Darrell H. Winfield (July 30, 1929 – January 12, 2015) was an American rancher and

model A model is an informative representation of an object, person or system. The term originally denoted the Plan_(drawing), plans of a building in late 16th-century English, and derived via French and Italian ultimately from Latin ''modulus'', a mea ...

best known as "The

Marlboro Man The Marlboro Man is a figure that was used in tobacco advertising campaigns for Marlboro cigarettes. In the United States, where the campaign originated, it was used from 1954 to 1999. The Marlboro Man was first conceived by Leo Burnett in 1954. ...

" in

television commercial A television advertisement (also called a television commercial, TV commercial, commercial, spot, television spot, TV spot, advert, television advert, TV advert, television ad, TV ad or simply an ad) is a span of television programming produce ...

s and

magazine A magazine is a periodical publication, generally published on a regular schedule (often weekly or monthly), containing a variety of content. They are generally financed by advertising, purchase price, prepaid subscriptions, or by a combinatio ...

advertisement Advertising is the practice and techniques employed to bring attention to a product or service. Advertising aims to put a product or service in the spotlight in hopes of drawing it attention from consumers. It is typically used to promote a ...

s for

Marlboro Marlboro (, ) is an American brand of cigarettes, currently owned and manufactured by Philip Morris USA (a branch of Altria) within the United States and by Philip Morris International (now separate from Altria) outside the US. The largest Marl ...

cigarettes. Winfield was born in

Kansas, Oklahoma Kansas is a town in Delaware County, Oklahoma, United States. The population was 802 at the 2010 census. Geography Kansas is located in southern Delaware County. Spring Creek flows through Kansas. Oklahoma State Highway 10 passes through Kans ...

. His family relocated to

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

San Joaquin Valley The San Joaquin Valley ( ; es, Valle de San Joaquín) is the area of the Central Valley of the U.S. state of California that lies south of the Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta and is drained by the San Joaquin River. It comprises seven c ...

when he was 6 years old. This move was part of the "

Okie An Okie is a person identified with the state of Oklahoma. This connection may be residential, ethnic, historical or cultural. For most Okies, several (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being Oklahoman. ...

migration" of the 1930s in which many midwest farming families, devastated by the

Dust Bowl The Dust Bowl was a period of severe dust storms that greatly damaged the ecology and agriculture of the American and Canadian prairies during the 1930s. The phenomenon was caused by a combination of both natural factors (severe drought) an ...

, headed west to California to start over. He was the Marlboro Man from 1968 until 1989. He is also credited with being the most portrayed man in the world by some. 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 Leo Burnett Worldwide, Inc., also known as Leo Burnett Company, Inc., is an American advertising company, founded on August 5, 1935, in Chicago by Leo Burnett. In September 2002, the company was acquired by Publicis Groupe, the world's third l ...

, 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. Winfield died in

Riverton, Wyoming Riverton is a city in Fremont County, Wyoming, United States. The city's population was 10,682 at the 2020 census, making it the largest city in the county. History The city, founded in 1906, is an incorporated entity of the state of Wyoming. ...

, on January 12, 2015, aged 85. That year Winfield was inducted into the

Wyoming Cowboy Hall of Fame The Wyoming Cowboy Hall of Fame is a cowboy hall of fame. Established in 2013, the Wyoming Cowboy Hall of Fame exists to enrich Wyoming's cowboy and ranch heritage through various means as it sees fit. Its main purpose in doing this is to recogn ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Winfield, Darrell 1929 births 2015 deaths Male models from Oklahoma People from Riverton, Wyoming