MovieChat Forums > Woman on the Run (1951) Discussion > No wonder she died prematurely

No wonder she died prematurely


She was lighting a cigarette in nearly every scene in this movie. She died at fifty-one of cancer of the esophagus. What a waste of life, for such a stupid reason.

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That's not really fair. It seems every movie I watch from that era had the smoking obsessed characters. Even if they weren't smoking, there would be a cloud of smoke hovering around them at any given point. Someone would be in a hospital bed and they'd light a cigarette.

They could be in the middle of kissing and all of a sudden their love interest would blow smoke right into their face. How romantic. With all that smoking during those times it's a wonder so many actors lived so long. Ms. Sheridan was just unfortunate that something developed in her.


Woman, man! That's the way it should be Tarzan. [Tarzan and his mate]

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Yes, you seem to be supporting my point. She was just unfortunate that her body was not able to withstand the punishment she dealt it by smoking all the time. Very sad waste of life for no good reason.

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How do you know that the cancer she got was a direct correlation of her smoking?

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Dennis O'Keefe died of cancer at age 60.

There are a lot of environmental causes of cancer, certainly in those days.

In addition to cigarette smoking and secondary smoke, heavy industry spewed carcinogens into the air and into rivers and streams.

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