Steve Hayes regales us each week with his dishy, funny, and informative classic movie recommendations as the Tired Old Queen at the Movies! Now see Steve live and onstage at GAYFEST 2010! Click here for ticketing information.

No hunk in the history of Hollywood had more promise or more problems than Montgomery Clift. Blessed from an early age with an amazing beauty, he proved he was also a natural actor and his mother had him on the stage almost immediately. By the time he was in his late teens, he'd acted on Broadway with Alfred Lunt, Lynn Fontaine and Tallulah Bankhead. He was a Broadway star and had a legion of fans, both men and women. His homosexuality started relatively early and it was something he always felt guilty about and yet angry that he had to keep it hidden.

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Bob and the 'Beefcake Boys'

Classic Hunks: Joan Crawford Loves Men

The Debonair Hunks

Classic Hunks: Dirk Bogarde

Steve Hayes regales us each week with his dishy, funny, and informative classic movie recommendations as the Tired Old Queen at the Movies! Now see Steve live and onstage at GAYFEST 2010! Click here for ticketing information.

Every Monday, I drive myself crazy trying to decide whom I can talk about that will stir the imaginations of the hundreds of hunks who read Hunk du Jour each week. I inevitably end up resorting to the ones that, whenever I see them in one classic movie or another, always manage to "float my boat." This week, I went with three hot n' hunky brunettes. One of whom, John Hodiak, is featured prominently, sans shirt and deliciously tattooed, in this weeks episode of Tired Old Queen at the Movies - Alfred Hitchcock's Lifeboat. It also stars the remarkable and often hysterical, Miss Tallulah Bankhead.

Pictured: John Payne
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Pictured: John Hodiak
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Roz and 'The Hollywood Pool Boys'

Bob and the 'Beefcake Boys'

Classic Hunks: Joan Crawford Loves Men

Jonathan Sterritt: Aspiring Actor

Steve Hayes regales us each week with his dishy, funny, and informative classic movie recommendations as the Tired Old Queen at the Movies! Now see Steve live and onstage at GAYFEST 2010! Click here for ticketing information.

The movies have always benefitted from the "British Invasion" and this was particularly true of the hunks that immigrated to Hollywood during the Golden Age. Ray Milland and David Niven, two of the most successful of these actors, gave up their theatrical careers in London and headed west, eventually wooing the most gorgeous leading ladies on the screen and each landing an Oscar to boot. Milland and Niven were typed by the studios early on as "ladies men", cornering the market on playing sophisticated cads and gentlemanly lovers. Always polite, eager to please and not averse to playing low comedy if the stakes were high enough, both men and women were attracted to their smooth and confident authority as well as their devilish sense of humor. They were the type of men I always related to. They may not have been the obvious, American, masculine, stereotypical heroes of the period, but they had all the great lines and all the smarts. They were the brunt of cruel jokes by their more masculine counterparts, but more often than not, they ended up with the girl. They weren't exactly effeminate, but obviously were in touch with and not intimidated by that side of their nature. Although not possessed of the manic, comedic genius of Cary Grant, they paved the way for such later "suave hotties" as Sean Connery, Roger Moore, and more recently, Colin Firth. I loved 'em!

Pictured: Ray Milland with Rita Johnson and Mauroeen O'Sullivan
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Classic Hunks: Dirk Bogarde

Classic Hunks: Joan Crawford Loves Men

Bob and the 'Beefcake Boys'

The Promise and Problems of Montgomery Clift

Steve Hayes regales us each week with his dishy, funny, and informative classic movie recommendations as the Tired Old Queen at the Movies! Now see Steve live and onstage at GAYFEST 2010! Click here for ticketing information.

Pictured: Joan Crawford with her "kept boy" Gig Young in Torch Song
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Joan Crawford managed to accumulate a huge number of HUNKS both on and off screen, during her tenures at both MGM and Warner Brothers, not to mention her freelance years in the late 50's and 60's.

Pictured: Joan Crawford in Torch Song
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Tyrone Power: Tragic Hunk

The Selznick Hunks

Bob and the 'Beefcake Boys'

The Promise and Problems of Montgomery Clift

Steve Hayes regales us each week with his dishy, funny, and informative classic movie recommendations as the Tired Old Queen at the Movies! Now see Steve live and onstage at GAYFEST 2010! Click here for ticketing information.

