Hollywood's Hottest Hunks Through The Years

Doris Day reportedly once said of him, “He was as masculine as any man I’ve ever known, and as much a little boy as a grown man could be — it was this combination that had such a devastating effect on women.”

Grant passed away in 1986 leaving an incredible legacy behind him. He had been nominated for multiple awards, won a Kennedy Center Honor, and made his mark as one of the biggest stars to ever conquer Hollywood.

On the set of the 1944 movie To Have and Have Not Bogart fell in love with Lauren Bacall, a woman over 20 years his junior, and they ended up getting married. But his being tied down didn’t stop women the world over lusting for Bogart.

Brando’s career took a bit of a downturn in his later years. He put on weight from the stress of life in the spotlight, and he began to act erratically. That didn’t tarnish his legacy as a tremendous actor, though.

“You work what you consider pretty hard at your craft, and you’re getting to the point where you’re just starting to feel kind of good about yourself, and then somebody says, ‘Oh, God, take off your sunglasses so I can see your baby-blue eyes!’” he wrote in Paul Newman: The Extraordinary Life of an Ordinary Man.

So that makes it all the more unfair that he didn’t live to be 25. He died in a terrible car accident in September 1955; many thousands of fans gathered to say goodbye to him at his funeral.

And even more tragically, he passed away from AIDS. He was outed by journalists before he died and for a long time his talents were forgotten about as people focused on his struggle. But he was undeniably a very talented actor.

But unfortunately, once that era ended he faded into almost a kind of obscurity. He was, though, notable for marrying six times, and he’s actually the father of contemporary actress Jamie Lee Curtis.

He also went one better: he was the first Black actor to win the Academy Award for Best Actor, too. Poitier had a long career and he lived to the impressive age of 94. When he eventually passed away in January 2022 he left behind a legacy of acting, directing, and trailblazing.

Elvis’ personal life and marriage to Priscilla Beaulieu has been closely scrutinized in more recent years: after all, she had only been 14 years old when the couple tied the knot. But there’s no doubt he’ll always be a pop-culture icon.

And he was also very much a sex symbol, both in his performances as Ian Fleming’s secret agent and his many other cinematic roles. In 1989 People magazine named him the “Sexiest Man Alive”, and ten years later, the “Sexiest Man of the Century.

He was also a charitable man, albeit in an unorthodox way. McQueen used to demand free items from movie sets and then he’d send them all to a reformatory school which he had attended during his youth.

Esquire magazine asked him in 2017 how he would like to be remembered, and he answered, “I’m just looking at the work, the pleasure of being able to do the work. And that's what the fun is: to climb up the mountain is the fun, not standing at the top.”

As well as enjoying decades of movie hits both in front of the cameras and standing behind them as a director, Eastwood has got into politics in his later years. He was actually mayor of Carmel-by-the-Sea in California for two years. He’s in his 90s now and still active.

His French accent got in the way of his playing American roles and eventually he simply returned to Europe. Of course, the irony is that these days, with his young and beautiful looks, he would probably have made it in America no problem.

Having been romantically linked to well over 100 women, Beatty finally settled down with actress Annette Bening. The couple tied the knot in 1992 and they are still together to this day.

Younger moviegoers will perhaps know him best for his performances as Batman’s faithful butler Alfred in Christopher Nolan’s Batman movie trilogy. He’s hung up his acting boots now: rather fittingly, his last film in 2023 was titled The Great Escaper. But who knows? Perhaps he’ll be persuaded to come out of retirement one day.

But away from his notorious series of sexual conquests, Caan was best-known for his role as Sonny Corleone in The Godfather. In 2022 when the esteemed actor passed away, that performance was mentioned above all others in his obituaries.

And while he’s perhaps most famous for playing hard men, he’s been known to take on comedic roles as well. Away from the silver screen, over the years he’s been married twice and he’s had seven children, too. The last one was with his new partner, Tiffany Chen, whom he met in the 2020s.

Mind you, he can see the funny side of the aging process, too. During a press tour for 2023’s Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, a reporter referred to Ford as “still very hot.” He replied with a laugh, “Look, I have been blessed with this body. Thanks for noticing.”

And he knew full well the women went wild for his trademark mustache. Without it, he joked in 1978 in an interview with The Washington Post, “I look like I make love in the bedroom, and not on the living-room floor.”

