Former Marlboro Man dies of lung disease

An actor who portrayed the Marlboro Man in ads for the Philip Morris cigarette brand in the 1970s has died of lung disease.

According to People.com, Eric Lawson died Jan. 10 of respiratory failure due to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or COPD. He was 72.

Lawson is not the first Marlboro Man to die of lung illness. David McLean, who featured in the ads in the 1960s, and Wayne McLaren, who appeared in some Marlboro promotional pictures in the 1970s, both died of lung cancer. In addition, McLean suffered from emphysema.

McLean died in 1995 at the age of 73, while McLaren died in 1992 at the age of 51.

Lawson, just as McLean and McLaren before him, became an anti-smoking advocate after he fell ill. — BM, GMA News