# Wow -- they used to be hot! **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 26, 2008, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wow-they-used-to-be-hot/439210 "2008-02-26T13:03:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2008, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wow-they-used-to-be-hot/439210/81 "2008-02-28T00:26:32Z")
[QUOTE=Bryan Ekers] Really? That show couldn’t afford seperate dressing rooms? [/QUOTE] Either couldn’t or wouldn’t, which caused some embarassing mixups with wardrobe (examples: [1](http://www.hogwild.net/images/Misc/john.goodman-linda.tripp.jpg) and [2](http://www-personal.umich.edu/~farmeral/blog/drag1.jpg).) ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2008, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wow-they-used-to-be-hot/439210/82 "2008-02-28T01:11:57Z")
[Jane Russell](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane_Russell). ---
**Author:** ![Moirai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/96bed5/32.png) [@Moirai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moirai)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2008, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wow-they-used-to-be-hot/439210/83 "2008-02-28T02:54:04Z")
[QUOTE=5-4-Fighting] Catherine Deneuve used to be [smoking](http://www.britannica.com/eb/art-56512/Catherine-Deneuve-in-The-April-Fools?articleTypeId=1). Oh, [wait](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catherine_Deneuve), she still is. [/QUOTE] Oh yeah. In that incredibly hot scene in _The Hunger_ where she seduces Susan Sarandon, the boys would look at us girls and say something like “But no, you wouldn’t… I mean, if she… honey? Honey?” 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2008, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wow-they-used-to-be-hot/439210/84 "2008-02-28T03:00:53Z")
[QUOTE=Neidhart] I only knew Eileen Brennan as a grizzled old lady with a chain-smoker’s rasping voice. But when I watched **The Sting,** my eyes bugged out! Eileen was a _fox_ back in 1973, and her voice was a lovely contralto! [/QUOTE] She was, unfortunately, well on her way to rasping grizzlehood by 1980, when she played crazy bitch Capt. Lewis in _Private Benjamin_. [Pic.](http://www.movieactors.com/characters/freezes1/EileenBrennan6.jpeg) ---
**Author:** ![Sleel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/73ab20/32.png) [@Sleel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sleel)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2008, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wow-they-used-to-be-hot/439210/85 "2008-02-28T03:09:54Z")
I was watching Heroes the other day thinking, “When did Eric Roberts become a candidate for [Cracked.com](http://Cracked.com)’s [Men who look like old lesbians](http://www.cracked.com/article_15788_top-25-men-who-look-like-old-lesbians.html)?” I watched one of the “behind the scenes” making-of videos for Mass Effect, and Shannon Elizabeth, who did some voice acting for the game, was featured in one of the interviews. Holy shit! She looked like she was in her 40s, not her early 30s. She’s not aging well, and she’s still quite young. ---
**Author:** ![Moirai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/96bed5/32.png) [@Moirai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moirai)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2008, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wow-they-used-to-be-hot/439210/86 "2008-02-28T03:23:38Z")
[QUOTE=InappropriateHumor] My daughter had a “Wow” moment just a couple of nights ago over [Clint Eastwood](http://www.starpulse.com/Actors/Eastwood,_Clint/Pictures/). [/QUOTE] Jeez, I just had one too! He was damned [hot](http://www.starpulse.com/Actors/Eastwood,_Clint/gallery/274927/)! ---
**Author:** ![DSYoungEsq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c6cbf5/32.png) [@DSYoungEsq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSYoungEsq)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2008, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wow-they-used-to-be-hot/439210/87 "2008-02-28T03:24:41Z")
[QUOTE=Peter Morris] Angela Lansbury has been mentioned at least twice already, but check out this shot: [http://www.moviemarket.co.uk/library/photos/169/169888.jpg](http://www.moviemarket.co.uk/library/photos/169/169888.jpg) [/QUOTE] She was quite good looking. I loved her as the Princess Gwendolyn in The Court Jester. Hubba hubba. “If he dies, you die…” ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2008, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wow-they-used-to-be-hot/439210/88 "2008-02-28T03:29:08Z")
