Most Elegant (Old) Hollywood Actors
I was reading a modern Best Dressed Hollywood list the other day, when my eyes pounced on this: many consider Johnny Depp to be the best-dressed actor of our time.
Colour me obtuse, but I just don't see it.
Johnny Depp might be a maverick not only in the quality and variety of his film roles (to my mind, he is the better actor of his generation, than Sean Penn. He certainly has more range)...
...but he is not an elegant man.
I think the problem is, after the social norms of dressing up were broken during the Vietnam counter-culture era, that our times confuse "original" with "well-dressed".
(If that is the case, then Depp-mentor Tim Burton would be an elegant man, and he's just a scarecrow in sneakers)
It's true, however, that I have a certain look I associate with elegantness, and this definitely plays a role in my choices below.
But I'd like to think that I can give a person their due, even if they don't dress as gorgeously as say, George Clooney, or Sean Combs.
Having been raised by a man who was a clotheshorse -- though he would never admit it since there is a certain embarrassment for a man to admit he's interested in clothes (it smacks of pantywaistedness). Someone who bought but one suit per year, but that suit took a fortnight to be fitted right by his favourite Savile Row tailors: I know something about men and elegance.
In my choice for husband, I'd rather be attracted to a poor guy who I can smarten up and will look fantastic, than a rich slob who looks perpetually like he's just rolled out of bed.
The men below are not my ideals, nor are they my guides as to what men should be. That clearly should always be tied to character.
But you can say, that I greatly admire their style.
It's not enough to be well-dressed. You need to have a flair about yourself, which shows the world you care about presentation.
And perhaps there never was a time which gathered together so many men whose sole purpose was to be elegant, than Old Hollywood -- save perhaps the Court of Versailles.
THE TEN MOST ELEGANT (OLD) HOLLYWOOD ACTORS
10. CLARK GABLE
A lot of people today underestimate Clark Gable's impact on sartorial splendour, but in his day, there were few actors who embodied the Hollywood STYLE better than he.
Not only did this ex-truck driver look impeccable in evening dress, but he was a triple threat in period costume (he WAS Rhett Butler), down-home cowboy khakis, and WWII flight jackets.
As if you doubt this choice, you have only to realise that only two American men in the Twentieth Century had more influence on men's fashion, than he. One is listed below, at number 5, and more anon about that. The other, was John F. Kennedy, who killed the hat (there's even a song by Buck 65 called that, heh).
As for Clark, when he took off his dress shirt in "It Happened One Night" and revealed he wasn't wearing an undershirt, as was the polite custom of the day, sales of undershirts plummeted. It's a wonder Sears Roebuck survived.
No matter what clothes you put him in, to echo the scarf-slung Billy Crystal Fernando Lamas-a-like, he looked mahvellous.
9. ROBERT MONTGOMERY
I admit, it was a toss-up at Number 9 between Claude Rains, Herbert Marshall, Tyrone Power or Robert Montgomery.
Not only does this go to show that the Old Hollywood choices were endless, but that they are so interchangeable in these lists, as to be plug-and-play genius.
However, Bewitched's dad makes the grade because (a) he was American, and I want to show scoffers that men in this country once had a sense of style that didn't include Dockers, NBA shirts, and fatty-men shorts; (b) as well as honouring a man who sadly, didn't always have a good view of himself, so kudos to Robert Montgomery for being a splendidly kitted out survivor.
This is the man who had a tailor on 24-duty whenever he shot a film, just in case Edith Head or Adrian didn't provide him with the right look for a role. Now that's elegance personified.
(And also, is it me, or does Freddie Prinze, Jr. bear an uncanny resemblence to Robert Montgomery, physically?)
8. LAURENCE OLIVIER
Few men have combined such grace, beauty and talent, more than the young Laurence Olivier. This man had it all, and what's more, people recognised it.
I admit, I didn't think the look he had from the 1950s to the 1960s did anything for him in terms of elegance, especially those hideous horn-rimmed, black spectacles he wore for much of the time, but by the 1970s he had settled into the grand seigneur role he portrayed so well in both A Little Romance, and especially the mouth-wateringly luscious, Brideshead Revisited.
But his chiseled, British Adonis looks never failed him, and were the best supporting actor to his starring wardrobe.
