You probably remember the silhouette. The sharp suit, the effortless charm, and the way he’d fiddle with a pencil on that iconic mahogany desk. But for years, another prop was just as central to the image of "The King of Late Night" as the coffee mug: a cigarette.
Johnny Carson smoking wasn't just a habit; for the better part of three decades, it was a piece of American iconography.
If you watch old clips of The Tonight Show from the sixties or seventies, it feels like a fever dream. Guests are blowing smoke in each other's faces. Johnny is leaning back, exhaling a cloud while listening to a story. It was the culture. But behind the laughter and the smooth transitions, those Pall Malls were doing quiet, permanent damage.
The High Price of the Pall Mall Habit
Johnny didn’t just dabble. He was a heavy hitter. According to his neighbor and close friend Howard Smith, Carson was burning through three packs of cigarettes a day. Some reports from the mid-seventies even suggest he peaked at four packs. That is roughly 60 to 80 cigarettes every single day.
It’s hard to wrap your head around that volume. Basically, if Johnny was awake, he was lighting up.
He smoked Pall Mall unfiltereds. Those are "man’s cigarettes"—harsh, direct, and completely devoid of the filters we’re used to today. By 1979, during a famous 60 Minutes interview with Mike Wallace, Carson actually admitted he felt guilty about it. "I feel guilty... it's compulsive," he told Wallace. He knew. Even then, when the science was becoming undeniable, he was trapped in the loop.
Why he kept the cigarette box on his desk
By the mid-1980s, the world was changing. Smoking on television started to feel "dirty" to advertisers and the public. You’ll notice in later episodes that Johnny isn't lighting up on camera as much.
But look closely at the desk.
The cigarette box stayed there until his very last show in 1992. Even if he wasn't puffing away during a monologue, he’d often take a quick drag during the commercial breaks. Guests would come back from the break and the studio would still be hazy. It was his security blanket.
The Quiet Battle With Emphysema
Life after The Tonight Show was famously private. Johnny retreated to his Malibu estate. He played tennis. He spent time on his 130-foot yacht. He seemed like the picture of a healthy, wealthy retiree.
Then came 2002.
The tabloids started circling, claiming he was a recluse because he was dying. Carson, ever the fighter, actually issued a rare public statement through his nephew Jeff Sotzing. He admitted he had emphysema, but insisted he was "dealing with it the best I can" and was still playing tennis twice a week.
💡 You might also like: JoJo Siwa and Chris Hughes: What Really Happened Between the CBB Stars
Honestly, he was putting a brave face on a grim situation. Emphysema is a form of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD). It’s not just a "smoker's cough." It’s the physical destruction of the air sacs in your lungs. Once they're gone, they're gone.
The moment he finally quit
There is a bit of a misconception that Johnny smoked until the day he died. He didn't.
It was his fourth wife, Alexis Maas, who finally got through to him. Howard Smith noted that Carson was incredibly stubborn, but Alexis managed to convince him to drop the habit for good. He reportedly spent the last 18 years of his life cigarette-free.
That’s the tragedy of it. Even though he quit, the decades of three-pack-a-day damage were already baked in.
What the Fans Never Saw
We saw the "Nice Guy" Johnny. Behind the scenes, the man was complex and, at times, deeply isolated. He saved his energy for the camera. Some biographers have suggested that the smoking was part of his "shield." It gave him something to do with his hands, a way to control his breathing and his nerves, which he famously suffered from despite his cool exterior.
He wasn't the only one on that set struggling. Most of the crew and many of the guests were also heavy smokers. It was an era where the "smell of success" was literally the smell of tobacco.
When Johnny died on January 23, 2005, the cause was listed as respiratory failure from emphysema. He was 79.
Lessons From the Desk
Johnny Carson’s relationship with cigarettes is a stark reminder of how much our culture has shifted. Today, a late-night host lighting up on air would be a scandal; back then, it was just Tuesday.
If there’s an actionable takeaway from Carson’s story, it’s about the latency of health choices. You can quit—and you absolutely should—but the body has a long memory.
What you can do today:
✨ Don't miss: Carrie Underwood Before and After Accident: What Really Happened to Her Face
- Screening: If you are a former heavy smoker, don't wait for symptoms like shortness of breath. Ask a doctor about a low-dose CT scan or a spirometry test to check lung function.
- Environment: If you have respiratory issues, avoid "second-hand" triggers. Even the "lingering scent" Johnny used to talk about can be a trigger for modern COPD patients.
- Support: If you're struggling to quit, remember that even the most powerful man in television couldn't do it alone—he needed his family to help him cross that line.
Johnny gave us thirty years of laughter, but his final years gave us a very different, more somber lesson about the price of the "cool" factor.