Famous Cigar Smokers and What They Smoked

Person	Known for	What they smoked (documented)	How much (as reported)
Michael Jordan	Basketball player	Partagás Lusitanias, Hoyo de Monterrey Double Corona	Six a day (reported)
George Burns	Comedian and actor	El Producto	10 to 15 a day (reported)
Winston Churchill	British prime minister	Romeo y Julieta, various brands	Eight to 10 a day (contested)
Mark Twain	Author	Non-Havana cheap cigars	22 to 40 a day (contested)
John F. Kennedy	U.S. president	H. Upmann Petit Upmann	Not documented
Ulysses S. Grant	U.S. president and general	Unspecified gift cigars	18 or 20 a day per an 1866 newspaper (contested)
Groucho Marx	Comedian and actor	Dunhill 410, Belinda, La Preferencia	Two a day (reported)
Sigmund Freud	Psychoanalyst	Not documented	20 a day (contested)
Fidel Castro	Cuban leader	Not documented	Quit in 1985
Arnold Schwarzenegger	Actor and governor	Not documented	Not documented
Tom Cruise	Actor	Cohiba	Mid-1990s standing order

Grant, Churchill, Kennedy, and Castro each left a documented cigar record.

Per Salinger's own account, President John F. Kennedy had his press secretary, Pierre Salinger, buy about 1,200 H. Upmann Petit Upmanns before Kennedy signed the Cuban embargo.

Cuban leader Fidel Castro gave up cigars in 1985 and told Cigar Aficionado in a 1994 interview that he had stopped.

Ulysses S. Grant

Grant's cigar habit took off after the capture of Fort Donelson in 1862, when admirers sent him thousands of cigars.

His daily consumption remains a subject of dispute among historians. His military aide Horace Porter wrote that Grant smoked about twenty cigars on one long day at the Battle of the Wilderness in 1864 and never matched that number again. An 1866 newspaper account quoted Grant as smoking eighteen or twenty a day while in the field. However, historians at Grant Cottage describe the twenty-a-day figure as a myth. Grant died of throat cancer on July 23, 1885.

Winston Churchill

Winston Churchill is closely tied to Cuban cigars. Cigar Aficionado reports that his favorite brand was Romeo y Julieta, but he bought many different brands and sizes. In one six-month period in 1964, Churchill bought 825 cigars.

Accounts of his daily volume vary. According to Cigar Aficionado's Top 100 list, Churchill smoked eight to 10 cigars a day, leaning heavily toward Cuban makers. Other historical accounts contest this number and cite different daily counts. A cigar size, the Churchill, carries his name, as our cigar sizes guide shows.

Mark Twain and Sigmund Freud both have reported daily counts in the 20s, and both counts are disputed.

Mark Twain

Mark Twain preferred cheap cigars. As documented by Cigar Aficionado, the Mark Twain House estimates that Twain smoked roughly 22 cigars a day.

Other accounts say 40 a day, so his count is contested. Twain himself described reaching three hundred cigars a month, an average of ten a day. He avoided luxury Cuban tobacco, stating: "Nearly any cigar will do me, except a Havana."

Sigmund Freud

Sigmund Freud smoked an average of 20 cigars a day, according to Cigar Aficionado's Top 100 list.

This daily count is contested. The Freud Museum gives no number. Freud's brands are not documented.

Freud was diagnosed with mouth cancer in 1923 and had 33 operations. Our medical overview covers the health evidence on regular cigar consumption. The Freud Museum also notes there is no evidence Freud ever spoke the famous phrase: "Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar."

George Burns, Groucho Marx, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Tom Cruise, and Michael Jordan all appear in Cigar Aficionado's coverage.

Actor Tom Cruise also appeared on Cigar Aficionado's Top 100 cigar smokers of the twentieth century list. Cruise reportedly kept a standing order for Cuban Cohiba cigars with tobacconists in London and Geneva during the mid-1990s.

George Burns

George Burns smoked El Producto cigars because they stayed lit on stage during performances, according to Cigar Aficionado.

Reports placed his consumption between 10 and 15 cigars a day. He was buried with three of his favorite cigars.

Groucho Marx

Writing in Cigar Aficionado, his son Arthur Marx said Groucho's favorite cigar was the Dunhill 410 and that he also smoked Belindas and La Preferencias.

Groucho was not a heavy smoker. He usually enjoyed one cigar after lunch and one after dinner.

Arnold Schwarzenegger

Arnold Schwarzenegger was introduced to cigars in 1977 by Sargent Shriver, his future father-in-law, according to Cigar Aficionado.

Schwarzenegger first appeared on the cover of Cigar Aficionado in the Summer 1996 issue. His favorite brand is not documented.

Michael Jordan

In a cover interview for the November/December 2017 issue of Cigar Aficionado, Jordan stated that Partagás Lusitanias are his favorite cigars.

Jordan also addressed his daily volume in the same interview, saying: "I smoke six cigars a day maybe."

The article noted that starting in 1993, Jordan smoked a Hoyo de Monterrey Double Corona in his car before every home game. Jordan was featured on the cover of Cigar Aficionado twice, first in 2005 and again in 2017.

Guy Fieri and Marlon Wayans each have their own cigar brand. Michael Jordan does not, and the list of his businesses in his 2017 interview contained no tobacco ventures.

Guy Fieri

Guy Fieri co-owns the Knuckle Sandwich cigar brand with Erik Espinosa of Espinosa Premium Cigars, and A.J. Fernandez makes the cigars in Nicaragua, per Cigar Aficionado.

In June 2026, Cigar Aficionado reported that Fieri and Espinosa were opening a 30,000 square foot factory in Santiago, Dominican Republic. The facility was targeted to open on September 1, 2026.

Marlon Wayans

Actor and comedian Marlon Wayans entered the premium tobacco business with his own brand, Liga Tridente. As reported by Cigar Aficionado on April 22, 2025, the cigars are produced in Honduras.

Cigar Aficionado and Liga Tridente list prices from $14 for the Habano Robusto to $40 for the Liga Tridente Maduro.

Four cigar claims about these smokers are disputed or unsupported.

Twain's consumption numbers vary widely depending on the text cited. The Mark Twain House estimates 22 cigars a day, while third-party sources cite 40. Twain himself described reaching 300 cigars a month, which equates to ten a day rather than forty.

Grant's reported twenty-a-day habit traces to two specific sources. Aide Horace Porter wrote that Grant smoked about twenty cigars during a single day at the Battle of the Wilderness in 1864, adding that he never repeated that pace. An 1866 newspaper quote also claimed Grant smoked eighteen or twenty a day in the field. Grant Cottage historians categorize the claim that Grant regularly smoked 20 cigars every day as a myth.

Sigmund Freud is frequently quoted as saying, "Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar." The Freud Museum states there is no evidence he ever said it. The museum also gives no number for his reported 20 cigars a day.

Winston Churchill did not stick to one brand. While Romeo y Julieta was reported as his favorite, he bought many different brands and sizes, including 825 cigars over six months in 1964.

For the wider timeline, see our overview of cigar history.