1)  First off, I'd like to find out what the mean life expectancy of
male physicians
is in the United States (and, if possible, the standard deviation). 
I've seen 58 a few times, but the statistic was uncited.

2)  Furthermore, if possible, I'd like to find out the same sort of
statistic broken down by country worldwide (e.g., avg. lifespan of
male doctors in Italy, or the U.K., etc.), and finally, broken down by
state in the U.S. itself.  

3)  Lastly, if morbidity (and nature thereof)
figures can be found for the above geographical breakdowns for male
physicians, that would be wonderful.  I'd really appreciate the help!

Best,
Arjun

arjund -

The major source for statistics on life expectancy and morbidity in
the US is the NCHS.

NCHS (National Center for Health Statistics) Latest life tables

http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr50/nvsr50_06.pdf

The NCHS tracks morbidity by occupation, but not life expectancy.

I was not able to locate an alternative source for the data you are
seeking, but I have no doubt that the mean life expectancy for
physicians in the US is far closer to the overall average which is
currently about 76.  Given the large number of physicians (several
hundred thousand), their statistical distribution must be
approximately normal.

thanks,
ragingacademic

In regards to your point, "ragingacademic," one would figure the
statistical distribution of male physicians' lifespans would be
approximately a normal distribution, all things being equal.  However,
I'm not sure they are, which is why I posed the question in the first
place.  I've been told by someone who works for a large HMO that the
mean life expectancy for male physicians in the U.S. is 58, and also
seen this elsewhere (both times unsupported by data or analysis).  The
reason given was the stressful and otherwise unhealthy lifestyle often
shared by most male doctors.  I wanted to verify/refute this claim,
and also explore the idea a bit further with hard data/analysis.  I'd
briefly paged through some vital statistics at the NCHS previously,
and found studies of the changes in life expectancy as linked with
physicians who smoke tobacco, but oddly enough, no aggregate such
figures for male physicians.  In any case, any help would be
appreciated.

No definitive, recent info for you, but I thought the following
article from a few years back might be of interest (I've quoted only a
bit of it here):

http://www.ncahf.org/nl/1996/3-4.html

"Maverick veterinarian Joel Wallach is selling video and audio tapes
titled Dead Doctors Don't Lie! proclaiming that physicians have a life
expectancy of only 58 years. This sends the message that doctors are
so wrongheaded that they themselves live significantly shorter lives
than the general population.  It is not clear where Wallach gets his
data, but it is a lie.  Physicians have long had life expectancies
that are longer than the general population. Goodman [1] reviewed
reports on physician life expectancies in 1925, 1938-42, 1949-51, and
1971. His study covered the 1971 population of 344,823 physicians, and
the deaths of 19,086 from 1969 through 1973. He found that both male
and female physicians had greater life expectancy than the general
population."

"The American Medical Association's Center For Health Care Policy
published data on the life expectancies of U.S. medical graduate
physicians by specialty in 1988. [2] It showed that the life
expectancy of physicians is somewhere between 75 and 88, depending
upon the age and gender that one chooses"