Tuesday, April 8, 2014

One in Every Port(trait)

Did you think I'd forgotten about my faithful friends in The Underworld? I assure you that is not the case. I've just been faced with many time-consuming activities of late. As usual, work is a challenge, but I've also been working on another show, the rehearsals of which have taken up many evenings and weekends. Then there was yet another injury... I busted my knee doing a “stunt” in the show and that called for x-rays, MRI, etc..., but I seem to be on the mend. That's good since the show opens May 1st and I am the male lead!

Anyhoo, in order to keep the ball rolling here while I continue to prepare other posts (the last couple of ones I did here were VERY labor intensive!), I give you this gallery of gorgeousness, a tribute to those beautiful, colorful portraits from the days when the backgrounds were bright and the lighting did its best to bring out the beauty of its subject, notably the eyes. (Our heavily doctored cover boy today is Mr. Errol Flynn.) I may do one of these in the future with ladies, but today it's all about the gents.

Up first is the ever-elegant Cary Grant.
Clark “The King” Gable.
Before color photography became more readily available, many black & white portraits were tinted, such as this one of young Clark.
Tyrone Power, a favorite of many.
Devilish Errol Flynn in a happy (and far more natural than in the photo at the top) moment.
Fred MacMurray, who seemed to veer swiftly from a virile hunk to a cardigan-clad father figure.
The man with the hair, Burt Lancaster.
Here's Burt with his whole face showing.
Blond severity in the form of granite-jawed Kirk Douglas.
Here we see an impossibly young Robert Mitchum.
I love this photo of Mitchum's profile. I think I like it even more than the one with his full face.
Handsome William Holden (looking as long in the face as Dick Van Dyke in this portrait!)
Tormented Method actor Montgomery Clift.
In this colorized shot, Monty shares a little chest hair.
Fellow Method actor Marlon Brando near the dawn of his screen career.
Here's Marlon in costume as Napoleon Bonaparte. (Marlon fans can't afford to miss the photos of him here!)
A couple of former Tarzan's, LexBarker...
...and Jock Mahoney.
The often intense Charlton Heston.
An unusually light-hearted Gregory Peck, most of whose portraits were serious.
Raven-haired Rory Calhoun.
I was recently reminded of the staggering handsomeness of one Guy Madison (how in the hell could I forget?!)
Thus, we take a brief detour to examine him in a few ways. Blonde:
Brunette:
And a bit of both. What a man...
Yes, please!
And now the beauteous Chad Everett!
Here we find Robert Conrad...
...and here he is in a different pose. (These aren't even the best ones there are of him. Click on his name to see his tribute, which contains some really striking ones!)
George Peppard sporting some pretty pale blue eyes.
Gorgeous blond James Franciscus.
Yondah lies male-starlet-turned actor Tony Curtis.
A very young Richard Chamberlain.
Gloriously good-looking Tab Hunter.

The beaming blondness of Troy Donahue.
One of my reasons for living:  Van Williams.
Up close and personal...
Love that face...
Sturdy James Garner.
A pensive George Maharis.
Cheerful Rod Tayler.
This is a strangely unappealing shot of Robert Redford as his eyes are not properly lit and he's makeup-free/unretouched, but it shows that he was perhaps human after all and not the perfect Adonis of long-lasting legend (and even the subject of the dessert "Better Than Sex with Robert Redford Cake!")
This one is a bit more like it.
Clint Eastwood during the early days of his long career.
Here's a piece of Rock Hudson.
Singer-actor Bobby Darin.
Another singer, Perry Como. Though it's not a close-up like most of the rest, I enjoyed the colors in his ensemble.
I hope “yul” like this shot of brooding Yul Brynner.
Salt 'n pepper strength courtesy of Jeff Chandler.
Remarkably pretty western star Dale Robertson.
After years of in-depth research, I'm still looking for the best photo of Clint Walker and still haven't found it. (Said photo would be in color, with his eyes beaming brightly and his hair swept to the side.)
This isn't so much a beautiful shot of Robert Wagner as one that shows an amusing amount of cleavage, so I am posting it today!
Here we find Wagner at a slightly later stage in his career.
Just look at Paul Newman's baby blues here.
His justifiably famous eyes sometimes got in the way of his aspirations of becoming a remarkable actor, though I think he won out in the end!
Another man with some serious eyes is Frenchman Alain Delon.
This is another tint job, but those eyes are amazing no matter what.
Here's a latter day hunk, Dirk Benedict, in a similar type of photography to some of the ones above. While he looks good, something just isn't the same.