[QUOTE=Shamozzle] Not that they are unattractive now, but [Candace Bergen](http://www.gasolinealleyantiques.com/celebrity/images/Movie/coral-candacebergen.JPG), [Kirstie Alley](http://img83.imageshack.us/img83/219/KirstieAlley_K16.th.jpg), [Susan Sarandon](http://images.wolfgangsvault.com/images/catalog/detail/RS344-RS.jpg), and [Cybill Sheperd](http://www.movieactors.com/freezes1/TaxiDriver1.jpeg) were all smokin’ hot at one time. [/QUOTE] All of which reminds me of **Kathleen Turner**. Someone who’s only known her [recent incarnation](http://photos.contactmusic.com/m/sicko%20premiere%20190607/sicko_08_wenn1394301.jpg) might be surprised at the (barely suitable for work) [earlier version](http://www.celebrities.pl/kathleen_turner/kathleen7.jpg). (Rent _Body Heat_ for the full effect.) (In fairness, I believe she’s had some health problems.) ---
**Author:** ![Lisa-go-Blind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7c8e57/32.png) [@Lisa-go-Blind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lisa-go-Blind)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2008, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wow-they-used-to-be-hot/439210/89 "2008-02-28T03:50:43Z")
I had always known of Laurence Olivier as one of the “great actors,” but had never heard him referred to as particularly dreamy. I was most familiar with him from the films **Sleuth** , **[Marathon Man](http://images.dawgsports.com/images/admin/Laurence_Olivier_Marathon_Man.jpg)**, **The Merchant of Venice** and **Rebecca** (in which he was young, but very very creepy). Having recently watched **Pride and Prejudice** and (especially) **Wuthering Heights** , I’ve discovered [man](http://img.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2006/09/olivier010906_461x600.jpg) [was](http://image.guim.co.uk/Arts/gallery/2007/may/15/olivier/laurence2-2644.jpg) [hot](http://www.australianart.gov.au/Exhibition/KarshShmith/Images/LRG/107516.jpg). ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2008, 5:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wow-they-used-to-be-hot/439210/90 "2008-02-28T05:00:35Z")
> [@](#): > > I wish that I could find a photograph, but the only ones I’ve seen were in a book on character actors many years ago. John Banner, bka Sgt. Schulz on Hogan’s Heroes, was a sexy leading man of Austrian theater when he was young, blonde and blue eyed and built, total babe. He fled due to the Nazi takeover (he and his wife were each half-Jewish) and once in America he earned money by posing for U.S. propaganda/military recruitment posters due to his all-American (by way of Austria) good looks. Over the next two decades as he rebuilt his career he turned to fat and got old, so his greatest success was as a chubby aging character actor. Here’s a 1942 [picture](http://www.hogansheroesfanclub.com/images/tvGuide24December1965ClevelandPressSchultzYoungLarge.jpg). Not very Shultz-like but also not very blonde. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2008, 5:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wow-they-used-to-be-hot/439210/91 "2008-02-28T05:08:19Z")
I never realized that the [Gloria Stuart](http://content6.flixster.com/photo/32/60/83/3260836_tml.jpg) in _Titanic_ (1997) was the same [Gloria Stuart](http://content.answers.com/main/content/wp/en/thumb/0/05/150px-GloriaStuartTheInvisibleMan.jpg) who was in _The Invisible Man_ (1933). ---
**Author:** ![Oslo\_Ostragoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/a9a28c/32.png) [@Oslo\_Ostragoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oslo_Ostragoth)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2008, 6:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wow-they-used-to-be-hot/439210/92 "2008-02-28T06:43:26Z")
[QUOTE=Wee Bairn] It may be common knowledge, but I had no idea (until someone here pointed it out to me) that in her early days Lucille Ball was a smokin hot model- the second picture on her [wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucille_Ball) page is amazing. [/QUOTE] She wore miniskirts into her '70’s. Legs that wouldn’t quit. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2008, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wow-they-used-to-be-hot/439210/93 "2008-02-28T15:49:43Z")
She got [Bette Davis](http://www.divasthesite.com/images/Diva_Eyes/Bette_Davis_eyes.JPG) eyes. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2008, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wow-they-used-to-be-hot/439210/94 "2008-02-28T15:53:11Z")
[QUOTE=Rilchiam] And Angela Lansbury in **Gaslight** is as unlike Jessica Fletcher as night is to day. [/QUOTE] Film critic James Agee was moved to write of Lansbury in the 1940s, when she was playing young tarts: “She looks like the milkmaid in a pornographic print.” ---
