Actors like John Wayne?

Quote: Beethoven

The father's gay?!?!?! Wow, the other 2 were obvious, but I would have never guessed that the father was gay too.

I shouldn't have said that John Mahoney is openly gay. Like a lot of men his age he simply doesn't talk about it, although it seems to be an "open secret". In 2010, he made a guest appearance as anti-homosexual retired naval officer Lt. Commander Wally Durham. Frankly, a straight man is not likely to play such a part.

Sir Ian Murray McKellen (who is the same age as John Mahoney) didn't come out to the general public until the age of 49. Before that he considered it a private matter, but he felt compelled because of a political proposal.

Quote: 1nickelmiracle

Um your argument is with science. Pretty boy I think is meant to have feminine features and women on the pill are more attracted to these types. I'm not quite sure those on your list would qualify as pretty boys either.

If you google image searched each of those guys in their early 20's or younger, you'd see what I mean. Also reports about when they were idolized, though many fell off to normal star status, if there is such a thing.

For example, Rudy Valentino died at 30-31, in 1926. 100,000 screaming women surrounded the funeral home and caused a near-riot. Frank Sinatra was one I decided not to post as an example, because he wasn't a Pretty Boy, though he was definitely idolized. Rock Hudson would qualify only at the very beginning of his career and moved past it into Leading Man status (IMO) quickly.

Anyway, the correlation seems ridiculous to me; I was trying to provide enough names to make an example-based counterargument, rather than just saying it. Changing public consensus on what's attractive and desirable is much more marked in women over decades, but there's definitely a male attractiveness consensus that changes as well.

Quote: beachbumbabs

Frank Sinatra was one I decided not to post as an example, because he wasn't a Pretty Boy, .

HUH???

Quote: Evenbob

HUH???

Sexy for the times, yes. Pretty, no. But he had a huge female following, so depending on how you're defining it, maybe. I don't think Frank himself would want to be considered a Pretty Boy, where someone like Tony Curtis pursued it. I think Frank would've given anyone interviewing him a face shove if they tried to suggest he was one.

Quote: beachbumbabs

Quote: Evenbob

HUH???

Sexy for the times, yes. Pretty, no. But he had a huge female following, so depending on how you're defining it, maybe. I don't think Frank himself would want to be considered a Pretty Boy, where someone like Tony Curtis pursued it. I think Frank would've given anyone interviewing him a face shove if they tried to suggest he was one.

More pretty boys: John Derek, Jeffery Hunter, Troy Donahue. Pretty boys had a certain quality of being light weight actors who did fluff pieces, and they were considered extremely good looking, but not virile. Burt Reynolds and Robert Redford weren't pretty boys (Redford was a close call). Rob Lowe was considered to be a pretty boy. Once an actor ages the pretty boy moniker fades away. The term isn't used as much today as was in the 50s and 60s.

I like your face shove remark. That's Frank.

Paul Newman was a pretty boy in his early 20's
and hated it. All his life he wanted to be taken
seriously as an actor and eventually he was.
He would get furious if you complimented him
on his looks, he would say 'you make me sick'
right to your face. He also drank too much.



Looks don't last, however.

Quote: Evenbob

Paul Newman was a pretty boy in his early 20's
and hated it. All his life he wanted to be taken
seriously as an actor and eventually he was.
He would get furious if you complimented him
on his looks, he would say 'you make me sick'
right to your face. He also drank too much.



Looks don't last, however.

I don't know if I agree. Paul Newman didn't make his first picture until he was 29, The Silver Chalice. And in Somebody Up There Likes Me he didn't give off the pretty boy aura. Perhaps in his first works as a stage actor it was different. But I never noticed the pretty boy manner. Good looking, yes. Too good looking pretty boy, I don't see it.

Quote: Greasyjohn

Too good looking pretty boy, I don't see it.

In his early years Newman did lots of TV
work before he was in movies. His pretty
boy good looks cost him lots of roles
and he came to resent being so handsome.
The resentment lasted all his life, though
he realized it was half the reason he was
such a success. I just saw him again last
night in the 1958 Long Hot Summer. He
was 33 and even then you could see what
he once had.

Quote: Evenbob

In his early years Newman did lots of TV
work before he was in movies. His pretty
boy good looks cost him lots of roles
and he came to resent being so handsome.
The resentment lasted all his life, though
he realized it was half the reason he was
such a success. I just saw him again last
night in the 1958 Long Hot Summer. He
was 33 and even then you could see what
he once had.

Okay. I appreciate what you're saying. But in The Silver Chalice he seemed more like a guy from New Jersey than Antioch, or wherever he was from in the picture. Yeah, in Sweet Bird Of Youth, that's kinda pretty boy. But in HUD one year later he's no pretty boy.

Quote: Greasyjohn

in Sweet Bird Of Youth, that's kinda pretty boy. But in HUD one year later he's no pretty boy.

He wasn't in either of those, he was pushing 40.
Go back to the early 50's when he was starting
his career, that's when he was a pretty boy and
where he learned to hate his looks.