Very likely more Americans remember the name Jeffrey Wigand because of the movie "The Insider" than because of Wigand's real-life role in outing the tobacco industry in 1996.
The part of Wigand was played by popular actor Russell Crowe.
Wigand was for about six years vice president of research and development at the large tobacco company Brown & Williamson. His hope was to find ways to decrease the health-harming properties of cigarettes, but, according to him, the corporation had other ideas. Wigand, who was interviewed in February 1996 by Mike Wallace on 60 Minutes, claimed that the company had actually boosted the amount of addictive nicotine in its products.
Wigand's complaints cost him his job and his marriage. The company sued him, but the suit eventually was dismissed because it had become entangled in the 1997 settlement (more that $350 billion) to resolve the legal dispute between the tobacco industry and 40 U.S. states.
Wigand became a teacher of Japanese and chemistry in Louisville, Ky., and has since lived in South Carolina and Michigan.
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