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Top 10 Classic Hollywood Sex Symbols

By Tom Piccolo · August 30, 2013

What makes a Classic Hollywood Sex Symbol, that alluring nature which, for decades of movie making, made women swoon, and men drool?  Though difficult to pin down exactly, whether female or male, both sexes can tell one when they see one.

But what exactly makes that girl the “It Girl”? Perhaps it’s the gentle curve of an actress’ hips and thighs, the radiant glow in her smoldering smile, that star-like twinkle in her eyes. A soft shoulder, the bend of the elbow, an impatient hand on her waist. Pinup breasts can’t hurt. And what about that unique ability to size a man up with a chilling second take, cast a disinterested glance behind, and deliver a breathy invitation or a perfectly timed killer line.

And for the male counterpart, today it seems to be a requirement for him take off his shirt, reveal his muscular build, and sport a perfect six-pack. Dreamboat eyes that shine even before Technicolor.  The suave, the debonair, the devil may care; add dangerous delight to a 007. The “Frankly my dear, I don’t give a damn” attitude of a gruff, handsome guy; makes him the man women dream of.

Audiences held their breath as larger than life images looked into each other’s eyes. They dreamt of being up there on the screen in that powerful passionate moment just before lips touched, and they imagined as the scene slowly faded to black. But with the advent of the sex scene, the curtain went down on the classic Hollywood sex symbol. We no longer needed a symbol for sex; we had sex on the screen!

Narrowing a list of Classic Hollywood Sex Symbols down to five women and five men was a daunting task. How could I not mention Jane Mansfield, Greta Garbo and Sophia Loren?  Betty Grable’s pinup poster practically won World War II.   And what about Paul Neuman, Tony Curtis or Sean Connery?  The classic list goes on and on.  So let me present “my list”; five actresses who still make my heart throb, and five leading men that still show all that a man can be.

10. CLARA BOW – IT (1927)

Let’s start where it all began, with the original “It Girl”. On the first intertitle, Elinor Glyn writes: “It” is that quality possessed by some, which draws all others with its magnetic force. With “It” you win all men if you are a woman – and all women if you are a man”.  Clara Bow plays an attractive sales girl, Betty Lou Spence, whom we first meet displaying a women’s slip up against her fully clothed body.

Enter her new boss, Cyrus Waltham, and though Betty Lou is smitten, she fails to get his attention. Cyrus’s friend Monty identifies that she has “It” and invites her out to the Ritz. Scissors in hand, Betty Lou converts her high-necked sales girl dress into low cut evening ware.

At the Ritz, Cyrus finally notices the stunning Betty Lou, and from fine dining, to eating “Hot Dogs! That Sizzle and Satisfy!”, Betty Lou introduces her boss to the bawdy world of the working class.  At the FUN House, the couple spins out from a revolving floor into each other, rock and rolls together on sexually suggestive rides, and finally a puff of air blows Betty Lou’s skirt above her underwear. Even without sound, this movie holds all the magical ingredients that mix together to mold the original Hollywood sex symbol.

9. CLARK GABLE – GONE WITH THE WIND (1939)

It was his portrayal of the “not so gentlemanly” southern gentlemen Rhett Butler that in my opinion certified Gable’s credentials as a sex symbol. 

That rough exterior that somewhere deep inside housed a tender heart, a noble spirit, and a generous nature, set him apart from the other southern gentlemen with their proper etiquette and exterior hospitality.

Eventually, Rhett wins even Scarlett O’Hara’s love, which is fixated on her beloved Ashley.  Vivien Leigh and Leslie Howard, both sex symbols in their own right, play Scarlett and Ashley. Which bring me to another point: Classic Hollywood Sex Symbols can be found in threesomes, or foursomes, but most often in pairs.

8. CLAUDETTE COLBERT – IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT (1934)

In this madcap comedy, Claudette earns her title of Hollywood sex symbol when, after Clark Gable’s attempts at hitchhiking fail; Colbert stops a car to a screech by flashing her legs.

Thrown together in a hotel room, with a clothesline-strung blanket dividing them, their sexuality steams the screen, and their “walls of Jericho” eventually collapse when they fall in love with each other.

7. HUMPHREY BOGART – CASABLANCA (1942)

“We’ll always have Paris.” Really? What a heartbreaker! Who can forget the look in Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman’s eyes when they meet in “Casablanca”? Emotional pain mixed with love and confusion.  

The passionate flashback scenes of Bergman’s Ilsa, believing her husband was dead, falling in love with Bogart’s Rich. Then learning her spouse is still alive; she leaves Rich on his own to flee a Paris falling to the Nazis. Despite Rich’s bitterness, and Ilsa’s confession that she still loves him, he gives letter’s of transit to Ilsa’s husband, helping them to escape the Nazi’s together. Patriotism mixed with poise and passion, now that’s sexy.

