Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Entertainment/2018 March 9

= March 9 =

Actors and actresses from the 1930s through the 1950s who didn't smoke
Does anyone know any actors and actresses from the 1930s through the 1950s who didn't smoke? MisterH2005 (talk) 05:28, 9 March 2018 (UTC)
 * In Hollywood, James Cagney, Joe E. Brown, Janet Gaynor, Anita Louise, Roy Roberts, Vinton Hayworth, Colleen Moore, Gene Autry, Clayton Moore, Roy Rogers, Bob Hope, Robert Cummings, Nehemiah Persoff, Julie Adams, Ann Robinson, Mamie Van Doren, Sam Jaffe, William Boyd, Brian Donlevy, Joel Mccrea, Joan Leslie, David Niven, Otis Harlan, Mae West, Karl Malden, Jennifer Jones, Jimmy James, Eva Marie Saint, Fred Astaire, Erik Rhodes, Glenda Farrell, Frances Dee, Fay Wray, Eddie Albert (of Green Acres fame), Ed Begley Sr., Sidney Poitier, Alan Young, Maureen O'Hara, Charlton Heston, Dolores del Rio, Johnny Weissmuller, Neil Hamilton, Vic Damone, Jane Powell, Peter Marshall (whose sister was Joanne Dru), Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, Red Skelton, and Alan Napier were all non-smokers.
 * Of the 1954 Japanese film Seven Samurai, Daisuke Kato and Minoru Chiaki were the only title character actors who were non-smokers. The others (Toshiro Mifune, Takashi Shimura, Seiji Miyaguchi, Yoshio Inaba, and Isao Kimura) smoked heavily. Ken Takakura was one Japanese actor who was a non-smoker (he started acting in 1956). Yellow Sunstreaker (talk) 05:42, 9 March 2018 (UTC)
 * Fascinating. What's your source? ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 05:45, 9 March 2018 (UTC)
 * Lots of internet research, and in some cases, personal communication with the actors themselves (telephone interview with Ann Robinson and Nehemiah Persoff, facebook interview with Julie Adams). Yellow Sunstreaker (talk) 20:36, 10 March 2018 (UTC)
 * Unless User:Yellow Sunstreaker comes back to us with a source, the same list is quoted on this forum thread but without attribution. Alansplodge (talk) 15:12, 10 March 2018 (UTC)


 * Brian Donlevy certainly played a smoker, in Song of Scheherazade. In one scene, he had to quickly hide the fact that he was smoking, and secreted his lit cigarette inside his mouth.  Not a bad trick for a non-smoker.  --   Jack of Oz   [pleasantries]  07:22, 9 March 2018 (UTC)