When people point to Jude Law, or Orlando Bloom in terms of British men who lead in both good-looks and good dress sense, I sigh and pine away for the days of the best Hamlet of our times.
7. ERROL FLYNN
Ahh, Errol Flynn. So complex, so controversial, so damned elegant.
This Tassie was a complete chameleon, able to change his appearance to suit whatever role was at hand. Perhaps no other actor has been as dashing, and as comfortable in costume, since at least Douglas Fairbanks Sr., than Errol Flynn.
But as testament to his avowed good looks, he was also very careful about his appearance off-camera, too.
This is the man who spoke as knowledgeably about the cut of his suits, as Clark Gable spoke of gun racks. Never to be outdone in macho brio, though, Flynn was at his finest at the helm of his sloop, Sirocco.
Perhaps his life was fantastical, in not the best sense, but one thing is for sure: the term In Like Flynn could easily have been said about his flying visits to Saville Row shops, as his sexual swordsmanship.
6. WILLIAM POWELL
See Faces. I've blogged about William Powell's innate elegance before.
Me, I just can't get over the fact that this kid from Pittsburgh, PA was so dashing, so magnificently poised, that you turn around today, and wonder, where the heck did American guys like him go, you know?
Because as this blogpost is living testament to, they certainly existed in droves before.
I confess that I have a crush on William Powell -- to my mind, the light-hearted wonder, and sparkling repartée that was The Thin Man series, has never been equaled on film.
One has to credit part of this sensibility to that incomparable Democrat shill, Myrna Loy, but so much of the timing and elegance the film embodied, was all William Powell.
His kind of gentleman, is much missed.
5. RUDOLPH VALENTINO
Then, as now, Rudolph Valentino is a hard sell for men.
Especially for "Anglo-Saxon" men, Valentino represents the oily, slightly effeminate foreigner type, in possibly its most exaggerated characteristics.
Valentino was not content to be an exceptionally dapper man, oh no, he had to be a trend-setter, making cigarette smoking, wrist-watch wearing, and Brilliantine slicked back hair such a byword for macho deportment, that you can see shades of that even today, in many countries.
(Saddam Hussein must've memorised the Valentino playbook)
What many men hated, of course, was equally adored by women. Thinking of Valentino's arms was threatening, and yet not (somehow), to scores of Twenties flapperites.
I suppose at the end of the day, this ex-gigolo, and sometime rent boy, was so accomodatingly "other", that you really couldn't be afraid of a man wearing a turban.
I am endlessly fascinated by Rudolph Valentino, and I credit my love of Italian men, to him.
4. DOUGLAS FAIRBANKS, JR.
If Doug Fairbanks, Jr. is remembered at all today, it's because of his Prisoner of Zenda role, and being the second husband of then up-and-coming, Joan Crawford. That, and being the namesake son of the most famous swashbuckler in Hollywood history -- Doug Fairbanks, Sr., of course.
And that is a crying shame.
I have a confession to make: Doug Fairbanks Jr. is the only gentleman on this list, that I personally "met".
I saw him one day, in Jermyn Street, not too far away from the Floris emporium, on his way down the street. This must've been around 1995, when he was already a very elderly man.
But as long as I live, I will never forget the exquisite fit of his blue blazer, the colour of shantung red of his tie, and that beautifully groomed, pencil-thin, grey moustache, which was like a punctuation mark of elegance, about his person.
I took this scene in literally in a few seconds, and if that was the case in such a short time, one can only imagine what it must have been, to be in his presence for a while.
Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. was not just a pretty face in smart clothes.
A genuine WWII flying hero, he won the "U.S. Navy's Legion of Merit with bronze V (for valour), the Italian War Cross for Military Valor, the French Legion d'Honneur and the Croix de Guerre with Palm, and the British Distinguished Service Cross".
And for good measure, he was knighted by the Queen's father, George VI, with the KBE, in 1949.
The quintessential American hero, with a wardrobe the Duke of Windsor would've been proud to own.
3. DAVID NIVEN
I have this recurring dream.
There is a "World's Most Perfect Man" contest going on, and whilst people are putting forth names like Jesus Christ (no fair, He should've been disqualified! Is that thunder I hear?), Sir Isaac Newton, Frederick the Great, Mahatma Gandhi, in my dream, I am eagerly pencilling in "David Niven".
