Sex Symbols Who It is Hard to Believe Were Sex Symbols
Oh my gosh, I knew Nick Nolte used to be considered sexy, but Buddy from Charles in Charge??!! Now that’s surprising.
That’s hilarious, forgive me if I post that cover everywhere now.
The two I constantly think of are both from the 30s: Mae West and Jean Harlow. Never ever understood why these two were considered sex symbols. Not to say I don’t enjoy their films but standards of beauty have changed.
Nolte has a rugged masculine ‘charm’ imo, he is like an unmade bed. plus his voice too. i knew.girls.in their teens that liked him when i was in hihh school. sure they preferred Keaunu reeves and pitt but they.thought tuere was something about Nolte. at least some.of them.did.anyway. he appealed.more to older.women
well, sex symbolness is half bullshit, it’s about PR people trying to pump up a product
Nothing against him, but…
WTF is CHARLES IN CHARGE?
one of the better 80s sitcoms
I think Sarah Jessica Parker’s face just got too thin over the years. She was never a great beauty but her energy and character are attractive to people. Curly hair seems to soften the length of her features:
Young Nick Nolte was rugged too. He’s manly. No matter what.
Nick Nolte’s the shit. It was downright bizarre seeing him at the recent Oscars, though.
I love Nick Nolte. Even though he now looks like the inspiration for the SNL skit “Who’s More Grizzled?”.
also, like his voice ^ he was always kinda nuts tho
I think Sarah Jessica Parker’s face just got too thin over the years. She was never a great beauty but her energy and character are attractive to people. Curly hair seems to soften the length of her features:
Looks like a younger horse with better make-up and a more flattering hair style to me. Or maybe a more tasteful Dee Snyder. She’s not “real people” ugly but I never for the life of me understood the marketting push during the late 90’s/early 00’s to turn her into a role model, sex symbol and fashion icon. Also, her show was terrible.
re: mae west, i think she was more of a ribald comedy act than a sex symbol. she has been well termed a female female impersonator. and harlow notoriously wore few to no undergarments, shocking in the day
i like harlow, she had a great sense of humor about her bombshell status
^ yeah I’m not into her, but ok, beauty is in the eye of the beholder… (Sarah Jessica Parker)
also, like his voice ^ he was always kinda nuts tho
Yes. And I like both those things about him. ;)
Wow, Ruby re: Jean Harlow…
cannot find his shower scene on Nypd blue
HA HA HA HA HA
He was never a sex symbol!
“Or maybe a more tasteful Dee Snyder”
LOL. nice one!
I thought she looked good in Striking Distance, at least at the time anyway.
he was for a year or so, during the Rick Schroder years of NYPD
David Caruso was the real sex symbol of the show, just as suprising
^ yeah I’ll never understand the pasty butt scenes there…
I think it’s just because it was new for TV.
First of all, SJP is so charming and stylish, her features don’t much matter. And her legs are divine.
While I understand the appeal of Jayne Mansfield, Anna Nicole Smith and Pamela Anderson, I find their looks so extreme that they border on the grotesque and self-parody. Jessica Rabbit and Tex Avery’s Riding Hood look truer to life.
Ruby: I totally agree with you on Harlow and West. I feel the same can also be said for Marilyn Monroe.
For my money, Sophia Loren and Brigitte Bardot are cinema’s sexiest ladies.
His status in France seems to astound some Americans
I think he has great talent and charm.
And her legs are divine.
She was a ballet dancer. That’s why.
The thing with Harlow is just watching The Public Enemy she looks frightening in her platinum blonde hair and exaggerated makeup, her face could have used the grapefruit rather than poor Mae Clarke. Granted this is just personal opinion.
There is a difference between a sex symbol and great screen charisma. I can’t honestly consider Gerard a sex symbol, although once upon a time in the 70s and early 80s he was in pretty good shape, but you can’t deny that he has incredible screen charisma. Whenever he’s on screen you’re naturally drawn to him. The same can be said for someone like Spencer Tracy who was by no means a good looking guy but he had that screen presence that all great movie stars possess.
SJP is a tranny donkey witch to quote South Park, seriously her and Julia Roberts make me slightly nauseous.
I guess at the end of the day “beauty is in the eye of the beholder” and all that crap. Take a few years ago when Matt Damon was named the sexiest man alive. I figured “that’s odd but whatever”, meanwhile my sister in law nearly vomited because of how repulsive she finds him, so go figure.
I will also defend Sarah Jessica Parker. Even though I can’t stand Sex and the City, I had a huge crush on her in Hocus Pocus :)
I remember many years back, I made some comment to an ex-gf about how Matt Dillon was a sex symbol, and she didn’t believe me. I think that she was only familiar with the more recent (mainly Something About Mary) Dillon. But I am assuming that this an “I can’t believe they were EVER sex symbols” thread, not an “I can’t believe they USED to be sex symbols” thread.
Whoever said Mae West and Jean Harlow, I will take it one step further and just say that i have almost never found myself attracted to an actress in a film before the 40’s. I finally partly came around on Claudette Colbert, but that’s the only exception I can think of.
Man, this list could on forever, but I have to mention Megan Fox. I just don’t understand the appeal.
WPQX wrote: “There is a difference between a sex symbol and great screen charisma”
Hmmm, I might disagree. I think it is very, very difficult to become a sex symbol based on charisma alone. God bless him, but Phillip Seymour Hoffman never could have been a sex symbol. But I think that a great screen charisma (or stage persona if you’re on the stage) is absolutely essential in being a sex symbol. Which is why I was very, very close to putting Kathleen Turner, but I think that her charisma ultimately overrides any sort of “perfect feature” beauty (or whatever we are calling it)
Also, I will defend Matt Damon :)
Dennis Brian
I told my girlfriend that Nick Nolte was once People’s Sexiest Man Alive. She was incredulous.
All the way up to 1994, he was playing the love interest of people of the moment (Joley Richardson and Julia Roberts). Aside from working with Alan Rudloph, he was suddenly playing gruff old men, why did this happen to him and not, Sean Connery or Sly Stallone?
Wilie Aames is another one. He went from above to Celeb Fit Club
There are women to name to, but I don’t want to be cruel.