**Author:** ![gonzomax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e8c25b/32.png) [@gonzomax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzomax)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2008, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wow-they-used-to-be-hot/439210/95 "2008-02-28T17:48:52Z")
[http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://i.imdb.com/Photos/Mptv/1293/0659\_0063.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.imdb.com/gallery/mptv/1293/Mptv/1293/0659\_0063.jpg.html%3Fhint%3Dnm0001783&h=127&w=123&sz=49&tbnid=Y0yT0S9yMQ4J:&tbnh=127&tbnw=123&sa=X&oi=image\_result&resnum=1&ct=image&cd=1](http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://i.imdb.com/Photos/Mptv/1293/0659_0063.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.imdb.com/gallery/mptv/1293/Mptv/1293/0659_0063.jpg.html%3Fhint%3Dnm0001783&h=127&w=123&sz=49&tbnid=Y0yT0S9yMQ4J:&tbnh=127&tbnw=123&sa=X&oi=image_result&resnum=1&ct=image&cd=1) Sally Struthers. [http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://imagecache2.allposters.com/images/pic/54/039\_32737~Jane-Fonda-Posters.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.allposters.com/-sp/Jane-Fonda-Posters\_i275150\_.htm&h=127&w=101&sz=59&tbnid=cVt57yC9YJoJ:&tbnh=127&tbnw=101&sa=X&oi=image\_result&resnum=1&ct=image&cd=1](http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://imagecache2.allposters.com/images/pic/54/039_32737~Jane-Fonda-Posters.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.allposters.com/-sp/Jane-Fonda-Posters_i275150_.htm&h=127&w=101&sz=59&tbnid=cVt57yC9YJoJ:&tbnh=127&tbnw=101&sa=X&oi=image_result&resnum=1&ct=image&cd=1) Jane Fonda ---
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2008, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wow-they-used-to-be-hot/439210/96 "2008-02-28T21:28:39Z")
[QUOTE=CalMeacham] I think that’s an official Church picture, not a contemporary one, and I think they embellish his image a bit. Most of the contemporary pictures don’t make him quite as handsome, to my eye. Here’s a daugerrotype, which looks pretty good: > **[JSMAIN](http://comevisit.com/lds/js3photo.htm)** [/quote] Oh my god… Joseph Smith is a [female Cardassian](http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Image:Ulani_Belor.jpg)! ---
**Author:** ![Catamount](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/catamount/32/2840_2.png) [@Catamount](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Catamount)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2008, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wow-they-used-to-be-hot/439210/97 "2008-02-28T21:43:57Z")
[QUOTE=Biggirl] I was watching the Hitler Chanell back when all they showed was stock footage of WWII and there was footage of Queen Elizabeth. Wow! She was totally cute back then. [/QUOTE] [Yes indeedy she was.](http://www.raabcollection.com/_images/inventory/manuscripts/large_Elizabeth8357.jpg) I saw a picture of Prince Charles in a magazine from the early 70s once and I was shocked to see how cute _he_ was. ---
**Author:** ![porcupine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ac91a4/32.png) [@porcupine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/porcupine)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2008, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wow-they-used-to-be-hot/439210/98 "2008-02-29T03:46:12Z")
It was pretty obvious Gregory Peck was good looking at any age, but I didn’t realize how hot he was when he was young til recently. [pic1](http://www.cinematical.com/media/2006/04/lg_peck_paracs.jpg) [pic2](http://www.noblepr.co.uk/Press_Releases/fox/images/peck_tierney_power/ss1.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Angel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d26b3c/32.png) [@Johnny\_Angel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Angel)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2008, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wow-they-used-to-be-hot/439210/99 "2008-02-29T17:15:19Z")
[Princess Bride: 20 Yrs. Later](http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/popup?id=3370726&contentIndex=1&page=1) was a bit of a shocker. I myself didn’t start out nearly as well as most of these people. I’m doomed. ---
**Author:** ![Unintentionally\_Blank](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/unintentionally_blank/32/5418_2.png) [@Unintentionally\_Blank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Unintentionally_Blank)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2008, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wow-they-used-to-be-hot/439210/100 "2008-02-29T17:21:39Z")
Lindsay Lohan will be an interesting test case…question being: will it take 10 years, 5 years, or 6 months for us to say ‘wow, she used to be hot!’ [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wow-they-used-to-be-hot/439210.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wow-they-used-to-be-hot/439210.md?page=6)