If you've never heard of, or are a little hazy about this British-born actor, who moved to Hollywood after a stint at Sandhurst, followed by the Highland Light Infantry, he followed a American actress' injunction to go to America, because "no one can speak English there".
For over 50 years, David Niven was the walking poster boy of elegance mated with masculinity, which sadly, many of the men I list here sometimes lacked (or were perceived to lack).
Not only that, but he was known as perhaps the world's best raconteur, weaving story after hilarious story for his captive dinner time audiences.
Never just a lightweight actor, this Oscar-winner also left everything he had in Hollywood, when Britain was flung into war against Germany in 1939.
He was so fierce about British expats doing their bit for their country, that he was alleged to have refused to speak to Rex Harrison (whom he felt tarried in his enlistment), and wouldn't countenance working with the mellifluous James Mason, because the latter was a pacifist.
And note, as living testament that elegant men stick together, Doug Fairbanks Jr. was Niven's eldest son's godfather; he counted Laurence Olivier as a dear friend; and Errol Flynn was once his housemate.
They rented a bungalow in Santa Monica owned by the equally splendid, Rosalind Russell, which they dubbed "Cirrhosis-By-The-Sea".
God, I love this man.
2. FRED ASTAIRE
In choosing the photographs for this blogpost, I wanted to make SURE that not one man was shown in white tails and topper...save Fred Astaire.
There are two reasons for this.
(A) You don't have to be dressed to the nines to be shown to be elegant.
(B) There is no one more iconic in this garb, than was Fred Astaire.
It is wearing these duds that Fred Astaire and his more-than-able leading lady, Ginger Rogers, danced our worries away in the 1930s (which to my mind, is the single-most elegant decade of the 20th Century).
The son of an Austrian emigré, young Frederick Austerlitz and his sister Adele, branched out when she was married to a British nobleman, propelling him to Hollywood where his screentest read, "Can't sing. Can't act. Balding. Can dance a little."
I would love to have seen the expression of that Hollywood flunky after watching Top Hat.
I recommend one book about Fred Astaire, in regards to his sartorial acumen, Fred Astaire Style.
Interestingly, it doesn't mention the Duke of Windsor, who in HIS wardrobe memoirs, the very unknown The Windsor Story, the ex-King remembers giving a letter of introduction to his tailor to a young American actor. He promptly bought over 2 dozen trousers, and had countless numbers of shirts run up.
You guessed it, it was Fred Astaire.
Though few men can copy Astaire's style, there appeared this in a recent GQ Style Guide:
Q: I’ve noticed pictures of Fred Astaire in which he’s wearing what appear to be brightly colored and patterned belts tied around his waist. What are they, and where did he get them?
A: They’re neckties. Astaire would often tie a veteran silk cravat around his waist as a belt. Not everyone can get away with this kind of accessorizing. To carry off this look successfully, you should be able to dance like a butterfly, sting like a bee or run like the wind.
Quite.
1. CARY GRANT
What Fred Astaire was to top hat and tails, is what Cary Grant was to the dinner jacket.
With his $500 haircuts (in 1957 money!), his impeccable lines, and almost too-perfect manicure, Cary Grant might be said to be a little too effete for your average man today.
But just like a bottle of 1961 Chateau Latour, Cary Grant is not only more appreciated as his image ages into the new century, but there is an easy acknowledgement that he was charming enough to allow him his eccentricities.
Born humble Archie Leach in Horfield (Bristol), he rose one day to be the American Film Institute's 2nd Greatest Male Star of All Time, after only Humphrey Bogart.
Fans adored his distinctive patter, which made comics and imitators millions in hommage (as well as propelled a wonderfully comedic turn by Tony Curtis, in Some Like It Hot).
There was no one like Cary Grant, and one seriously doubts, there will ever be another like him.
In real life he was rather shy, and had severe doubts about his qualities, saying ""I have spent the greater part of my life fluctuating between Archie Leach and Cary Grant, unsure of each, suspecting each."
But it seemed that no one understood his unrepeatable Cary Grantness, better than he.
"Everybody wants to be Cary Grant. Even I want to be Cary Grant."
