Old Time Crushes...Inspired by My Sister, Laurie

So, my sister did a post on her "old time crushes," meaning her crushes on actors from old movies. Her choices were Dana Andrews, Farley Granger, and Lt. Cable (from South Pacific). Not bad, not bad. That Bloody Mary was right! That Joe Cable is one soxy lieu-tellen!

My mom hasn't done a blog of her old time crushes, but I would bet that Cary Grant, Gary Cooper, Gregory Peck, and possibly Yul Brynner would make appearances. Again, all of those are very good choices.

But my sister's blog inspired me to do a list of my own movie crushes. I'm not going to include my obvious teenage crushes (ex. Brendan Fraser, especially in George of the Jungle and the Mummy movies, Dean Cain, aka Superman from Lois and Clark, Michael J. Fox in Back to the Future, etc.). But more a list of some of the more unique crushes or crushes that DEFINED me. :)

On a totally different note, does anyone find people attractive that aren't strictly known for being a heart throb? You know, it doesn't make sense on paper. When you explain it to someone, they kind of have that look on their face that says "okaaaaaaaaaay." For instance, I think Gary Sinise in Apollo 13 is pretty cute, though it totally doesn't make any sense to me (or to anyone else I mention it to).

But I digress. On to my old time movie crushes! (In no specific order)

Note: If you don't know who any of these old time crushes are, you should check out imdb.com. I don't dare upload any pictures because I don't want to chance being in danger of copyright infringement. Plus, I don't know how to do it! Ha! I might have to check with my sister on that one, because she figured it out!

#1 Superman! My first crush. When I was 4 or 5, my mom states that I would only wear pink underwear in homage to Superman. That stems from the scene where Lois Lane asks Superman if he can see through anything. He says yes. She then asks what color her underwear are. He tells her they are pink. Lois immediately becomes very embarrased and hides behind her lead planter (because Superman can't see through lead, of course). After a pause, she says "Do you like pink?" Superman looks at her with the most gorgeous pair of blue eyes and says "I like pink very much, Lois." Ahhh. That is the reason I always wore pink underwear. Now, don't think this is dirty. I was a kid, for Pete's sake. I didn't know about any other connotations. All I knew was that Superman liked pink, so by golly, I was going to wear it!

#2 Gilbert Blythe! Probably my longest lasting movie/book character crush. I mean, come on, he's the perfect guy! I used to wish with all my heart that I had red hair and that I was Anne of Green Gables so that I could build my House of Dreams with him! When I was a freshman at BYU, I created a small poster that said "Don't settle! Hold out for your own Gilbert Blythe!" And may I say that Jeremiah exceeds all of my Gilbert Blythe expectations! Plus, can you imagine ME with red hair? That would not look right.

#3 Richard Behmer aka Tony from West Side Story! I LOVED West Side Story in High School. I used to imagine that they would announce the high school musical for my senior year would be West Side Story and after hearing me sing, they would cast out all the competition and choose me to play the part of Maria! Truthfully though, I was not a favorite of the drama teacher at Taylorsville High School and the biggest part I got in any of the musicals was as a maid who had one single spoken line and one single sung line in the entire production. But seriously, I used to wish that my name had another syllable so that I could sing the melody of "Maria" to my name.

#4 Gordon MacRae as Curly in Oklahoma! Man can he sing! Dang he's cute! 'Nough said! Watch the movie and sing a duet with him!

#5 Jack Lemmon in any of his romantic comedies! Jack Lemmon can play a lot of personality types, but when he is playing the sweet, sincere, somewhat bumbling lead in a romantic comedy, he is at his best.

#6 James Garner especially when paired with Doris Day (one of my hubby's old time crushes, by the way...Doris Day, not James Garner). Everyone raves about the combination of Doris Day and Rock Hudson, but I believe they couldn't have seen the movies with Doris Day and James Garner. He is downright adorable in Move Over Darling and The Thrill of it All. Check 'em out! And Rock Hudson, eat your heart out! (And he might have eaten his heart out over James Garner too, you never know...)

#7 Steve McQueen aka The King of Cool. If you want to see him at his coolest, check out The Great Escape, Bullitt, or The Towering Inferno (though, admittedly, that is one campy, corny movie). If you want to see him at his most romantic, check out Love with the Proper Stranger. He's all about the charisma. Photos don't quite capture it. You have to see him in action. But dang, he's cool!

#8 George Newbern. I know what you're saying. You're saying "Who the heck is that?" He's the guy from Adventures in Babysitting and Father of the Bride. Not the teenager she actually babysits, but the college student who helps her round up $50 for a new tire. In my pre-Jeremiah days, I would have been his babysitter any day of the week!

#9 Michael Schoeffling. Again, you're saying "Who in the world?" He's the guy in Sixteen Candles (it's only PG, but watch it edited!) and Wild Hearts Can't Be Broken. Mmmmm Mmmmm Good. Be still my wild heart. And though the kiss over a cake lit with 16 flaming candles seems trecherous, I would have braved it for him!

#10 Paul Newman and Robert Redford. Since they starred in a couple of movies together, I think they deserve a tie. Ahhhh. Those blue eyes of Paul Newman. Check out A New Kind of Love with his wife Joanne Woodward. He was winning awards right and left. His wife brought him the movie script and when he said it wasn't to the caliber of his other movies she basically told him that she was staying home with the kids all day, she needed a change and this movie sounded fun...he then wholeheartedly agreed to do the movie with her! Who couldn't love a guy who knows when to do something nice for his wife! As for Robert Redford, there's an old quote from an episode of The Mary Tyler Moore show. One of the characters states that when she dies, she wants to be cremated and have her ashes thrown ON Robert Redford. Hey, if I was going to be cremated, it sounds like a good resting place to me!

Well, I'd better stop. I could go on, you know. I'm quite a movie buff (especially romantic comedies from the 50's and 60's). Plus, I was quite the boy crazy gal in my teenage days.

So, who are your old time crushes? 'Fess up!