Clint Eastwood & Cigars

Think movies. And cigars. The ostensible leading cigar lifestyle magazine just did a cover called “The Movie Issue.” There is no question that cigars have long played a role in movies. Think Little Caesar and Edward G. Robinson. Or Cape Fear and Robert De Niro. Then, of course, you’ve got Scarface’s Al Pacino. Still, perhaps the most recognizable character who had a cigar in between his lips was “Joe” or “The Man with No Name.” Joe was played by Clint Eastwood, first in the iconic A Fistful of Dollars in 1964. Was he a bad guy or a good guy?

What Cigar Did Clint Eastwood Smoke in the Movies?

Not to burst anyone’s bubble, but it’s not clear that Clint Eastwood is a true cigar smoker. No matter, really, because in nearly 40 scenes in just three of those Sergio Leone Spaghetti-Westerns Eastwood sported a cigar in his mouth, almost always tucked into the left side just after being lit with a wooden match. (In other movies, Eastwood smoked prop cigarettes.) The second and third films in the trilogy were For a Few Dollars More and The Good, The Bad and the Ugly. In all of them, Eastwood is smoking a cheroot, a cigar that is open at both ends. In this case, the cigars were Italian, specifically Toscanos.

The Toscano

The Toscano cigar is made in Tuscany, hence the name. Toscano means “Tuscan.” They are made principally with a Kentucky strain of tobacco since 1815. In the US, this style of cigar is sold mainly under the brand names Parodi and De Nobili, both made in Pennsylvania. The Toscano cigar, irrespective of what country it’s made in, is different from the Cuban-style cigars most of us love.

This small Italian cigar is best described as a dry, hard, fire-cured cigar with a Kentucky tobacco wrapper and, usually, short-filler. Traditionally, the Toscano is produced as an elliptical cigar that tapers at both ends, though today there are many different shapes. Call it an Italian Perfecto. While it can be smoked whole, it is meant to be cut in half before either half is then smoked. In 1948, the Amezzato was introduced. The word technically means mezzanine, but in this case, it’s used to describe a cigar that is half of the traditional Toscano, essentially already cut. That’s the vitola Clint Eastwood has stuck in his mouth in the movies.

Or Was It Really a Toscano?

Eastwood himself has cast some doubt on whether the cigars he stuck in his mouth were actual Toscanos, or other cigars made to resemble the Italian stogie. Eastwood said in an interview that he was smoking a US-made cigar called “Virginians,” today known as Virginia Heritage Cigars. Others speculated that “Joe” was smoking the nub of a Marsh Wheeling cigar, one that closely resembled the Toscano. The Marsh Wheeling is far less harsh than the Toscano and is still made today with Dominican fillers and a homogenized tobacco leaf binder. All the cigars were relatively rustic, thin and could be cut down to resemble a Toscano.

Regardless of what the cigar really was, it was essential to the character, director Sergio Leone has explained. The cigar helped create the “mask” Leone was trying to create for the character.