The other night I happened to catch a rerun of Newhart for the first time in years. I’d always found it vaguely amusing, so I sat down to watch a bit. This was a very wise decision, as it brought back to my attention the late Mary Frann, who played Joanna Loudon, wife to Dick.
My god, she was beautiful. Even with 80s big hair she was simply stunning. Her face was simply extraordinary, and it was clear, even in the demure sweaters & pants they always costumed her in, that the body underneath was smoking hot. Gaping at her, I remembered seeing her on the unlamented Arsenio Hall Show once. Freed of the costuming constraints of the sitcom, she was wearing a tight top with a keyhole in front, causing Hall to stammer along with the rest of the audience.
But that’s just me. What about the rest of you? Have you ever seen an actor, actress, or so on for the first time in years and suddenly been reminded how handsome or beautiful he or she was?
Way, way back when, there was a British kids show called Into the Labyrinth that was broadcast in America as part of a series called The Third Eye. The premise is that three kids meet two immortals, both searching for a relic that will give them power over the other.
The first immortal is a creepy guy who admits he doesn’t know the difference between good and evil. Not very sympathetic.
But the second immortal, played by Pamela Salem, is so furious, so filled with rage, that she’s obviously evil. So the kids help the first immortal because the second is so terrible.
I rewatched this series a few years back, and I was amazed by how gorgeous and charismatic Pamela Salem was. I’ve never seen anyone like her. She was on Doctor Who a couple times, but I’ve never heard of anything else she’s been in.
Someone here recently linked to this Wikipedia article which shows a picture of Denise Richards taken over a decade ago. I was nearly bowled-over with how hot she was. I had totally forgotten. I remember seeing her for the first time, sitting in the theatre watching Starship Troopers. I spent all her scenes looking quite like this: :eek:.
Mileage, obviously, may vary. That said, I mentioned Frann rather than Duffy rather than Duffy because, when I sat down the other night to watch Newhart, twas with conscious knowledge of the latter’s cuteness. Frann was a surprise–hence the thread title.
They have started re-running episodes of “Still Standing” here in SLC, and while it is a very mediocre, cookie-cutter sitcom, it reminded me of just how stunning Jami Gertz is…
I’m going classic: Betty White. Most of my generation (and, hell, the generation before me at least) knows her only as the Golden Girl we all love, but back in her day, she was bee-a-utiful!
And while I’m in classic mode, this is one no one will argue with me. Elizabeth . Taylor. Deep down in the back of our minds, we know she was a stunning beauty. Now a days, I tend to think of her as Wacko-Jacko’s token above-12-double-x-chromosome friend.
Tony Curtis. I’m so used to seeing the white-haired (and, lately, horribly bloated) old man that I forget that he was goddamn gorgeous when he was young.
Likewise, Marlon Brando. The less than attractive older Brando has more or less erased the hot, young Brando from popular culture.
Much like Marlon Brando, it can be easy to forget how gorgeous Orson Welles was once upon a time. He’s so tall! So masculine! That voice! Those lips! Those eyes!
I’m not what you’d call a classic movie fan, and I still sat down and watched Jane Eyre from beginning to end just for Welles. He didn’t score major-league hottie Rita Hayworth for nothin’, y’all.
Get ye a copy of “Wild Things”. One of the finest bad movies ever made. Features some good actors, every one of whom obviously knows exactly what kind of movie they are in so by god they’re gonna enjoy themselves.
Oh, and Denise Richards in all her dripping wet goodness.
The only way to describe this movie is it’s the cinematic equivalent of sitting down and eating an entire tube of Pillsbury chocolate chip cookie dough. An utterly guilty pleasure.
Yeah, that is a great example. Now that you mention it, I’m shocked by how gorgeous she was back then - because when someone brings her up nowadays I normally only think of all the tabloid stories about her frailties and health problems as an oldster.
I bet that nobody would consider Marilyn Monroe a sex symbol anymore if she had lived a full life and we were all used to seeing her as a frail 80-something oldster in the tabloids.
Not only was Liz Taylor smoking hot back then, she was also a mesmerizing actress. There are tons of clips from “Virginia Woolf” and “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” on YouTube. Check them out, that woman had mad skillz.
