Miami ? Alan Landers, the handsome model who posed for Winston cigarette ads and later sued the tobacco industry over his health claims, has died while undergoing treatment for throat cancer. He was 68.

Landers died Friday at his south Florida home, his niece, Robin Levine Carns, said.

Landers, whose legal name was Allan Levine, started smoking as a child and wrote on his Web site that he was required to smoke on the sets for advertisements, posing for billboards and magazine ads as the self-proclaimed “Winston Man.”

But during his years as a cigarette model, Landers said he didn’t know he was glamorizing a fatal habit.

Later in life, Landers became an outspoken critic of the tobacco industry. Carns said he traveled the world as a staunch anti-smoking advocate and eventually brought his fight into the court system.