Tobacco Road's Dirty Ashtrays

By Janice Castro

For Patrick Reynolds, 40, tobacco is the root of a small fortune and the object of a zealous crusade. A grandson of R.J. Reynolds, founder of the giant tobacco company, Reynolds enjoyed a privileged prep-school upbringing in Connecticut and Florida. But in the five years since he stubbed out his last cigarette, the sometime TV-and-film actor has become a militant antismoker. Now Reynolds has co-written, with author Tom Shachtman, The Gilded Leaf (Little, Brown; $19.95), a moralistic tale about a fortune built on tobacco and dissipated by reckless heirs. Says Reynolds: "The hand that fed me is the tobacco industry, and that same hand has killed millions of people."

Reynolds recounts that his grandfather was hesitant to cater to the budding cigarette craze in 1911 because he feared that the smoke from the paper wrappers might be harmful. But when scientific tests seemed to prove otherwise, Reynolds made the fateful decision to launch a new brand, Camel.

The resulting wealth, says Reynolds, ignited the flames of family ruin. Despite the author's wooden narration, he portrays a cast of heirs straight out of Dynasty: wastrels, alcoholics and eccentrics who became entangled in sordid divorces and murky crimes. Patrick's uncle Smith Reynolds, a daredevil pilot, died of a gunshot wound and was deemed a suicide. The author suggests that his uncle's second wife actually did the deed. Patrick Reynolds rarely saw his father, R.J. (Dick) Reynolds Jr., a chain smoker and heavy drinker who married four times and died at 58 of emphysema.

No family member in 40 years has held a major job in the company, which merged with Nabisco in 1985. The last ties were cut in January, when heirs sold their stock to Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, the investment firm that bought RJR Nabisco for $25 billion. In his own small way, Patrick Reynolds has remained an annoyance to relatives and cigarette makers alike. If his book is successful, he says, he will donate a substantial portion of the profits to a lobbying group he is forming, the Foundation for a Smoke-Free America.