Darrell H. Winfield (July 30, 1929 – January 12, 2015) was an American rancher and model best known as "The Marlboro Man" in television commercials and magazine advertisements for Marlboro cigarettes. He was a macho cowboy whose image in advertising from the 1950s to the late 1990s made filtered cigarettes more appealing to men. He was the Marlboro Man from 1968 until 1989. Philip Morris has used many cowboys for their ads but has declared that Winfield was "really the Marlboro man."
As an adult, Winfield moved to Wyoming and began ranching. Executives from Leo Burnett Worldwide, an advertising agency, visited the ranch where Winfield was working in June 1968 to take photographs for a new Phillip Morris sales campaign. They liked Winfield's looks and asked him if he would be interested in working for Marlboro. The first Marlboro advertisement featuring Winfield was "The Sheriff".
In a 1986 interview, Winfield stated that he thought that his "life would have basically been the same" had he not been given the chance to work for Marlboro. That year Winfield was inducted into the Wyoming Cowboy Hall of Fame.
See also
- Marlboro Man