Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Ken McCall: Klugman’s cancer-stricken voice may help others quit smoking

"HI, I'M JACK KLUGMAN," croaks the devastated but still recognizable voice, "and evidently you've got a smoking problem or you wouldn't have called."

"Everybody needs a little help from time to time," continues Klugman's recorded message. "I know I did."

Actually, the 74-year-old star of "The Odd Couple" and "Quincy" needed a lot more than a little help to quit.

Klugman had to be threatened with death by cancer before he kicked his 40-year cigarette habit.

"It was killing me," he says in a recent telephone interview from his Malibu, Calif., home. "It was murder."

Now he's trying to help others quit through a new nationwide 900 number service being test marketed in Las Vegas and two other cities.

"I used to get mad at Tony Randall when we were doing 'The Odd Couple,'" Klugman admits. "He would not allow smoking on the stage.

"I said, 'Why not? You can't stop me!' I was very arrogant."

Then, about a dozen years ago, Klugman was diagnosed with cancer of the larynx and his ordeal began.

He started with radiation treatment, but four years later had to undergo an operation on the tools of his trade.

"They tried a partial (removal), thank God, or else I'd be talking through a hole in my throat."

After six operations, Klugman's voice has improved to what he describes as a "loud snore."

In fact, it doesn't sound that good.

The wracked vocalizations, however, make him the perfect spokesman for "Dial a Little Discipline," the 24-hour support line kicked off last week. The service, offered by the Sacramento, Calif.-based Winter Communications Inc., costs $3.75 per call for a three- to four-minute message.

Company President Judith Unzner says Las Vegas was picked because the company thinks it can reach a "very diverse smoking population" here.

Of course, being the largest city in the nation's No. 1 smoking-death state probably had something to do with it.

Unzner, a former smoker who lost her father, grandmother and uncle to smoking, says there are plenty of good stop-smoking programs out there, "but there doesn't seem to be anything 24 hours a day."

By calling the line, she says, smokers can get some moral support whenever they need it -- from somebody who's been there.

"It's a terrible, terrible addiction," Klugman says. "It's a lot more difficult to break than most people believe.

"But I don't have that much will power. If I can do it, anyone can do it."

That's the substance of one of the six recorded messages being offered this month: "The Courage to Quit."

In the message, Klugman assures callers they have the power to stop smoking, even though 85 percent of smokers want to quit but don't believe they can.

The key, Klugman says, is to survive the craving.

"When you feel that craving, remind yourself -- say it out loud -- this feeling will pass," he says, his voice rising with emotion to a tortured squeak. "And it will! Trust me -- it will pass!"

Klugman's struggle to quit actually goes back 25 years, when he was diagnosed "with the beginnings of something." He was told if he quit smoking, the condition might reverse itself, and after three smokeless months his vocal cords were pronounced "virginal."

"So I went out and bought a pack of cigarettes to celebrate," he says ruefully. "Nobody talked about the danger then."

Klugman says he used to smoke at least two packs a day, except when he came here.

"When I was in Vegas," he says, "I was up to five packs.

"I love to bet, and when you get that Adrenaline going, you reach for a cigarette. You just don't know what you're doing."

But not anymore.

Klugman says he's over the craving and considers himself a nonsmoker, not an ex-smoker.

When he sees himself smoking on old clips, he says, "I can't believe it was me."

Although smoking and cancer robbed him of a large portion of his career, Klugman says he's "derived a lot of good" from the experience.

"It's corny," he says, "but I smell the roses every day. I see this ocean every day.

"I really appreciate life much more now."

Smokers in need can listen to Klugman at (900) I LIKE LIFE.

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