While looking up Elvis Costello songs on YouTube, I noticed this stunner: not because of the strong lyrics or way too 80s production, but
he’s not wearing glasses!
My reaction was “why didn’t he get contacts or Lasix years ago, he’s actually pretty handsome without the glasses”? What celebrities have you seen without their most distinct feature, and what was your reaction?
I can’t find them now, but I once saw some photos of Jack Black, at an awards show, from sometime in the early 2000s. There seems to have been a brief pocket of time when he was thin. And it was the wrong kind of thin. Like Christian Bale in The Machinist. Okay, not that extreme, but the same sunken eyes, hollow face effect. Scary. He must have done one of those Jessica Simpson diets. Luckily (for him), when you stop doing those, the weight goes back on just as fast as it dropped off.
“Weird Al” looked vastly different when he got rid of the glasses and mustache.
What about a young, clean-shaven Zach Galifinakis?
Pictures of young Groucho Marx without his grease paint moustache make it pretty clear why he grew a real one in later years…he’s actually kinda cute, but totally non-Groucho-ey.
Tom Selleck without his mustache looks weird, until you try really hard to stop picturing him with the mustache, and then realize yeah, he’s blandly nice-looking. And then, five seconds later, it’s all no, that doesn’t work if you actually know what’s missing.
A young Frank Zappa without the iconic imperial.
Laura Prepon and Lindsey Lohan are less appealing as blondes.
His son Arthur said the moustache in vaudeville was at first pasted on with glue, switching to greasepaint because of time and smell the glue required. He didn’t grow one because he liked the anonymity. He would take the family to a restaurant and use some other name such as Jackson.
He grew one after he went to the premiere of one of his movies after WWII. People were asking Bob Hope and Al Jolson for autographs but not Groucho whose film they just saw. All the talk about anonymity and avoiding the star life couldn’t completely hide the fact Groucho wanted some affection.
Somewhere I have an Ian Hunter/Mott the Hoople lp that has Hunter without his sunglasses.
Kiss comes to mind. Paul Stanley ditched the makeup and later played the Phantom
Seeing Hugh Laurie clean shaven and hearing his British accent always makes me pause.
Young Sam Elliot, without his mustache.
Kevin Smith no beard.
John Denver without his glasses?
Actually, in that video he reminds me a bit of Tina Fey without her glasses.
Drew Carey, no glasses in the Marines.
It’s my understanding that he had his vision corrected a few years ago but there was such a backlash against his new look that he now wears clear lenses on stage. No one recognized him without the trademark.
Charlie Chaplin no moustache.
Laura Prepon is a brunette. The red is fake too.
Pro wrestlers tend to change their look a few times over the course of a career, which can get to be pretty jarring when you look back at their earlier stuff and they look wildly different.
A few examples;
CM Punk with long blond hair and only a couple tattoos.
With some Christian Bale and the kid that played Reese in Malcolm in the Middle thrown in.