Cary Grant need not have worried. He was the crème de la crème of famous, elegant men.
After him, the deluge.
Colour me obtuse, but I just don't see it.
Johnny Depp might be a maverick not only in the quality and variety of his film roles (to my mind, he is the better actor of his generation, than Sean Penn. He certainly has more range)...
...but he is not an elegant man.
I think the problem is, after the social norms of dressing up were broken during the Vietnam counter-culture era, that our times confuse "original" with "well-dressed".
(If that is the case, then Depp-mentor Tim Burton would be an elegant man, and he's just a scarecrow in sneakers)
It's true, however, that I have a certain look I associate with elegantness, and this definitely plays a role in my choices below.
But I'd like to think that I can give a person their due, even if they don't dress as gorgeously as say, George Clooney, or Sean Combs.
Having been raised by a man who was a clotheshorse -- though he would never admit it since there is a certain embarrassment for a man to admit he's interested in clothes (it smacks of pantywaistedness). Someone who bought but one suit per year, but that suit took a fortnight to be fitted right by his favourite Savile Row tailors: I know something about men and elegance.
In my choice for husband, I'd rather be attracted to a poor guy who I can smarten up and will look fantastic, than a rich slob who looks perpetually like he's just rolled out of bed.
The men below are not my ideals, nor are they my guides as to what men should be. That clearly should always be tied to character.
But you can say, that I greatly admire their style.
It's not enough to be well-dressed. You need to have a flair about yourself, which shows the world you care about presentation.
And perhaps there never was a time which gathered together so many men whose sole purpose was to be elegant, than Old Hollywood -- save perhaps the Court of Versailles.
THE TEN MOST ELEGANT (OLD) HOLLYWOOD ACTORS
10. CLARK GABLE
A lot of people today underestimate Clark Gable's impact on sartorial splendour, but in his day, there were few actors who embodied the Hollywood STYLE better than he.
Not only did this ex-truck driver look impeccable in evening dress, but he was a triple threat in period costume (he WAS Rhett Butler), down-home cowboy khakis, and WWII flight jackets.
As if you doubt this choice, you have only to realise that only two American men in the Twentieth Century had more influence on men's fashion, than he. One is listed below, at number 5, and more anon about that. The other, was John F. Kennedy, who killed the hat (there's even a song by Buck 65 called that, heh).
As for Clark, when he took off his dress shirt in "It Happened One Night" and revealed he wasn't wearing an undershirt, as was the polite custom of the day, sales of undershirts plummeted. It's a wonder Sears Roebuck survived.
No matter what clothes you put him in, to echo the scarf-slung Billy Crystal Fernando Lamas-a-like, he looked mahvellous.
9. ROBERT MONTGOMERY
I admit, it was a toss-up at Number 9 between Claude Rains, Herbert Marshall, Tyrone Power or Robert Montgomery.
Not only does this go to show that the Old Hollywood choices were endless, but that they are so interchangeable in these lists, as to be plug-and-play genius.
However, Bewitched's dad makes the grade because (a) he was American, and I want to show scoffers that men in this country once had a sense of style that didn't include Dockers, NBA shirts, and fatty-men shorts; (b) as well as honouring a man who sadly, didn't always have a good view of himself, so kudos to Robert Montgomery for being a splendidly kitted out survivor.
This is the man who had a tailor on 24-duty whenever he shot a film, just in case Edith Head or Adrian didn't provide him with the right look for a role. Now that's elegance personified.
(And also, is it me, or does Freddie Prinze, Jr. bear an uncanny resemblence to Robert Montgomery, physically?)
8. LAURENCE OLIVIER
Few men have combined such grace, beauty and talent, more than the young Laurence Olivier. This man had it all, and what's more, people recognised it.
I admit, I didn't think the look he had from the 1950s to the 1960s did anything for him in terms of elegance, especially those hideous horn-rimmed, black spectacles he wore for much of the time, but by the 1970s he had settled into the grand seigneur role he portrayed so well in both A Little Romance, and especially the mouth-wateringly luscious, Brideshead Revisited.
But his chiseled, British Adonis looks never failed him, and were the best supporting actor to his starring wardrobe.
