My Favorite Cigar
Michael Lindsay-Hogg • Director
H. Upmann Magnum 50
Cigar smoking is a passion that many carry throughout their lives, but none can say they’ve been smoking their entire lives. Michael Lindsay-Hogg, director of The Beatles’ Let It Be film, the series “Brideshead Revisited” and The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus comes close. At the age of five, he lit his first cigar, one left over from one of his stepfather’s poker games. “It was very different from my Cheerios,” the 81-year-old jokes.
His passion for fine cigars was further encouraged in 1965 while working on Chimes at Midnight with the director Orson Welles, who would share his Henry Clays with him.
Along with his directorial duties, Lindsay-Hogg has been painting for 20 years and his work has been shown in Europe and the U.S.
In his younger days, Lindsay-Hogg would smoke four or five cigars a day, but has reduced his consumption to one a day, either with his morning coffee or in the evening. He is a lifelong devotee of Cuban cigars, smoking classic brands such as Cohiba, Montecristo, Hoyo de Monterrey and Partagás. His current go-to stick is the H. Upmann Magnum 50. “Cuban cigars [are] like French wine to me,” he says.
—Thomas Pappalardo
