COMPANY

Founded 1890 by James Buchanan Duke. An antitrust court ruling in 1911 severed the company into four pieces: American Tobacco Company, R. J. Reynolds, Liggett & Myers Tobacco Company (now Liggett Group), and Lorillard Tobacco. The remnant was eventually acquired by Brown & Williamson in 1994.

Industry:
Tobacco

Corporate headquarters:
Durham, NC

EXECUTIVES

Name	Occupation	Birth	Death	Known for
James Buchanan Duke	Business	23-Dec-1856	10-Oct-1925	American Tobacco Company
John H. Hager	Politician	28-Aug-1936		Lt. Governor of Virginia, 1998-2002

CELEBRITY ENDORSEMENTS

Name	Occupation	Birth	Death	Known for
Jack Benny	Actor	14-Feb-1894	26-Dec-1974	The Jack Benny Show
Janet Blair	Actor	23-Apr-1921	19-Feb-2007	Night of the Eagle
Joan Blondell	Actor	30-Aug-1906	25-Dec-1979	A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
Claudette Colbert	Actor	13-Sep-1903	30-Jul-1996	It Happened One Night
Joan Crawford	Actor	23-Mar-1905	10-May-1977	What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?
Dolores del Rio	Actor	3-Aug-1905	11-Apr-1983	Flying Down to Rio
Marlene Dietrich	Actor	27-Dec-1901	6-May-1992	The Blue Angel
Amelia Earhart	Aviator	24-Jul-1897	2-Jul-1937	Misplaced aviatrix
Sally Eilers	Actor	11-Dec-1908	5-Jan-1978	Coroner Creek
Frances Farmer	Actor	19-Sep-1913	1-Aug-1970	Hollywood actress, institutionalized
Alice Faye	Actor	5-May-1915	9-May-1998	Fallen Angel
Henry Fonda	Actor	16-May-1905	12-Aug-1982	12 Angry Men
Anne Francis	Actor	16-Sep-1930	2-Jan-2011	Forbidden Planet
Jean Harlow	Actor	3-Mar-1911	7-Jun-1937	Bombshell
Helen Hayes	Actor	10-Oct-1900	17-Mar-1993	First Lady of the Theater
Bob Hope	Comic	29-May-1903	27-Jul-2003	Centenarian comic
Miriam Hopkins	Actor	18-Oct-1902	9-Oct-1972	The Story of Temple Drake
Al Jolson	Singer	26-May-1886	23-Oct-1950	The Jazz Singer
Carole Lombard	Actor	6-Oct-1908	16-Jan-1942	My Man Godfrey
Alice Roosevelt Longworth	Socialite	12-Feb-1884	20-Feb-1980	The Other Washington Monument
Myrna Loy	Actor	2-Aug-1905	14-Dec-1993	The Thin Man
Ray Milland	Actor	3-Jan-1907	10-Mar-1986	The Lost Weekend
Robert Montgomery	Actor	21-May-1904	27-Sep-1981	Mr. and Mrs. Smith
Lilli Palmer	Actor	24-May-1914	27-Jan-1986	The Four Poster
Dick Powell	Actor	14-Nov-1904	2-Jan-1963	The Bad and the Beautiful
George Raft	Actor	26-Sep-1895	24-Nov-1980	Actor with Mafia ties
Edward G. Robinson	Actor	12-Dec-1893	26-Jan-1973	Key Largo
Barbara Stanwyck	Actor	16-Jul-1907	20-Jan-1990	Double Indemnity
Margaret Sullavan	Actor	16-May-1911	1-Jan-1960	The Shop Around the Corner
Gloria Swanson	Actor	27-Mar-1897	4-Apr-1983	Sunset Blvd.
Robert Taylor	Actor	5-Aug-1911	8-Jun-1969	Quo Vadis
Spencer Tracy	Actor	5-Apr-1900	10-Jun-1967	Two consecutive Best Actor Oscars
Lana Turner	Actor	8-Feb-1920	29-Jun-1995	The Postman Always Rings Twice
Lupe Velez	Actor	18-Jul-1908	13-Dec-1944	The Mexican Spitfire
Ted Williams	Baseball	30-Aug-1918	5-Jul-2002	Cryonically preserved .400 hitter
Jane Wyatt	Actor	12-Aug-1910	20-Oct-2006	Father Knows Best
Florenz Ziegfeld	Theatre Producer	21-Mar-1869	22-Jul-1932	The Ziegfeld Follies

Copyright ©2025