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Of all the hunks who ended up as matinee idol of the Golden Age, probably no one was more beautiful or had a more "Hollywood Story" than Tyrone Power. Born into a theatrical family, Tyrone Power Sr. had been a huge star on the stage and was just entering pictures when his teenage son came to visit him. Prior to this, the boy had been raised by his very protective mother, Patia and seldom saw his father once his parents divorced. His father and he bonded and senior Power taught his son the rudiments of acting, having him concentrate on studying the classics and training the beautiful speaking voice, which along with his spectacular looks would become his trademark.

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Classic Hunks: Joan Crawford Loves Men

Classic Hunks: Dirk Bogarde

The Selznick Hunks

The Promise and Problems of Montgomery Clift

Steve Hayes regales us each week with his dishy, funny, and informative classic movie recommendations as the Tired Old Queen at the Movies! Now see Steve live and onstage at GAYFEST 2010! Click here for ticketing information.

Of the many hunks at 20th Century Fox in the mid-1940s, perhaps none of them sparked the imagination of gals and gays as much as hunky Cornel Wilde (1915-89). Darkly handsome, with a gorgeous smile, a reasonable talent and a remarkable physique, which he took great pride in, Wilde was destined for movie stardom. He started out as a competitive fencer and was gearing up for the Olympics when he was "discovered" and whisked off to Hollywood. He was put into everything, from musical comedies (Centennial Summer - 1947), light comedies (Life Begins At 8:30 - 1942) to historical dramas (A Song To Remember - 1945).

Pictured: Cornel Wilde
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Bob and the 'Beefcake Boys'

Classic Hunks: 20th Century Foxes

The Promise and Problems of Montgomery Clift

Joan's Torch Bearers

Steve Hayes regales us each week with his dishy, funny, and informative classic movie recommendations as the Tired Old Queen at the Movies! Now see Steve live and onstage at GAYFEST 2010! Click here for ticketing information.

Pictured: Joseph Cotten
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Producer David O' Selznick was a legendary creator of stars. Though he was more noted for his actresses, Ingrid Bergman, Jennifer Jones, Joan Fontaine and of course, Vivien Leigh, he did manage to make stars of two or three hunks that became important actors of the period and made lasting impressions on movie going audiences for years to come. None of these "Hunks" were prone to scandal. All three kept relatively low profiles had few marriages, and preferred staying with one or two wives for most of their careers.

Pictured: Joseph Cotten and Jennifer Jones
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Roz and 'The Hollywood Pool Boys'

Bob and the 'Beefcake Boys'

Classic Hunks: Joan Crawford Loves Men

Mechad Brooks for Calvin Klein

Steve Hayes regales us each week with his dishy, funny, and informative classic movie recommendations as the Tired Old Queen at the Movies! Now see Steve live and onstage at GAYFEST 2010! Click here for ticketing information.

[ Editor's Note: This is Steve's column from last week, which was unfortunately delayed by my absence. Please accept my apologies, and look for another TOQ post very soon! ]

Pictured: Roddy McDowell
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Pictured: Rosalind Russell as Auntie Mame
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Rosalind Russell has always had a special place in the hearts of gay movie fans. She starred in two of the greatest gay cult films, The Women (1939) and the legendary Auntie Mame (1958). It was in The Women that she first displayed her amazing comedic abilities. Director George Cukor hadn't considered using Russell, since she'd usually played second banana in big films and serious leads in "B" pictures. However, the ever-ambitious Russell challenged Cukor to give her a shot at comedy and campaigned vigorously for the part of the gossipy overbearing Sylvia Fowler. She prepared six different interpretations of the part and the last, being the most over the top and outrageous, was the one he chose.  Russell had misgivings about using this particular interpretation, fearing that her co-stars, Joan Crawford and Norma Shearer would murder her, never the less, this is what the director wanted and this is what he got. Her overwhelming success in the role led to her next main stream comedy, the classic His Girl Friday (1940) with Cary Grant, directed by Howard Hawks. Their comedy styles and timing blended perfectly and Russell was typecast as the "know-it-all-screwball for the next ten years, putting out a series of comedies where she usually dominated her leading man until the last reel, when she succumbed to his charms and agreed to "act like a woman, instead of a female." By the early 50's she was in her mid-40's and roles were hard to come by. The ever resourceful Roz, packed her bags and headed for Broadway, where she made a spectacular debut in Wonderful Town, the musical version of a movie she'd gotten an Oscar nomination for called; My Sister Eileen. She then gave a strong performance in a character part in the movie version of Picnic, before heading back to the Great White Way, where a play version of the popular novel Auntie Mame had been tailored specifically for her. It was a smash and was eventually sold as a package deal along with Russell to Warner Brothers. The movie version proved to be the biggest moneymaker of 1958 and snagged Roz her final Oscar nomination.

