Big Tobacco's nightmare

He is one of the most famous whistleblowers in the world, but his face is relatively unknown.

Jeffrey Wigand, the scientist who revealed Big Tobacco's dirtiest secrets and found a bullet in his letterbox, says he's "an ugly old man with white hair". But the world knows him as the fattened-up but still handsome Russell Crowe in a celebrated film.

Wigand likes the movie. "I think Russell Crowe did an amazing job of capturing my essence," he says on the phone from his home in Michigan. "I was sorry he didn't get an Academy Award."

The Insider showed one person can bring about change, that the truth will out, and that tobacco companies will fight to bury it. And that life is horrible for a whistleblower with kids.

"The death threats were never directed towards me, they were directed towards my two little girls," he says. "The bullet in the mailbox wasn't for me, it was for my kids. For a father, that really goes at the core. Here I'm doing something I believe is ethical and moral and as a result I could create harm for my children. It was difficult."

Wigand's revelations about Big Tobacco's lies and deceptions helped sink its reputation forever, and nowadays he spends his life spreading the word and advising governments.

He is in New Zealand this week to talk to the Maori Affairs select committee, which is investigating the effect of smoking on Maori, and to give lectures. His message: throw everything at the problem.

The anti-smoking lobby – Ash (Action on Smoking and Health) is sponsoring Wigand's trip – has pulled off a coup by bringing a world-renowned hero of the movement to New Zealand. It hopes his visit will "light a fire" under the public and the politicians.

"The heartlessness of the people who work in the tobacco companies is beyond the imagination of most New Zealanders," says Dr Marewa Glover, director of the Centre for Tobacco Control Research at Auckland University. "We are a little bit naive about how evil people can be."

Wigand went into the industry hoping to do good. His job was to make a safer cigarette, and make tobacco reviews.

The scientist had spent 25 years in the medical and healthcare industry. He was, he told a US congressional subcommittee on whistleblower legislation in 2007, "steeped in the mindset of using science to search for the truth, to make products better and to improve the quality of life and save lives".