Patrick Cleveland Reynolds (born December 2, 1948) is an American anti-smoking activist and former actor.

Born in Miami Beach, Florida, he is the grandson of the tobacco company founder, R. J. Reynolds, and speaks of how he believes his family business has killed millions, including his own father, R. J. Reynolds, Jr., and half brother, R.J. Reynolds III (also known as Richard J Reynolds III). He is a frequent speaker on the dangers of smoking, and founded a non-profit organization dedicated to anti-tobacco campaigning.

Biography

His mother was his father's second wife, actress Marianne O'Brien who appeared in the 1940s in films like The Very Thought of You, contracted to Jack L. Warner. His parents separated when he was three and he did not meet his father again until he was nine. His father died five years later from emphysema aged 64, leaving a will that disinherited Patrick and his brother and four half-brothers. He received $500,000 from his father's fourth wife in agreement not to contest the will. He inherited $2.5 million from his grandfather in 1969, when he was 21.

Having attended The Hotchkiss School, Reynolds studied filmmaking at the University of California and the University of Southern California. He ventured into acting in 1975, during a visit to the set of Nashville. His live-in girlfriend, actress Shelley Duvall, had invited him to the set, and director Robert Altman cast him in a small non-speaking role. Reynolds subsequently studied acting at several Los Angeles schools; with Milton Katselas, classmates included Michelle Pfeiffer and Patrick Swayze. At the urging of his voice coach, he recorded three unreleased pop singles in 1982. He married his first wife Regina Wahl in Ofterschwang, West Germany in July 1983, quit acting and briefly began working for her father's international bus company. He returned to acting after being offered a lead role in Eliminators. His mother died in 1985. In 1986, he spoke out publicly for the first time against the tobacco industry. He remarried in 2007, and lives in Los Angeles with his wife Alexandra and their son, born in October 2009.