That relationship meant that Richard Gere has been named People’s Sexiest Man Alive twice, technically. In 1993 he and Crawford won “Sexiest Couple” and then Gere won the award solo in 1999; this second accolade was earned when he was 50 years old!

His winning smile can be seen in multiple other smash-hit movies across a range of genres, too, including Top Gun and its recent reboot Top Gun: Maverick, Rain Man, Jerry Maguire, A Few Good Men, and The Color of Money.

Sadly, Swayze passed away from pancreatic cancer in 2009, at the age of just 57. Movie fans the world over were devastated, and hundreds of people attended his memorial ceremony in California.

Costner is in his 60s now but he still looks much younger than he is. The actor, who’s currently enjoying something of a career renaissance thanks to small-screen smash-hit Yellowstone, credits this to workouts, outdoor activities, and simply not being afraid of aging.

Some of that sexiness apparently comes from his devotion to his family. Brosnan was named People’s Sexiest Man Alive in 2001 and his Evelyn co-star Julianna Margulies told the magazine, “When you see a gorgeous man holding hands with his wife and holding his baby, there’s nothing more sexy in the world.”

Brad Pitt was actually the first man to be named People’s Sexiest Man Alive twice, once in 1995 and once in 2000. And let’s not forget his myriad fine acting performances. Highlights include — but are not limited to — 12 Monkeys, Snatch,  Interview With the Vampire, Se7en, and Fight Club.

“I was never happy with the teen idol tag at all,” he told Fox News in 2008. “Never wanted to be a sex symbol or all that stuff — it was the work that appealed to me. Really nothing else.”

Smith’s relationship with his wife Jada Pinkett-Smith grabs lots of headlines these days, not least thanks to his public assault on Chris Rock at the 2022 Oscars ceremony. But there can be no forgetting just how talented an actor Smith is.

“Johnny Depp has magical powers. He’s unlike anyone else,” actress Isla Fisher said to People in 2009. And then she also rather knowingly quipped, “It’s just a shame he’s so hard on the eyes.”

The Clooneys, as they’re now known, do a lot of activism. But Clooney is still an actor first and foremost and his movies are continually successful. Career highlights include early Tarantino flick From Dusk Till Dawn and more recent offerings including O Brother Where Art Thou?, Syriana, The Monuments Men, and Gravity.

And those things never went away. Matt Damon is still considered one of the most attractive men in Hollywood and he’s dad to three girls plus a stepdaughter. Movies-wise, he’s shown great versatility, nailing roles as varied as an uber-spy in The Bourne Identity and its sequels, and a polymath janitor in Good Will Hunting.

But never mind his singing prowess: just how did Jackman get those tremendous muscles? The answer is simply lots of incredibly hard work. He gained his Wolverine physique by doing workouts and eating 8,000 calories a day.

“I’m not that good’looking. I think I’m a pretty weird-looking guy,” he told reporters in 2011. “Every role I got up until The Notebook was the weirdo, freak, psychopath, nerd, outside character guy.” But he did go on to add, “I think things have changed!”

All that adulation couldn’t fail to escape Hemsworth’s notice: he knew full well that people wanted to look like him. And he was smart enough to exploit the opportunity; in 2019 he launched a fitness app called Centr, and it quickly racked up 1 million downloads.

Pouring cold water on suggestions that he was sex symbol, in 2017 he told the Daily Mail, “I have pencil arms… a healthy layer of dad flab, crooked teeth and bow legs.” These are statements with which few people would agree.

He received the Sexiest Man Alive award in 2020 and he seemed pretty excited, telling People, “It’s a good club to be a part of.” And he specifically thanked his family in the same interview, which somehow served to make him all the more sexy.

“I feel like I've fooled everybody,” he told NPR in 2023. “I think people are attracted to Carmy. I find his determination attractive. I find his skill, like how good he is at this thing, attractive. And I also, I'll say it, I think chefs are hot.”

His next film performances in 2022’s Aftersun and God's Creatures have garnered well-earned praise, too. But he’s also very, very good at just… wearing clothes. He can make the simplest of white tank tops devastatingly attractive.

And what an effect that is! He’s rich and famous already, but Elordi is really still getting started. Who knows quite what great things we might see from this particular Hollywood hunk in the near future?