10 Worst Smokers in Hollywood History | Dark Hollywood
Video Overview & Insights
In this Dark Hollywood countdown, we uncover the worst smokers in Hollywood who lit up on set and off, from Desi Arnaz to other legends whose addiction followed them for decades. These worst smokers in Hollywood weren’t acting. You’ll hear the health toll, the behind-the-scenes pressure, and how the image of cool masked real damage. Each chapter shows why the worst smokers in Hollywood became cautionary tales—and why the worst smokers in Hollywood history still shape Old Hollywood lore. Watch to the end to see which worst smokers in Hollywood paid the highest price.
My friend of 54 smokes 2 pkts per day, and has done since he was 11. All is well.
00:00 Intro
00:25 Desi Arnaz
Quit smoking 4 years ago. Great accomplishment!! God is good!!
02:15 Jack Webb
04:02 Joni Mitchell
Joni Mitchell got O-L-D! 3 Paks a day are 3 Paks a day...Eddie Van Halen same boat...Bette Davis: from extreme beauty to looking like Wicked Witch of the West.......
05:58 David Janssen
07:49 Julie London
i heard MTM smoked like a coal train going up a mountain.
09:48 Audrey Hepburn
11:49 Sammy Davis Jr
How anyone can pay such high prices for cigarettes today is insane!
13:33 Marty Feldman
15:14 Patrick Swayze
Marty Feldman was also a vegetarian eating a diet heavy in eggs and cheese with that and the caffeine with heavy smoking. it was a death sentence.
17:02 Bette Davis
19:10 Outro
So there are or where 20 cigarettes in a pack?
_________________________
This video is part of our ongoing Hollywood then and now series, exploring before and after transformations, celebrity scandals, and the industry drama that shaped fame.
The army, military gave cigarettes in meal packs.
________________________________
At OldHush, we examine the rise and fall of iconic figures — from Old Hollywood legends to modern celebrities — through carefully researched storytelling and visual comparisons.
I was a good cigar smoker. I quit in 2009
Our content is created for educational and commentary purposes using publicly available information. We do not claim insider access, and all perspectives are presented respectfully in accordance with fair use principles.
___________________________________________
Huge respect to all the nameless nurses, who cared for all these people.
We upload new Hollywood stories daily. Subscribe and turn on notifications to never miss the next reveal.
______________________________________
I don't know how you could leave Lindsay Lohan off this list..... she was known to smoke a carton of Parliaments on the way to the store to buy more cigarettes, even finishing off a pack in her sleep.
#darkhollywood #oldhollywood #hollywoodhistory
My understanding of cigarette smoking is that your body rejects it when you first attempt to smoke. So what makes someone so stupid as to keep doing it until his or her body accepts something It clearly does not want to accept?
More User Perspectives
These aren't the worst smokers. These are the best smokers! They were really good at it.
@FarhanvlogsupThere was an episode of The Simpsonz where Homer crossed tobacco and tomatoes and called it"Tomacco"!!😅
@Kids.cartoonKing-e5zI can add two more: Rod Serling was a heavy smoker who died young. Also, actress Elizabeth Montgomery was a heavy smoker who died at 62 years old from colon cancer, which can be more common amongst smokers.
@RKing-k4gI was a good cigar smoker. I quit in 2009
@Hulk_ShaitanPatrick Swayze. He was dying of pancreatic cancer, but still smoked 3 packs a day 'til death. The evil of addiction doesn't discriminate. The Grim Reaper always smiles on his next victim that surrenders life to Addiction Cemetery. The Grim Reaper is never lonely here.
@youtuber4life71George Burns was on Carson he said he smoked 15 cigars a day John asked him what his doctor thought burns replying he's died 😂
@edwindelgado8775I tried smoking once 🚬 it was god awful 🤢
@edwindelgado8775My brother started smoking 🚬 at 15 2 packs a day he passed on July 21 2025 at 69 he enjoyed his cigarettes God be with you 🌺♾️
@edwindelgado8775My uncle chewed all his life. At the end he underwent a 26 hour surgery on his face because of oral cancel. Sure was horrifying to behold afterwards.
@sewinggrannieI didn't start smoking until 29. My second husband wanted me to smoke grass, but I didn't know how to inhale. So he trained me with cigarettes. Marijuana just made me nauseated, so that didn't work out. But by that time I was hooked on nicotine. I stopped smoking at 62 when I couldn't afford it any more. I chewed Nicorette for several years until I could finally break free. I still remember with pleasure the social times that I smoked -- after meals, at a bar, having coffee with friends. I tried a cigarette a few years ago. You would have thought I was 14 and trying my first smoke -- it gagged me and I coughed. I laughed and said, "Well, I guess I'm not going to smoke again." BTW, I had serious TB in the fourth grade. My X-rays still show the scars. And yet despite all the misuse of my lungs, my functioning is 98% in one lung and 100% in the other. Ain't I the lucky one at 87?
@sewinggrannieHow in the heck can you smoke 3 packs a day? That's 60 cigarettes. Take off 8 hours for sleep. 16 hours is 960 minutes. Divide that by 60 and you get 16 minutes. That's about 4 cigarettes an hour. I smoked from age 31 to 62 -- a pack a day -- and would NEVER have been able to do that. You just can't puff fast enough. crazy
@sewinggrannieI’m gonna be blunt and to the point ! I have absolutely NO SYMPATHY for people who smoke, especially chain smokers. Is it gonna kill you ? As far as I am concerned all the tobacco on the planet should be disintegrated and nuked ! The world will be a far healthier place to live and survive !
@anthonyvees9400Betty, not Bet. God, how can even a robot not know that?!
