Thursday, September 7, 2023

The Marlboro Man


'Early Marlboro Men the ones depicted in the advertisements, were meant to show masculine men doing what masculine men do.'

Always (1989)

I didn't really know much about model turned actor Brad Johnson until last year.  I think the only movie I'd ever seen Johnson in was 1989's Always.  Still, I knew he had done some underwear modeling, and was in other films and television shows.  Although I never spotlighted his work on FH, I did featured him a few times in birthday posts.


Last fall, while starting a birthday post for October 24th, I learned that Johnson had passed away from complications from Covid.  I began to research his career, and how it was time as a rodeo star that led the handsome Johnson to be discovered by a scout who was looking for cowboys for a beer commercial.


The scout was clearly as taken with Johnson's handsome face as so many of us were, and this led to other modeling gigs including working for Calvin Klein, and a stint as the Marlboro Man.  Given how bad we now know cigarettes are from us, Marlboro was looking for handsome, healthy looking men to push their brand.  Johnson fit the bill.   Check out more Johnson, including some of his early underwear ads, and his one and only on-screen nude scene on the NEXT PAGE HERE:

No comments: