Celebrities might earn a lot more than the average worker, but they’re just as vulnerable to tobacco addiction as the rest of us. Just like the roughly 80 million people around the world who have quit smoking by switching to vaping, though, there’s also an increasing number of celebrity vapers who have managed to switch to e-cigarettes and curb their tobacco addictions – and many of those people have actually vaped onscreen and at public events.
If you’re a vaper yourself, you might find it nice to know that even the very famous and wealthy deal with many of the same problems as you – and just like you, many of those people found themselves unable to stop using nicotine and switched to a less risky alternative instead. It might also tickle you to learn that one of your favorite singers or actors is a vaper just like you.
So, who are some of the celebrities who have been photographed vaping at events or onscreen? We’re going to list a few of the best-known ones in this article. First, though, what celebrities might still be with us today if vaping had been invented a little sooner?
What Celebrities Have Died of Lung Cancer?
Although vaping definitely isn’t without risk, some health authorities have postulated that it could be at least 95 percent less risky than smoking. Being a cigarette smoker, on the other hand, virtually guarantees that you’ll die an early death. With those odds, it’s no wonder that vaping has helped to drastically cut smoking rates in many nations around the world. It’s amazing that so many millions of people have switched to vaping in a little over a decade. Just imagine how many people might still be with us today, though, if the first e-cigarette had hit the market just a little earlier. Here are just a few of the best-known celebrities who have died from lung cancer.
- Desi Arnaz (actor; died in 1986)
- Rosemary Clooney (singer and actor; died in 2002)
- Joe DiMaggio (baseball player; died in 1999)
- Walt Disney (media mogul; died in 1966)
- Nat King Cole (singer; died in 1965)
- George Harrison (musician; died in 2001)
- Peter Jennings (TV news anchor; died in 2005)
- Don Knotts (actor; died in 2006)
- Rush Limbaugh (radio personality; died in 2021)
- Dean Martin (singer and actor; died in 1995)
- Steve McQueen (actor; died in 1980)
- Paul Newman (actor; died in 2008)
- John Wayne (actor; died in 1979)
What Celebrities Have Vaped at Events?
Drake
Drake is one of the world’s most famous rappers – and since he’s a heavy social media user, virtually his entire life is a public event. Drake is a major vaping aficionado, and he apparently enjoys it so much that he paid to have a professional vaper travel to his mansion in 2017 and show him how to perform some cloud tricks. As of 2019, Drake was still a vaper. He was reported to have spent a fun evening eating and bowling with singer Adele. Following those activities, the pair and their entourage spent a while enjoying some mango vape juice in a local vape lounge.
Johnny Depp
For a while, it may have seemed as though vaping might become a new way to define a character in a TV show or film the way that smoking once was. That didn’t end up happening, making actor Johnny Depp’s vaping session in the 2010 film The Tourist perhaps the first and only occurrence of a major character vaping in a mainstream film.
Leonardo DiCaprio
Actor Leonardo DiCaprio caused quite a furor when he vaped onscreen during the Screen Actors Guild awards in 2016. By that time, public vaping was already illegal just about everywhere. However, DiCaprio – riding high on the success of his recent film The Revenant – apparently didn’t care. There was a bit of backlash from public health groups, though, and DiCaprio was strongly encouraged not to repeat the stunt at the upcoming Oscars.
Katherine Heigl
Way back in 2010, actress Katherine Heigl became perhaps the first celebrity to vape in public when she pulled out her e-cigarette live on the Late Show with David Letterman. During the interview, Heigl opened up about her journey as a smoker and explained that she had tried unsuccessfully to quit with nicotine replacement products and even prescription medications.
Jack Nicholson
With a filmography that includes such hits as Easy Rider, As Good as It Gets, The Shining and The Departed, it’s safe to say that Jack Nicholson is an actor who needs no introduction. Nicholson has stated that he was a smoker for most of his life, and he was spotted stepping out of a restaurant to light up as recently as 2016. Lately, though, Nicholson has been seen vaping at sports events and signings. It’s unknown whether he has managed to quit smoking completely.
Vaping in Public Isn’t as Easy as It Used to Be
As fun as it may be to read about some of the famous people who have puffed on their vape pens at public events, it’s important to note that this probably isn’t a behavior you want to emulate. One of the things you might have noticed while reading this article is that many of the celebrities who have vaped at events did so a fairly long time ago. That’s because the laws about public smoking and vaping have become a great deal stricter since then in many places.
Vaping has always had a number of huge benefits compared to smoking. As we mentioned earlier in the article, many health experts believe that it could be substantially less risky than smoking. Vaping is also dramatically cheaper than smoking, which is enough of a reason on its own to convince many people to switch.
During the early years of vaping, though, many companies advertised e-cigarettes as a way for you to “smoke” anywhere since the public smoking bans in most nations and municipalities hadn’t yet been updated to include vaping. That oversight has since been corrected virtually everywhere, which means that you’re likely to face a potential fine if you vape in a place where smoking isn’t allowed.