The wife of the actor who appeared for years as the "Marlboro Man" and died last year from lung cancer is suing Philip Morris and other tobacco companies.
Lilo McLean, wife of David McLean, sued Philip Morris, which makes Marlboro cigarettes, along with Liggett Group, R.J. Reynolds, the American Tobacco Co. and Brown & Williamson.The claim seeks unspecified damages.
David McLean, who appeared for many years in television commercial and print ads as the Marlboro Man, died of lung cancer in Los Angeles last October. He was 73.
His widow's lawsuit was filed Aug. 30 in the Marshall court of U.S. District Judge David Folsom but eluded public notice until the Marshall News Messenger obtained a copy of the lawsuit this week.
McLean's lawsuit alleges that every cigarettemaker in the United States conspired to hide facts regarding the addictive nature of nicotine. She says her husband suffered from emphysema in the late 1980s because of his nicotine addiction and later was stricken with lung cancer.
David McLean began his role as the rugged Marlboro pitchman in the early 1960s, shortly before the U.S. Surgeon General's 1964 order that cigarettes be labeled with health warnings.
By the time the labels warning that the product "might be dangerous to your health" were printed, he had been smoking for more than 30 years.
The lawsuit claims that David McLean sometimes smoked five packs of cigarettes while posing for a single commercial.