Did you think I'd forgotten about my faithful friends in The Underworld? I assure you that is not the case. I've just been faced with many time-consuming activities of late. As usual, work is a challenge, but I've also been working on another show, the rehearsals of which have taken up many evenings and weekends. Then there was yet another injury... I busted my knee doing a “stunt” in the show and that called for x-rays, MRI, etc..., but I seem to be on the mend. That's good since the show opens May 1st and I am the male lead! Anyhoo, in order to keep the ball rolling here while I continue to prepare other posts (the last couple of ones I did here were VERY labor intensive!), I give you this gallery of gorgeousness, a tribute to those beautiful, colorful portraits from the days when the backgrounds were bright and the lighting did its best to bring out the beauty of its subject, notably the eyes. (Our heavily doctored cover boy today is Mr. Errol Flynn.) I may do one of these in the future with ladies, but today it's all about the gents. Up first is the ever-elegant Cary Grant. Clark “The King” Gable. Before color photography became more readily available, many black & white portraits were tinted, such as this one of young Clark. Tyrone Power, a favorite of many. Devilish Errol Flynn in a happy (and far more natural than in the photo at the top) moment. Fred MacMurray, who seemed to veer swiftly from a virile hunk to a cardigan-clad father figure. The man with the hair, Burt Lancaster. Here's Burt with his whole face showing. Blond severity in the form of granite-jawed Kirk Douglas. Here we see an impossibly young Robert Mitchum. I love this photo of Mitchum's profile. I think I like it even more than the one with his full face. Handsome William Holden (looking as long in the face as Dick Van Dyke in this portrait!) Tormented Method actor Montgomery Clift. In this colorized shot, Monty shares a little chest hair. Fellow Method actor Marlon Brando near the dawn of his screen career. Here's Marlon in costume as Napoleon Bonaparte. (Marlon fans can't afford to miss the photos of him here!) A couple of former Tarzan's, LexBarker... ...and Jock Mahoney. The often intense Charlton Heston. An unusually light-hearted Gregory Peck, most of whose portraits were serious. Raven-haired Rory Calhoun. I was recently reminded of the staggering handsomeness of one Guy Madison (how in the hell could I forget?!) Thus, we take a brief detour to examine him in a few ways. Blonde: Brunette: And a bit of both. What a man... Yes, please! And now the beauteous Chad Everett! Here we find Robert Conrad... ...and here he is in a different pose. (These aren't even the best ones there are of him. Click on his name to see his tribute, which contains some really striking ones!) George Peppard sporting some pretty pale blue eyes. Gorgeous blond James Franciscus. Yondah lies male-starlet-turned actor Tony Curtis. A very young Richard Chamberlain. Gloriously good-looking Tab Hunter. The beaming blondness of Troy Donahue. One of my reasons for living: Van Williams. Up close and personal... Love that face... Sturdy James Garner. A pensive George Maharis. Cheerful Rod Tayler. This is a strangely unappealing shot of Robert Redford as his eyes are not properly lit and he's makeup-free/unretouched, but it shows that he was perhaps human after all and not the perfect Adonis of long-lasting legend (and even the subject of the dessert "Better Than Sex with Robert Redford Cake!") This one is a bit more like it. Clint Eastwood during the early days of his long career. Here's a piece of Rock Hudson. Singer-actor Bobby Darin. Another singer, Perry Como. Though it's not a close-up like most of the rest, I enjoyed the colors in his ensemble. I hope “yul” like this shot of brooding Yul Brynner. Salt 'n pepper strength courtesy of Jeff Chandler. Remarkably pretty western star Dale Robertson. After years of in-depth research, I'm still looking for the best photo of Clint Walker and still haven't found it. (Said photo would be in color, with his eyes beaming brightly and his hair swept to the side.) This isn't so much a beautiful shot of Robert Wagner as one that shows an amusing amount of cleavage, so I am posting it today! Here we find Wagner at a slightly later stage in his career. Just look at Paul Newman's baby blues here. His justifiably famous eyes sometimes got in the way of his aspirations of becoming a remarkable actor, though I think he won out in the end! Another man with some serious eyes is Frenchman Alain Delon. This is another tint job, but those eyes are amazing no matter what. Here's a latter day hunk, Dirk Benedict, in a similar type of photography to some of the ones above. While he looks good, something just isn't the same. Probably the only one who could really come close was the ill-fated slice of perfection Jon-Erik Hexum.