Probably the only one who could really come close was the ill-fated slice of perfection Jon-Erik Hexum.

12 comments:

angelman66 said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
angelman66 said...

Wow, I just got my dose of handsome for the month...all in one convenient place!
You have quite the curator's eye for male beauty...thanks for including two of my favorite blonds, Peppard and Franciscus. Can't tell you how many times I have struggled through The Carpetbaggers for George and Beneath the Planet of the Apes for James, all for a glimpse of their Nordic pulchritude.

I won't say break a leg, because I wouldn't want it to be redundant, but congrats and good luck with the show!! Hope you are healing nicely!
-Chris

Poseidon3 said...

Thanks, Chris! I, too, have watched both of those movies many times (I keep meaning to do a tribute to "The Carpetbaggers," even slogged through the book in order to prepare, but yet haven't done it!) James in "BTPOTA" is just dead hot and that is final... After that and "Marooned," he temporarily made me think about entering the space program! LOL

My knee was injured once before and I clawed my way back to fitness, so I'm hoping I can do it once more without surgery. After this, no more roles that require rolling off of couches, being thrown to the ground, being branded, shot, hogtied and strung up... (I'm dead serious!) I think I'll either do cabaret performances or play villains who lay about in togas on a chaise... ;)

Michael O'Sullivan said...

Great to see my first crush, Dale Robertson and the marvellous Clint Walker - our TCM here in the Uk shows FORT DOBBS a lot, I love watching it. Of course you forgot Fabian in HOUND DOG MAN or NORTH TO ALASKA.
We also love those Delon shots and 50s photos of Dirk Bogarde.
Of course Gregory Peck in the 40s was the perfect post-war male, before those new boys Hudson & Curtis etc came along in the early 50s.

Michael O'Sullivan said...

James Franciscus as YOUNGBLOOD HAWK, Georges Peppard and Hamilton in THE VICTORS - Vince Edwards wasn't too bad either, Troy as PARRISH, Rod Taylor in THE BIRDS .... and Guy, Guy, Guy !

joel65913 said...

Nice collection. That is an odd angle on the Bill Holden picture. He does look like Dick Van Dyke who had a quirky attractiveness but never the rugged handsomeness that Holden possessed until the booze caught up with him.

I know the moustache was a trademark of his but I've always thought the young Gable before he grew it was much better looking. Just watched Red Dust with Jean Harlow again the other day on TCM and he was so hot in it, he just dripped sexual heat.

And Guy Madison-just incredibly beautiful, blonde or brunette doesn't matter.

Knuckles Girlyskirt said...

George Maharis...Yum! Have been an admirer ever since I saw that fabulous 70s Playgirl shoot of his.

And speaking of which...admirers of Alain Delon should check out the French movie "Traitement de Choc" (Shock Treatment)...in which there is an eye-popping skinny dipping scene that will have you hitting the pause and rewind buttons more than once.

Poseidon3 said...

Joel, I caught part of "Red Dust" too and Clark Gable too my breath away!!! I cannot agree with you more about the mustache. He is just drop-dead handsome in that movie without it, all glistening from the heat and with his hair cropped neatly. I was stunned and am glad you brought it up.

Knuckles, I've seen caps of Alain in that movie. He was so dreamy. It would have been neat to see him naked in his twenties, though, too, when his dewy looks seared the screen.

Thanks, y'all! I'll be back ASAP with more stuff.

NotFelixUnger said...

My favorite on this list (other than Clint, of course) is Burt Lancaster. I've never gotten over seeing him in "The Swimmer" wearing nothing but wet trunks the whole movie long. What a hunk.

Unknown said...

Wait a minute here, does this mean that Burt Lancaster was a natural strawberry blond kind of guy? I thought he had well, boring light brown hair.

Poseidon3 said...

Oh, NotFelix, "The Swimmer" has a permanent spot on my DVR (until it gets erased by the provider, at least!) thanks to Burt's swimsuit (and don't forget his brief rear nude scene.)

Dave, I think Burt was brunette, but became sunstreaked after coming to L.A. (in his mid-thirties!) and becoming a movie actor. The tint might be off on the picture of him with his hair blowing around, too...

http://ricksrealreel.blogspot.com/ said...

Plaudits to you, Poseidon!
Yours is one of several film blogs that I admire and the work you put into them...
Lots to look at this time ; )
Be well and take your bows!
Rico