When people point to Jude Law, or Orlando Bloom in terms of British men who lead in both good-looks and good dress sense, I sigh and pine away for the days of the best Hamlet of our times.
7. ERROL FLYNN
Ahh, Errol Flynn. So complex, so controversial, so damned elegant.
This Tassie was a complete chameleon, able to change his appearance to suit whatever role was at hand. Perhaps no other actor has been as dashing, and as comfortable in costume, since at least Douglas Fairbanks Sr., than Errol Flynn.
But as testament to his avowed good looks, he was also very careful about his appearance off-camera, too.
This is the man who spoke as knowledgeably about the cut of his suits, as Clark Gable spoke of gun racks. Never to be outdone in macho brio, though, Flynn was at his finest at the helm of his sloop, Sirocco.
Perhaps his life was fantastical, in not the best sense, but one thing is for sure: the term In Like Flynn could easily have been said about his flying visits to Saville Row shops, as his sexual swordsmanship.
6. WILLIAM POWELL
See Faces. I've blogged about William Powell's innate elegance before.
Me, I just can't get over the fact that this kid from Pittsburgh, PA was so dashing, so magnificently poised, that you turn around today, and wonder, where the heck did American guys like him go, you know?
Because as this blogpost is living testament to, they certainly existed in droves before.
I confess that I have a crush on William Powell -- to my mind, the light-hearted wonder, and sparkling repartée that was The Thin Man series, has never been equaled on film.
One has to credit part of this sensibility to that incomparable Democrat shill, Myrna Loy, but so much of the timing and elegance the film embodied, was all William Powell.
His kind of gentleman, is much missed.
5. RUDOLPH VALENTINO
Then, as now, Rudolph Valentino is a hard sell for men.
Especially for "Anglo-Saxon" men, Valentino represents the oily, slightly effeminate foreigner type, in possibly its most exaggerated characteristics.
Valentino was not content to be an exceptionally dapper man, oh no, he had to be a trend-setter, making cigarette smoking, wrist-watch wearing, and Brilliantine slicked back hair such a byword for macho deportment, that you can see shades of that even today, in many countries.
(Saddam Hussein must've memorised the Valentino playbook)
What many men hated, of course, was equally adored by women. Thinking of Valentino's arms was threatening, and yet not (somehow), to scores of Twenties flapperites.
I suppose at the end of the day, this ex-gigolo, and sometime rent boy, was so accomodatingly "other", that you really couldn't be afraid of a man wearing a turban.
I am endlessly fascinated by Rudolph Valentino, and I credit my love of Italian men, to him.
4. DOUGLAS FAIRBANKS, JR.
If Doug Fairbanks, Jr. is remembered at all today, it's because of his Prisoner of Zenda role, and being the second husband of then up-and-coming, Joan Crawford. That, and being the namesake son of the most famous swashbuckler in Hollywood history -- Doug Fairbanks, Sr., of course.
And that is a crying shame.
I have a confession to make: Doug Fairbanks Jr. is the only gentleman on this list, that I personally "met".
I saw him one day, in Jermyn Street, not too far away from the Floris emporium, on his way down the street. This must've been around 1995, when he was already a very elderly man.
But as long as I live, I will never forget the exquisite fit of his blue blazer, the colour of shantung red of his tie, and that beautifully groomed, pencil-thin, grey moustache, which was like a punctuation mark of elegance, about his person.
I took this scene in literally in a few seconds, and if that was the case in such a short time, one can only imagine what it must have been, to be in his presence for a while.
Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. was not just a pretty face in smart clothes.
A genuine WWII flying hero, he won the "U.S. Navy's Legion of Merit with bronze V (for valour), the Italian War Cross for Military Valor, the French Legion d'Honneur and the Croix de Guerre with Palm, and the British Distinguished Service Cross".
And for good measure, he was knighted by the Queen's father, George VI, with the KBE, in 1949.
The quintessential American hero, with a wardrobe the Duke of Windsor would've been proud to own.
3. DAVID NIVEN
I have this recurring dream.
There is a "World's Most Perfect Man" contest going on, and whilst people are putting forth names like Jesus Christ (no fair, He should've been disqualified! Is that thunder I hear?), Sir Isaac Newton, Frederick the Great, Mahatma Gandhi, in my dream, I am eagerly pencilling in "David Niven".
