Along with being praised for holding a highly regarded status in his acting career, he is also renowned for his passion for cigars. Jack confessed in a Cigar Aficionado exclusive interview that he began smoking at a very young age and even used to consume a lot of cigarettes to the point where he became a devotee.
He continued by saying that he had smoked until he wed Sandra Knight, his ex-wife, in 1962, after which they both made the decision to give up smoking for roughly ten years. The actor broke his sobriety, though, when he was given a chance to play a character who smokes cigars in the 1972 film “The Last Detail.”
I wanted the petty officer character I played to be a cigar smoker. So I smoked cigars while we were filming the picture–real Cuban cigars, which, of course, are the best,” Jack explained. “The only cigar, in fact. I could get them in Canada where we shot the picture. And that started me smoking cigarettes again, until about four years ago when I took up golf.”
He went on to say, “I’m so nervous when I play that I found I was smoking a half a pack of cigarettes during a round. So in order to cut down, I got in the habit of lighting a cigar around the fifth hole and smoking nothing but cigars for the rest of the round,” for which the method mentioned was effective in calming him.
Jack Nicholson's Favorite Cigars
Jack Nicholson, who started smoking cigars at a very young age, has his favorite cigars, which include Romeo y Julieta, Cohiba Robusto, and Montecristo. Additionally, he mentioned that the Macanudo Maduro is “smokable.”
“I don’t think they are from Cuba. I think they are either Dominican or Jamaican. But they are smokable, in my opinion. But I’m not really a connoisseur. I just know I love Montecristos, Cohibas and Romeo y Julietas,” he shared.
“And they’re expensive when you are able to pick them up in this country,” the former filmmaker added. “At 15 bucks a piece for them, you can bet there’s about a 600-percent markup. We ought to recognize Cuba just to give American cigar smokers a break and keep them from going broke. But until we do, you can bet some enterprising young man’s out there in a boat, smuggling them in.”
Additionally, when he began cigar smoking again after a ten-year break, he said that he doesn’t smoke much each day and that a few boxes last him a long time, saying, “I’m no George Burns, with his 15 a day.”
