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PEOPLE magazine recently named Johnny Depp the Sexiest Man Alive. What better time to choose the SEXIEST MAN DEAD?  (And no--Edward Cullen does NOT qualify this time!) Let’s forget those hot guys with their minty fresh breath and pesky pulses for a little while and harken back to days (and men) gone by.  I’m posting a few of my favorites to inspire you.  (And let me say right off the bat before anyone forgets--SEAN CONNERY IS STILL ALIVE!!!)

Has there ever been a more swoon-worthy moment in cinematic history than the one where Scarlett O’Hara looked down that long, sweeping staircase to find Rhett Butler grinning up at her?  Those sparkling eyes and that devilish grin can still take my breath away.  Clark Gable could carry me up the stairs any day!  (Or night!)

I’ve already gone on record as saying that the phone scene between Jimmy Stewart and Donna Reed in IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE is the hottest love scene in history.  There are no rumpled bedsheets.  There are no naked, straining bodies.  There’s simply George Bailey and Mary Hatch sharing a phone in her mother’s living room.  An overtly hostile George is torn between his dream of escaping his hometown while there’s still time and his desperate desire for young Mary.  I don’t have to tell you which one wins and in that moment when he drops the phone and grabs Mary, the chemistry between them is so sizzling it may very well melt your heart and your DVD player.  There’s just something about a “nice guy” who seems so laid back but has such smoldering reserves of passion that I’ve always found irresistible. 

As you can probably tell from my own passion for such actors as Russell Crowe and Clive Owen, I don’t mind a face that’s been lived in a little.  I can’t even articulate why I find Humphrey Bogart so beautiful.  He’s certainly not conventionally handsome, yet I could spend hours gazing at his face.  It’s no wonder he became the love of 19-year-old Lauren Bacall’s life.  I love CASABLANCA of course but KEY LARGO is one of my personal favorites. 

Ah Jimmy Cagney!  Another unconventional charmer who could play either angel or devil.  You never knew for sure whether he was going to smash a grapefruit in your face or break into a rousing chorus of Yankee Doodle Dandy, but his energy and his appeal were undeniable. 

If you like your men strong with a rolling gait and an unmistakable drawl, then John Wayne is the man for you.  I grew up watching him in all of his different incarnations and no matter how old or paunchy he got, he never really lost his craggy charm.  He was both a man’s man and a lady’s man and he made you feel as if you would always be safe in his arms. (And if you ever get a chance, watch a very young John Wayne in ANGEL AND THE BADMAN because it’s one of the most classic romances ever filmed.)

Beautiful and dangerous, James Dean was truly too fast to live and too young to die.  Although he was only 24 at the time of his death in 1955, this fair-haired boy from Indiana blazed his signature on our psyches to become an American icon. 

Ah Cary Grant ...there’s something timelessly irresistible about a man this gorgeous who can still laugh at himself. 

Errol Flynn can swash my buckle any day! 

Rock Hudson rocked our world (and Doris Day’s) in romantic comedies like PILLOW TALK, LOVER COME BACK and SEND ME NO FLOWERS.

The consummate gentleman in a world in desperate need of them, Gregory Peck used his smoldering good looks to make the world a better place.

Although he was undeniably hot, nobody has ever epitomized “cool” to both men and women like Steve McQueen. 

So who would you pick as your own personal SEXIEST MAN DEAD? Pop on over to my Facebook page HERE and let me know!