Alan Landers

Alan Landers (born Alan Stewart Levine) (November 30, 1940– February 27, 2009) was an American male model and actor, best known as the "Winston Man", who appeared in advertising for Winston cigarettes.

Biography

Born in Brooklyn, New York on November 30, 1940, he started to smoke "before [his] bar mitzvah". He enlisted in the United States Army at 17, where smoking breaks of five minutes each hour helped in the development of a two-and-a-half pack per day smoking habit.

Modeling

After leaving military service, Landers took acting classes in New York and worked as a model, appearing in numerous fashion magazines, including being featured in a Playgirl centerfold. He also appeared in Cosmopolitan, GQ and Vogue. In addition to an appearance in the 1977 film Annie Hall playing the part of a pompous producer, he also had roles in several television programs such as America's Most Wanted.

Appearing in advertisements for Winston cigarettes in the mid-1960s, Landers recounted how he would smoke through cartons of cigarettes, ensuring that the ash on the end of the cigarette was never more than one-quarter inch, puffing to make a spiral of smoke just right for the photograph in ads that appeared with the slogan "Winston tastes good like a cigarette should". Reynolds paid him $3,000 to $5,000 a day for the week-long photo shoot, making it one of his most rewarding modeling jobs.