William Thourlby

William Leo Thourlby (January 22, 1924 – April 15, 2013) was an American actor, model, and writer born in Detroit, Michigan, to William H. Thourlby and Edith Thourlby. He had two sisters, Margaret P. Thourlby and Gloria G. Thourlby.

Thourlby began his career working on pulp magazine covers before being offered the Marlboro Man advertising campaign in 1953. His rugged, cowboy appearance made him the face of one of the twentieth century's most recognized ad campaigns, which repositioned the Marlboro brand from a cigarette marketed to women into one marketed to men. He personally abstained from both cigarettes and alcohol throughout his life.

His Broadway career spanned from 1954 to 1958 and included appearances in three productions: the drama Stockade, the comedy Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? — in which he appeared alongside Jayne Mansfield and Walter Matthau — and The Visit. During the same period, he developed a friendship with athlete Jim Thorpe after being cast as a Native American chief in a sportsmen's show in New York. The two became close enough that Thorpe adopted Thourlby in an Indian ceremony, and they co-owned a restaurant in Los Angeles. Thorpe also assisted Thourlby in securing film roles prior to the Marlboro campaign.

Thourlby's screen work included a role in The Manchurian Candidate (1962), the part of Dr. Bradford in The Creeping Terror (1964), and the role of Ben Wiley in Angel's Flight (1965), a film he also produced. On television, he appeared in a 1961 episode of the syndicated anthology series Death Valley Days, playing Sam Starr, the second husband of outlaw Belle Starr, portrayed by Carole Mathews. The episode, titled "A Bullet for the D.A.," was hosted by Stanley Andrews and also featured Don Haggerty and Carlyle Mitchell.

As a writer, Thourlby published three books: You Are What You Wear (1978), Passport To Power (1992), and Women The New Power Class (2002). In the 1970s, he owned and operated a men's clothing store on Peachtree Street in Atlanta, where he personally advised customers on style, fit, and tailoring.

Thourlby was divorced twice and had four children: Jamie Williams, Abby Thourlby, Liza Grace Thourlby, and Nana Black. For the last forty years of his life he resided at the New York Athletic Club, where he was among its three remaining permanent tenants. He died in New York on April 15, 2013, at the age of eighty-nine.