The Selznick Hunks

Classic Hunks: Joan Crawford Loves Men

Mechad Brooks for Calvin Klein

Bob and the 'Beefcake Boys'

Steve Hayes regales us each week with his dishy, funny, and informative classic movie recommendations as the Tired Old Queen at the Movies! Now see Steve live and onstage at GAYFEST 2010! Click here for ticketing information.

Robert Wagner only had two things going for him. He was talented and he was gorgeous. With those two handicaps, what else could he do but become a star? The term "Dreamboat" best describes Wagner in his early days in Hollywood. He was the fresh- faced kid who resembled your best friend's big brother you always had a crush on. He was also lucky. Early on he was noticed and eventually mentored by gay actor Clifton Webb. Webb made sure that he was seen by the most important people in the business and helped him secure parts in several widely seen and popular films at 20th Century Fox, among them: With A Song In My Heart (1952) with Susan Hayward, where his shell shocked soldier made him an instant sensation and two with Webb, Stars and Stripes Forever (1952) and Titanic (1953), the latter also starring Barbara Stanwyck, with whom he allegedly had an on-going "May/December" affair prior to his marriage to fledgling starlet Nathalie Wood.

Pictured: Robert Wagner
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Classic Hunks: Joan Crawford Loves Men

The Promise and Problems of Montgomery Clift

The Selznick Hunks

Classic Hunks: Dirk Bogarde

Steve Hayes regales us each week with his dishy, funny, and informative classic movie recommendations as the Tired Old Queen at the Movies! Now see Steve live and onstage at GAYFEST 2010! Click here for ticketing information.

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JOAN CRAWFORD: 1905-1977
Joan Crawford loved men and she liked sex. She surrounded herself with gorgeous hunks, both straight and gay. Her escorts were expected to be handsome, suave, polite, good conversationalists, but to know their place, expert dancers, eventual seducers and to be completely attentive to her every need. Wait, I say that like it's a bad thing! I love Joan. I always have. I find her compulsively watchable. Particularly when she carries a gun. I particularly love the ten year period of her career where she embraced Film Noir, from Mildred Pierce (1945) to Queen Bee (1955). Here she played the supreme Bitch Goddess, who would just as soon shoot her man as sleep with him. Yes, there's the eyebrows, the huge, padded shoulders that resemble a Green Bay Packer's and the mouth with it's slash of lip stick that got broader and broader as the years went by. There's the face in general, that seemed to turn to granite with each decade, like the fifth face on Mt. Rushmore. But, not unlike John Wayne, she could "carry a picture." Regardless of what's been said about her since the "Mommie Dearest" debacle, and I don't doubt that a lot of it was true, Joan Crawford was undeniably a star.

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Bob and the 'Beefcake Boys'

Classic Hunks: Dirk Bogarde

The Selznick Hunks

Mechad Brooks for Calvin Klein

Steve Hayes regales us each week with his dishy, funny, and informative classic movie recommendations as the Tired Old Queen at the Movies! Now see Steve live and onstage at GAYFEST 2010! Click here for ticketing information.

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DIRK BOGARDE: 1921-1999

So, here's "the dish" on Dirk. Dirk Bogarde, with his huge sad eyes and dark brooding good looks, was the leading matinee idol of the 1950's in England and had been for ten years by the time he made Victim in 1961. Basically considered the Robert Pattinson of his day, he was chased through the streets and haunted and hunted by paparazzi wherever he went for his romantic roles in British romances and his appearances in the hugely popular Carry On series.

Matthew Morrison, Please Tell Me That You Love Me

Classic Hunks: Joan Crawford Loves Men

The Debonair Hunks

Bob and the 'Beefcake Boys'