The 1950s was the era of the chest, when actors started taking off their shirts regularly on screen, and buffed, brawny "he-men" took precedence over the slim, svelte sophisticates of previous generations.
Here are some beefcake stars you may not remember. Some were gay or gay-for pay.
1. Alan Ladd (1913-1964), best known for
Shane, but a staple of Westerns throughout the 1940s and 1950s.
2. Anthony Perkins (1932-1992). You knew he was gay, and that he played the creepy killer in
Psycho, but did you know he had a Kielbasa+?
3. Christopher Walken (1943-) is also known for playing creepy guys and serial killers, but in his salad days he was quite buffed.
4. Edward Albert Jr. (1951-2006), son of Baby Boomer staple Eddie Albert, took off his shirt a lot for the hippie generation.
5. George Nader (1921-2002), beefcake star, gay activist, and author of the gay sci-fi novel
Chrome.
More after the break
6. James Stacy (1936-2016) was a teen idol and beefcake star. A motorcycle accident left him wheelchair-bound, but he continued his acting career.
America doesn't have a monopoly on screen hunks.
7. John Nettles (1943-), star of
Midsommer Murders.
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8. Mike Connors, star of the 1960s detective show
Mannix.
9. Tom Tryon (1926-1991) was an actor before dropping of Hollywood due to its homophobia and becoming a horror novelist. But he closeted all of the gay-vague characters in his novels.
10. Warren Beatty. The It Boy of the 1960s, known for his sleazoid movie characters and for bedding every women he met. No men that I know of, but he does have a gay transgender son, Stephen.
