12 replies to this topic

[cubanmiamiboy]

A group of friends, compossed by both genres, had a little discussion tonight post cinema in which we couldn't agree at all... So this are the contenders. Please, vote and let us know the "why" of your pick if you may...

Who's the prettiest...?

Clift.
http://images2.fanpo...48-1024-768.jpg

Newman
http://www.comunicat...ul_Newman_2.gif

Brando
http://media-1.web.b...50-1AE6A31D.jpg

Curtis
http://4.bp.blogspot...ny+Curtis+2.jpg

[miliosr]

I voted for Montgomery Clift but I would have voted for Ramon Novarro (circa 1929-30) or Tyrone Power if those options had been available.

[Helene]

I just added the "Other" option with a request for a link to a page with photo.

[Quiggin]

The grouping of these actors implies a method acting kind of authenticity as a consideration. Brando then would be first, and Dean second. Clift is the handsomest rather than prettiest. Newman is too late - and too clean cut.

Fotofolio has published an unusual new postcard of Brando, a darkish close-up (not online).

[Kerry1968]

Since "Other" is an option, I'll have to go with "Other: Tyrone Power."

[Mme. Hermine]

I'm  another "other", with my vote going for Robert Taylor.

http://www.posters55...1010-Poster.htm

[dirac]

Hm. I'm not sure this is an accolade any of the gentlemen in the poll would be terribly interested in receiving. Like Quiggin I do find our options a bit limited (here's a link to an earlier threadwith a related discussion). I wouldn't agree that Newman is too late or not pretty enough, though. He was quite fetching in his debut, The Silver Chalice, the picture that caused him to vow publicly never to take another role that required him to wear a cocktail dress. Newman was about the same age as Brando and only about five years older than Dean, and indeed the untimely demise of the latter gave his career a boost when Newman assumed the lead in Somebody Up There Likes Me that was planned for Dean.

Often the prettiest boys in the era under discussion, which I take to be the Fifties, were not nearly as talented and/or famous (or their period of time at the top was brief)............

[Drew]

Of the four men pictured, I actually find Newman to be the prettiest...

I assume that we are all too old  and dignified to start discussing online who was the hottest...

[Quiggin]

dirac:

Quote

I wouldn't agree that Newman is too late ...

I forgot about Somebody Up There ... I always thought Newman started with Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and Sweet Bird of Youth. I somehow never felt he went as deeply into the roles as Clift, Brando and Dean did, nor did he make them seem as personally dangerous. He was more of a professional ... and too nice a guy.

[dirac]

I agree, Drew...at a certain age Newman was almost inhumanly perfect. I also agree that decorum probably prohibits a "hottest" discussion, a much more subjective category, although in terms of sheer heat generated from the screen it just has to be Brando...oops, so much for decorum.

True, Quiggin, Newman was never in the same league as an actor as Clift or Brando and he'd be the first to admit it, I expect. (Another one of his jokes was about the actor whose career collapsed overnight when his eyes turned brown.)  In the early years he could be downright wooden and I didn't think he was wholly successful as a character actor later on. But he was a skilled film actor and a very great star.

I wouldn't class Dean with Clift or Brando in terms of talent, although he was still very young, and in many respects I'd say Brando stands alone. Tennessee Williams thought the advent of the Brando phenomenon contributed to Clift's personal decline and he may have been on to something. I think there was room for both of them but perhaps Clift didn't feel that way.

[cubanmiamiboy]

Drew, on 05 May 2012 - 05:24 PM, said:

I assume that we are all too old  and dignified to start discussing online who was the hottest...

No we're not...not at all..!

In any case, I was trying to limit the list to: 1-Less than five "mainstream" actors...(famous for more than their face), and 2-Those that, besides having made it to be considered "serious" actors, also had one of those doll-like faces...(which is why I pick the term "pretty" instead of "handsome" on purpose).  II probably should take Dean out of that list.  His beauty wasn't similar as the other three.  For me it was more "handsomeness" than "prettiness".  Yes... I will take him down and substitute him for one that I think better deserves to be up there: Mr. Tony Curtis.  (And anyway, Dean hasn't gotten one single vote, so...)

http://4.bp.blogspot...ny+Curtis+2.jpg


There were many actors from Hollywood's Golden Era that were certainly very "handsome", although I wouldn't call them "pretty".  The four in my first post have definitely almost a surreal look at one point..."inhumanly perfect" as dirac stated, something that others, like Clark Gable didn't have.  In modern times I would establish the same difference using Brad Pitt vs. George Clooney as examples.

[Kerry1968]

I rest my case:

http://www.foxmoviec...yrone-Power.jpg

[miliosr]

Drew, on 05 May 2012 - 05:24 PM, said:

I assume that we are all too old  and dignified to start discussing online who was the hottest...

What dignity?

Ramon, from the Daybreak sitting w/ Hurrell in 1931:

http://www.hurrellph...eimage&imgid=26