@SKF358People smoke because they have an oral consumption addiction. They didn't get enough breast feeding as an infant. They keep smoking despite health warnings because it never hits on the first cigarette or even the first year, so the smoker thinks it won't hurt him now or maybe ever.
@SKF358When you say three or four packs a day, that's misleading! Given for 8 hours of sleep a night, that leaves only 16 hours left in the day to consume those three or four packs of smokes! That's up to 80 cigarettes in 16 hours! That's 5 cigs every hour or one every 6 minutes! Cigarettes usually last about 6 minutes, so thats chain smoking for 16 hours straight! Every day! Yucchhh!
@CHJMusicAI slop.
@tomsrensen9382Bro, you can talk a little faster
@leahtv7778DISGUSTING FILTHY HABIT!!! My son was born with a very bad heart {Transposition of the great Vessels; Aorta and Pulmonary Artery were reversed.), but he smoked like a damn idiot!! It killed him and he left a daughter!!! WROST DRUG IN THE WORLD!!
@ironman1518.I quit 20 years ago. I never stopped wanting one.
@IngothniaMy dad died at 60 with lung cancer. He was a heavy smoker. In his last days he looked like a walking skeleton, his bodily totally consumed by his illness. He reminded me of those old documentaries about the liberation of concentration camps. I'll never forget that.
@Zoydian"I used to smoke five packs of cigarettes a day... it Was the hardest thing to put them away! I drank four or five bottles of wine. I had a glass in my hand all the time...
Breakin' those habits with hard to do, but nothing compared to the changes that you put me through..
Tryin' to live my life without you babe is the hardest thing I'll ever do.. "
🎤🎶
I smoked for 30 years. I started smoking when I was 12 years old. I smoked 1 to 2 packs a day. It has 13.5 years since I quit smoking. I quit smoking with the help from vaping. I was 42 when I quit smoking, this year I will be 55. I had pretty severe sleep apnea from being a heavy smoker. My sleep apnea went away a year and a half after I quit smoking.
@dalejrfan1971Couldn’t aford it nowadays anyone thankfully I stopped 30 years ago I’m 66 shocked at the cost nowadays 😮
@maureenlundie2627If you make it to 70+ your doing well! Average life is not 100. Smoking gets blamed for everything. Most people won't see 100 weather you smoke or not. Smoking is not good for you it does do damage after long term smoking. Like Alcohol it's a choice as bad as it is I like the freedom to choose!!!! Don't let the NUTS take our freedoms away!!!!!
@williamearnshaw3030I quit smoking just over a year ago because the foot and ankle doctor told me if I don’t my broken fibula at the ankle would take for ever to heal after oral fixation surgery. It’s the 3rd time I quit after smoking since 16-17 years old and I’m now 55 and smoked 3/4 to a pack a day.
My oldest sister is now under treatment for lung cancer and unfortunately she is still smoking. I just don’t understand how smoking and drinking are still legal considering all the damage they do.
Eisenhower smoked 5 packs a day during the war and somehow quit cold turkey. Now that’s amazing!
@jamesbrice6619Why anyone would willingly choose to spend their life addicted to something as offensive and damaging as cigarettes is beyond me. Tobacco doesn't even make you feel good like drugs and alcohol, plus it costs lots of money that the addict constantly has to spend. And as an addict you're throwing all that money into a huge corporate conglomerate that did its best to convince you to get addicted, and you cooperated and went along with that. Does that make sense?
@hebnehIt wasn't just Desi who smoked incessantly; Lucy herself was a chimney and her voice, over time, dramatically showed that damage. Watch a clip of her in "I Love Lucy" in the 1950s and then one of her decades later and compare how she sounds. She sounds raspy, scratchy and her voice is very deep; that's smoke damage.
@hebnehyou make it sound like they were illegal.
@ichabodjones65I’m so glad that I quit years ago. They should be illegal
@EllenHoward-y2bThose Stars smoking 4 Packs of cigarettes a day, saw some disturbing ish ... shell shock
@LocomotiveThoughtImagine kissing another person who is a smoker? To an non-smoker the contaminated saliva is transmitted into their mouth! Sad fact is that one sees good-looking girls,shop-assistants standing outside shops, or, pubs, restaurants, smoking. Their better-half should tell them before it's too late the dangers of this addiction.
@ThomasConrad-f3pSmoked 51 years just quit smoking 5 months ago. I only started because the actors I watched as a kid were cool and thus I wanted to be like them.
@JimmieAllen-e2cI smoked for 50 years (non-smkr for 2) and I have the emphysema to prove it.
Rod Serling could belong to this list. He smoked 4 packs or more a day.
When I graduated from nursing school in 1882 we smoked in the nursing station while doing our charting
Can you imagine that now!!!
Got a light?
@kateskeysI smoked 2 packs a day. Strong ones, in the red pack. Then it went up to 3 & then 4 packs, & 5 packs on the weekends. 13 years total. I quit cold turkey on National Smokeout Day in November 1981. A combination of things. I didn't want to be a bad influence on my son. He was 8 months old. The stink was in everything. In my clothes, my hair, my car, the furniture, the drapes, my breath. My fingers, teeth, & complexion was a brownish yellow. The monetary cost increased outrageously to
.75 cents a pack! It was very difficult at first. Certain triggers, stress, after meals, etc. But as time went on it got easier. After about a year, I didn't even think about it anymore. Eventually, it was like before I smoked. Like I never smoked at all. That was 45 years ago! My white teeth are my real teeth. People say I looked 55-60. I am 76! Smooth pink skin, no wrinkles. I work out at the gym, I sprint, I lift. I feel good. I saved lots of money too. I never figured up how much money I may have saved. 🤔 Too busy living life!
AI narration.
@greyjay9202