If you've never heard of, or are a little hazy about this British-born actor, who moved to Hollywood after a stint at Sandhurst, followed by the Highland Light Infantry, he followed a American actress' injunction to go to America, because "no one can speak English there".
For over 50 years, David Niven was the walking poster boy of elegance mated with masculinity, which sadly, many of the men I list here sometimes lacked (or were perceived to lack).
Not only that, but he was known as perhaps the world's best raconteur, weaving story after hilarious story for his captive dinner time audiences.
Never just a lightweight actor, this Oscar-winner also left everything he had in Hollywood, when Britain was flung into war against Germany in 1939.
He was so fierce about British expats doing their bit for their country, that he was alleged to have refused to speak to Rex Harrison (whom he felt tarried in his enlistment), and wouldn't countenance working with the mellifluous James Mason, because the latter was a pacifist.
And note, as living testament that elegant men stick together, Doug Fairbanks Jr. was Niven's eldest son's godfather; he counted Laurence Olivier as a dear friend; and Errol Flynn was once his housemate.
They rented a bungalow in Santa Monica owned by the equally splendid, Rosalind Russell, which they dubbed "Cirrhosis-By-The-Sea".
God, I love this man.
2. FRED ASTAIRE
In choosing the photographs for this blogpost, I wanted to make SURE that not one man was shown in white tails and topper...save Fred Astaire.
There are two reasons for this.
(A) You don't have to be dressed to the nines to be shown to be elegant.
(B) There is no one more iconic in this garb, than was Fred Astaire.
It is wearing these duds that Fred Astaire and his more-than-able leading lady, Ginger Rogers, danced our worries away in the 1930s (which to my mind, is the single-most elegant decade of the 20th Century).
The son of an Austrian emigré, young Frederick Austerlitz and his sister Adele, branched out when she was married to a British nobleman, propelling him to Hollywood where his screentest read, "Can't sing. Can't act. Balding. Can dance a little."
I would love to have seen the expression of that Hollywood flunky after watching Top Hat.
I recommend one book about Fred Astaire, in regards to his sartorial acumen, Fred Astaire Style.
Interestingly, it doesn't mention the Duke of Windsor, who in HIS wardrobe memoirs, the very unknown The Windsor Story, the ex-King remembers giving a letter of introduction to his tailor to a young American actor. He promptly bought over 2 dozen trousers, and had countless numbers of shirts run up.
You guessed it, it was Fred Astaire.
Though few men can copy Astaire's style, there appeared this in a recent GQ Style Guide:
Q: I’ve noticed pictures of Fred Astaire in which he’s wearing what appear to be brightly colored and patterned belts tied around his waist. What are they, and where did he get them?
A: They’re neckties. Astaire would often tie a veteran silk cravat around his waist as a belt. Not everyone can get away with this kind of accessorizing. To carry off this look successfully, you should be able to dance like a butterfly, sting like a bee or run like the wind.
Quite.
1. CARY GRANT
What Fred Astaire was to top hat and tails, is what Cary Grant was to the dinner jacket.
With his $500 haircuts (in 1957 money!), his impeccable lines, and almost too-perfect manicure, Cary Grant might be said to be a little too effete for your average man today.
But just like a bottle of 1961 Chateau Latour, Cary Grant is not only more appreciated as his image ages into the new century, but there is an easy acknowledgement that he was charming enough to allow him his eccentricities.
Born humble Archie Leach in Horfield (Bristol), he rose one day to be the American Film Institute's 2nd Greatest Male Star of All Time, after only Humphrey Bogart.
Fans adored his distinctive patter, which made comics and imitators millions in hommage (as well as propelled a wonderfully comedic turn by Tony Curtis, in Some Like It Hot).
There was no one like Cary Grant, and one seriously doubts, there will ever be another like him.
In real life he was rather shy, and had severe doubts about his qualities, saying ""I have spent the greater part of my life fluctuating between Archie Leach and Cary Grant, unsure of each, suspecting each."
But it seemed that no one understood his unrepeatable Cary Grantness, better than he.
"Everybody wants to be Cary Grant. Even I want to be Cary Grant."
Cary Grant need not have worried. He was the crème de la crème of famous, elegant men.
After him, the deluge.
