Are Actors Better Looking Now Than In the 30s-50s

[Walloon]

@RickJay

It’s as straight as a ruler and even I can see Gregory Peck was ridiculously hot.

Freudian slip?

[Wile_E]

@RickJay

It’s as straight as a ruler and even I can see Gregory Peck was ridiculously hot. For his body I’d trade in mine and my wife’s and I’d throw in some cash.

Regarding Gregory Peck, if I had one it would be a straight as a ruler, too.

[Pyper]

I think old time actors are very handsome, if not totally smoking hot in some cases. My problem is with actresses of the same era. They all look exactly the same to me! With the exception of Audrey and Katherine Hepburn, I cannot identify what actress I’m looking at in any given old movie.

[Bridget_Burke]

@Pyper

I think old time actors are very handsome, if not totally smoking hot in some cases. My problem is with actresses of the same era. They all look exactly the same to me! With the exception of Audrey and Katherine Hepburn, I cannot identify what actress I’m looking at in any given old movie.

Then you need to watch more old movies.

[Savannah]

@Pyper

I think old time actors are very handsome, if not totally smoking hot in some cases. My problem is with actresses of the same era. They all look exactly the same to me! With the exception of Audrey and Katherine Hepburn, I cannot identify what actress I’m looking at in any given old movie.

Well, how about Louise Brooks? Clara Bow? Greta Garbo? Ava Gardner? Someone’s already mentioned Jean Harlow. (How sexy is that dress? Wow.) Joan Crawford wasn’t always so… well, I think of her later on as being ugly, not just physically. But in her younger days, she was a knockout.

I think these women are very distinctive.

Perhaps I’m influenced by owning this book, bought used when I was in my early teens. I loved looking at those old pictures, and drinking in the dramatic, black and white, bygone beauty.

[gallows_fodder]

@shy_guy

And I do think that Errol Flynn would be hot in that picture that gallows fodder posted if he didn’t have that awful mustache.

For you: Errol Flynn sans mustache.

[AuntiePam]

Pyper, I’ve had that problem too. Let’s call it the Myrna Loy Syndrome. Unless you’ve watched a lot of old movies, or until you watch one movie that has a lot of pretty women in it, like The Women, they do look alike. It’s taken me awhile, but now I can even tell Joan Fontaine and Olivia de Havilland apart. I’m still having problems with Teresa Wright and another actress who gets Teresa Wright-type parts.

[Rick]

@dropzone

I’d put up Jean Harlow against the best you kids can offer. Still photos don’t do her justice because she was so alive. Great body, too, with no handicapping for the tastes of the day necessary.

I will see your Jean Harlow and raise you Veronica Lake. Hubba hubba hubba

Or Patricia Neal. So damn fine.

I’ll be in mah bunk now.

[Pyper]

@Savannah

Well, how about Louise Brooks? Clara Bow? Greta Garbo? Ava Gardner? Someone’s already mentioned Jean Harlow. (How sexy is that dress? Wow.) Joan Crawford wasn’t always so… well, I think of her later on as being ugly, not just physically. But in her younger days, she was a knockout.

I think these women are very distinctive.

Perhaps I’m influenced by owning this book, bought used when I was in my early teens. I loved looking at those old pictures, and drinking in the dramatic, black and white, bygone beauty.

To me, most of those women have VERY similar facial structures. I can sometimes pick out actresses, like Louise Brooks, by their distinctive hairstyles. On the other hand, I can easily identify leading men of the era- they all look very different.

I really do think there was a narrower standard of beauty for women at that time, causing many of the popular actresses to be of the same “type.”

[bienville]

I know this Thread is focusing on male actors, but in one of the links someone posted for Johnny Weissmuller a scroll down the page a bit will bring you to a photo of him with Maureen O’Sullivan.

Now, I had been pretty sure that long ago I had seen the old Weissmuller Tarzan movies. Now I think I may have invented that memory- because I never would have forgotten Maureen O’Sullivan showing THIS MUCH SKIN!!!
O.K., it’s a standard line of SDMB vocabulary, echoed by many upthread, but this is the very first time I’ve ever typed it: I’ll be in my bunk!

[pepperlandgirl]

I think Tony Curtis deserves some love.

[Walloon]

@bienville

Now, I had been pretty sure that long ago I had seen the old Weissmuller Tarzan movies. Now I think I may have invented that memory- because I never would have forgotten Maureen O’Sullivan showing THIS MUCH SKIN!!!

That was from M-G-M’s second Tarzan movie, Tarzan and His Mate (1934), just before the Motion Picture Production Code began to be enforced. If you think that’s a lot of skin, wait till you see the movie itself — Jane goes swimming nude. YouTube clip. Maureen O’Sullivan was doubled by Olympic gold-medalist swimmer Josephine McKim for the underwater scenes.

[Jennshark]

Sorry, but nuthin’ beats Kate: http://i262.photobucket.com/albums/ii102/SharkandLemur/katharine_hepburn1.jpg

[OtakuLoki]

Cary Grant not handsome?
Does not compute. Hell’s bells. I’d be tempted to go gay for that…

As for the women… I like the looks of many leading ladies of the past. But I really love the voices of the 30s and 40s leading ladies. Not this bubblegum pop tones you hear from modern leading ladies. Now, I grant, some of that is probably from the rampant tobacco use. But still…