6. KATHERINE HEPBURN – BRINGING UP BABY (1938)

What could get more provocative than trying to capture a fierce leopard by its tail? In this hair brain comedy, Hepburn plays Susan Vance, a flighty heiress who develops a hankering for a nerdish paleontologist, Dr. David Huxley, portrayed by Cary Grant.  When a curious terrier, George, buries the good doctor’s priceless brontosaurus bone, Susan gets involved.

Using a tamed leopard to get Huxley’s attention, Susan tries to win his affection, despite the fact that he is engaged.  When a vicious escaped leopard gets confused with the friendly family pet leopard, Baby, all hell breaks loose. Hepburn is a unique brand of sex symbol, the kind that gets her man with a whimper and a tear. In the end that special something Hepburn has wins the day, and Huxley’s heart.

5. CARY GRANT – TO CATCH A THIEF (1955)

Like a fine French wine, John Robie, played by Cary Grant is a classic Hollywood sex symbol aged to perfection. A retired jewel thief, pardoned for his crimes by his work with the French Resistance, Robie lives in the South of France tending his vineyards.

When his cat burglar techniques leave their signature on a recent crime, Robie endeavors to catch the new Cat to save his parole. Enter Francie played by the princess of sex symbols, Grace Kelly, dangling her diamonds to lure Robie into action. In one of the sexiest sexless scenes ever shot, Hitchcock sets a “love scene” against a background of exploding fireworks, a strange brew of intrigue, danger and desire.

4. KIM NOVAK – VERTIGO (1958)

Kim Novak plays dual roles as Madeleine Elster and Judy Barton in this twisted murder mystery. Scottie, a retired San Francisco detective played by Jimmy Stewart, is hired by an old friend to follow his wife, Madeleine. Reporting on her strange disappearances during the day, he endeavors to protect her from harming herself. 

Scottie is entranced with Madeleine, and the mystery deepens, as she seems possessed by a spirit from the past.  Scottie’s vertigo prevents him from saving her, and blaming himself, he finds Judy Barton, an apparent look-alike, and begins to mold her into the image of Madeleine. Who didn’t lust over Kim Novak as Jimmy Stewart transforms her into his mysterious lost love?

3. JAMES MASON – A STAR IS BORN (1954)

In this movie directed by George Cukor, James Mason and Judy Garland play fictional Hollywood sex symbols, Norman Maine and Vicki Lester. As Norman’s star fades with age and alcoholism, we watch showgirl Esther Blodgett, whom Maine haphazardly meets, transform into Vicki Lester, a talented rising star. 

Friendship turns to romance, and the two merge in a Hollywood wedlock that starts as a blissful union, and ends in despair. James Mason adds a new twist to the male Hollywood sex symbol, from heroic victor to pitiable victim of fate.

2. JAMES DEAN – REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE (1955)

Playing Jim Stark opposite Natalie Wood’s Judy, with Sal Mineo as his quirky friend Plato, Dean is the new kid in town, his family having to move to a new neighborhood because of trouble he’d gotten into.  It is a different kind of love that Jim, Judy and Plato crave. Not the romantic passion that was so much at the center of the other movies listed here, but a love and understanding that the teens missed getting from their families. 

Thrown together by the death of the school bully Buzz, they find refuge from an uncaring and hostile world. But it does not last for long. Though not quite a happy ending, Dean does end up with Natalie Wood, supporting his stature as a classic Hollywood sex symbol. With only three major roles under his belt, it was James Dean’s real life death in a car crash at the age of 24 that transformed him into a cult sex idol.

1. MARILYN MONROE – THE SEVEN YEAR ITCH (1955)

Though Jean Harlow was the original “Bombshell”, Marilyn Monroe took over that role as the world went nuclear. Whether cooling herself with underwear she kept in the refrigerator, or trying to keep her skirt down over a subway grate, there is no debating: Marilyn Monroe was explosively HOT! 

Fanning the fantasies of her downstairs neighbor, Richard Sherman played by Tom Ewell, Monroe is an unwitting temptress just trying to keep cool during a hot, New York summer.  Ewell plays a middle-aged publishing executive whose wife goes away for summer vacation. Marilyn is The Girl of every man’s dreams.  Hot fantasies are cooled with marital guilt as Sherman attempts to rationalize his urges.

Marilyn Monroe carried a heat with her on the screen, and off. Whether a sexy song and dance in “Diamonds are a Girls Best Friend”, or a simple version of “Happy Birthday” sung to the President of the United States, Marilyn could make a man melt.

In one of the more serious movies of her career “The Misfits”, Marilyn still wore a pair of dungarees like no other cowgirl. Clark Gable plays an aging cowboy, Gaylord Langland, heading off to his last roundup of wild horses. Even as an older man, no one questions that Gable had what it took on screen to win Marilyn’s heart. “The Misfits” was Clark Gable’s last movie and in my opinion the film completes the circle. Though Marilyn Monroe claimed the peak of the pyramid, and Gable stood firmly as a founding member of the base, both stand as integral parts of an iconic structure created in a bygone past: The Classic Hollywood Sex Symbol.