Amy Winehouse not the first showbiz emphysema sufferer
Monday, 23 June 2008
Following today's announcement that Amy Winehouse is suffering from emphysema, we take a look at who else in the showbiz world has encountered the deadly lung disease.
As emphysema is often caused by long-term exposure to tobacco smoke, it comes as no surprise that many celeb sufferers of the disease developed it when smoking was more commonplace in society.
Nothing was more fashionable in the early days of Hollywood than seductively smoking a cigarette, and many starts have paid the price.
Stars of the forties, fifties and sixties including composer Leonard Bernstein, rat pack crooner Dean Martin and iconic actors Spencer Tracy and Ava Gardner all contracted emphysema.
Ava Gardner is billed as one of the American Film Institute's greatest stars of all time, although after a lifetime of smoking, she suffered two strokes in 1986, leaving her partially paralyzed and bedridden.
Poet T.S. Eliot and Irish writer Samuel Beckett are other sufferers of note.
Closer to home, emphysema forced soap actress Liz Dawn into quitting her job portraying Coronation Street's loveable Vera Duckworth, which she'd done for the past 33 years.
The 68 year-old smoked all her adult life until she was diagnosed with emphysema five years ago. She was told by doctors she only had a third of her lung capacity left.
So she immediately quit smoking and started treatment, which has slowed the progress of the disease and improved her quality of life.
Liz has since said that she would now be dead if she hadn't given up smoking when she was diagnosed.
She said: "I wouldn't be here now if it wasn't for the medication I'm on."
Liz also revealed she felt guilty about smoking around her non-smoking former castmates.
She added: "There are a lot of non-smokers in 'Coronation Street' that I stood next to and smoked. It must have been awful."
What do you think about Amy's shock news? Discuss in our Celebrity forum >
Image credit: WENN
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