When you think of Clint Eastwood smoking a cigar, it’s difficult to shake the iconic High Plains Drifter(1973) scene, picturing him with a cigar in his mouth and a formidable death stare.

This kind of scene makes you want to kick back and light up a good stogie of your own.

It’s hard to imagine Clint Eastwood not smoking, especially when you think about his rough, gravelly voice and iconic image of a brown hat, tan cowboy boots, and a cape — the perfect picture of an American cowboy.

Fans of Eastwood know he’s almost unrecognizable without his cigar in hand. However, the true mystery arises about

Clint Eastwood is an established American actor who became one of Hollywood’s top actors in the 1960s. Clint’s full name is Clinton Eastwood Jr, born in San Francisco, California, on May 31st, 1930. In 2023, he celebrated his 93rd birthday.

Eastwood is also a director, producer, composer, and politician. Before starting his acting career, he had multiple jobs, including lifeguard, paper carrier, forest firefighter, and golf caddy. He tried to enroll at Seattle University in 1951 but was drafted into the United States Army during the Korean War.

When a production was shooting in Fort Ord, an assistant spotted Eastwood and invited him to meet the director. After this, he landed an audition for Arthur Lubin. However, while his presence was welcomed, his acting was described as amateur at best.

At first, he was criticized for delivering his lines through his teeth. However, this soon became his lifelong trademark and part of his incredible acting style.

Eastwood auditioned for Six Bridges to Cross (1955) in 1954 but was rejected. He continued to audition and was eventually given a minor role in Revenge of the Creature (1955).

After years of minor roles in film and TV, he was finally cast as Rowdy Yates in Rawhide (1959), and at the age of almost 30, his career breakthrough finally arrived.

Rawhide, a Western television series that aired for eight seasons, was the sixth-longest-running Western American television Series.

Eastwood then starred as the iconic Man with No Name in the Dollars Trilogy during the 1960s.

The trilogy started with A Fistful of Dollars (1964), followed by For a Few Dollars More (1965), and ended with The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966).

He appeared in the Dirty Harry (1971) film series as Harry Callahan throughout the 1970s and 1980s.

In 1986, Clint also served for two years as the mayor of Carmel-by-the-Sea, California.

These incredible roles made Clint a cultural icon of masculinity. As a result, he won multiple Awards for Best Director and Producer of Best Picture, as well as nominations for Best Actor for his work in the two hit films Unforgiven (1992) and Million Dollar Baby (2004).

Since 1967, Clint has run his very own production company, Malpaso Productions, which has produced most of his films. His incredibly successful career means in total he has won four Academy Awards, four Golden Globe Awards, three César Awards, and an AFI Life Achievement Award.

Throughout his acting career, Eastwood has been captured on the big screen smoking cigars and ramping up authenticity by truly playing into his Western character of the Man with No Name.

This character was an American gunslinger who smoked cigars throughout most of the films, and many fans would find it hard to picture him without a cigar in his mouth.

Clint was known for his expressive acting technique and compelling screen presence, which was always finalized with a stogie in hand and became a staple for him and his many characters.

Sergio Leone, the director, insisted  Eastwood smoke real cigars throughout the filming of the Dollars trilogy to provide authenticity to the films.

For this reason, Eastwood only smoked cigars during filming scenes as he was never much of a smoker in his personal life. It’s even been claimed he kept the cigar between his teeth throughout filming without lighting when possible. Although plenty of iconic Hollywood cigar smokers like Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito smoked in their time, Clint Eastwood has not adopted the cigar lifestyle.

Although Eastwood himself doesn’t smoke, the iconic anti-hero character he was known for claimed to love puffing on short, inexpensive cigars. It’s still unknown what kind of cigar Eastwood smoked in the movies.

However, it is speculated that he smoked De Nobil Toscani cigars throughout filming. Some cigar lovers disagree with this statement and suggest he was smoking Virginians. According to Clint who confirmed in an interview, this is correct.

Despite not always actually smoking cigars on screen, he made the smoking scenes appear incredibly realistic, which made him the perfect choice for such an iconic, well-known Western cowboy.