say that.
Shooting a TV spot required Norris to put cigarettes in his mouth. Even that, he found disgusting.
The Marlboro Man catapulted the brand to No. 1 in global cigarette sales by 1972. Last year, 43 percent of cigarettes sold in America were Marlboros, according to Forbes.
Reports of Norris’ death remembered him respectfully and even fondly, rather than excoriating him as a contributor to the scourge of smoking. That’s fair. The 1960s and 1970s saw several celebrities endorse smoking, among them “Dragnet” star Jack Webb, whose reassuring style promoted other brands.
Just before Yul Brynner died in 1985, the former smoker cut a moving TV spot, aired only after his death, that pleaded with people not to smoke.
The Marlboro Man’s impact was most powerful of all. Originally targeted for women (a market later claimed by Virginia Slims), it was re-branded for young male adults. The famous theme from "The Magnificent Seven” is remembered at least as much from Marlboro Man commercials as to the 1960 movie that introduced it.
Obituaries did not mention if Norris regretted his role in smoking’s popularity, but noted his willingness to walk away from a lucrative deal, rather than display a hypocrisy to his children.
Not until Surgeon General C. Everett Koop’s damning 1988 report was the danger of smoking accepted as fact. Of the many other men who portrayed the Marlboro Man, five died from smoking-related causes, and several spent their later years making anti-smoking statements.
What we didn’t know in Norris’ day, we know now. The best we can do now is to give our young people the same message Norris gave his own children, albeit many years late.