Who among us hasn’t stared at a movie screen, TV set, or magazine page with jaw agape and heartbeat racing? But as you’ll see below, gay bros’ celebrity crushes—as listed in a recent Reddit thread—need not be male or even human! Scroll down to see the famous figures that had young impressionable gays figuring out a thing or two about their sexualities, along with any commentary from their Reddit nominators.
Chris O’Donnell
“I am Chris O’Donnell in Batman & Robin years old.”
Christopher Meloni
“I’m not into older guys, but Chris Meloni is the thiccest masculine man you’ll ever meet.”
Tom Welling
“Tom Welling, Smallville.”
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Billy Gunn
“I don’t know why, but his ass… was just…”
Lucy Liu
Ryan Phillippe
“The pool scene in Cruel Intentions was my first little gay awakening.”
Ricky Martin
Hugh Jackman
“…when I saw him in the film Swordfish with Halle Berry. I still have a crush on him to do this day.”
Vanessa Williams
Mark Wahlberg
“Marky Mark in those CK underwear ads. I still have a thing for him.”
Related: What was the first time you saw anything gay in popular media?
Tom Cruise
Robin Hood
“I’m pretty sure it was Disney’s Robin Hood (the fox).”
Leonardo DiCaprio
“But specifically the ‘90s version of him.”
Josh Hartnett
Alex Caplow
“Alex Caplow. Hella pretty.”
John Cena
“It was John Cena for me. I was about 8 years old.”
Harley
Yea. I’m 60 but in my teen years it was definitely Captain Kirk. Every time he went shirtless my heart skipped a few beats.
VTIcarus
Randolph Mantooth on Emergency! Later Vince Van Patten on Apples Way. Long long looooong ago.
monty clift
It was Spock that did it for me.
lambchopp59
I would breifly peruse the TV guide at the grocery checkstand just to see if Detour, with Tom Neal would be on the movies.
That look, OMG. That attraction never faded for me, guys who even look remotely like Tom still stir me deeply.
carterhunter
Rick Springfield. Even as a cartoon on “Mission Magic!” he triggered something in me.
missvamp
totally rick springfield & shaun cassidy as a kid! rick still looks good! then in my teens- nikki sixx of motley crue. i’m still in love with that man. gal gadot is my current one- holy shit is she gorgeous. i’m also hot for kate beckinsale.
Man About Town
For me it was Hayley Mills, then Roger Daltrey. I was a born Anglophile!
kevininbuffalo
Richard Chamberlain in “Dr. Kildare.” I was 6 at the time. Later Davy Jones from the Monkees. Gawd I’m getting old!
Diplomat
Wow some serious great contenders here who are definite fatal attractions but mine isn’t listed. Mine is Robert Redford. I was weak in the knees seeing him for the first time in Little Fauss and Big Halsey half naked most of the time. That glistening bare chest, that smokin hot ass perfectly wrapped in those tight blue jeans. And then. Ok gotta stop now.
bachy
Dreamy-eyed, “Big Bulge” Danny (James MacArthur) on Hawaii Five-O.
lykeitiz
Speaking of bulges, what was the name of the nephew on “Mama’s Family”?
Big, stupid, and beautiful!
TAZnTampa
@lykeitiz Allan Kayser, Wardrobe dept. knew how to dress that Hunk to show off his ASSets!
IvanPH
The male lifeguards of Baywatch.
Also, Jason Priestley in 90210
I am a 90s kid.
smittoons
Yeah, Chris O’Donnell. But Patrick Swayze in Dirty Dancing was definitely a thing too.
Archie
Jonny Quest
Race Bannon
Dr Quest
LumpyPillows
LOL. Yes, they gave me a tingle too…for cartoons.
ladron
Absolutely Race and Dr. Quest.
Al
Jim Palmer, baseball pitcher, who did underwear ads for Jockey. I subscribed to ‘Sports Illustrated’ so I could see the ads each week
Jim
Hate to show my age, but it was Clint Walker. Great voice, tall, broad shoulders, chiselled chin and that chest!!!
Excuse me I’ve got something I’ve got to do.
humble charlie
me, too. too bad he really didn’t make it in films. cheyenne!!!
KerryB
Robert Conrad, first on Wild, Wild West. Always losing his shirt and getting tied up by villains. Then on Black Sheep Squadron always running around in his boxer shorts. Then it was Ron Ely on Tarzan. I wanted to be his loincloth attendant!
Diplomat
I still watch his ass, I mean reruns.
scotty
in no particular order:
speed racer
shaun cassidy
Bruce Lee
Jack Lord (for reasons i still dont understand)
donny osmond
josh hartnett then and now (aka “boy sweat”)
pretty much any of the twilight werewolves
i can see a pattern developing eh
Dick Gozinia
Definitely Josh Hartnett!
Scorpjr
I thought I was the only Race Bannon boy!
mailliw110
That and Johnny!
Paul2
Being an older gay man, Nick Adams of The Rebel really did it for me.
wimo
David Cassidy early seventies.
I couldn’t sleep for months.
LumpyPillows
Apparently we are all reasonably old and have good taste.
still_onthemark
I’m probably a minority of one here but… Shaggy from Scooby-Doo. I always liked those skinny slacker stoner types (especially if they play guitar!). One bf looked a lot like Shaggy only with much better facial hair.
monty clift
Not sure why Lucy Liu or Vanessa Williams was added, must’ve been a drag queens choice.
Aaron1818
Andrew Shue, Rob Estes from Melrose Place. Grant Goodeve and Tommy from Eight is Enough … drool
xnetminder
As a few others have said, showing my age, my 1st celeb crush was Luke Halpin who played Sandy on FLIPPER. “Race Bannon” was a close 2nd but trying to wipe that thought out of my mind after the emergence of mike pence who bears way too close a resemblance to “Bannon”.
mailliw110
OMG! And both boys were shirtless a lot in that show!
eeebee333
Luke Halpin for me too. I’d have been 6 or 7.
mailliw110
Wesley Crusher, the Indian on Disney’s Daniel Boone and just about any teen horror movie ever made!
nep
Michael Landon from his days on Bonanza
rand503
Gary Sandy in WKRP in Cincinnati — he had always wore very tight jeans and had beautiful hair.
Freddie Prinze in Chico and the Man — always had very tight pants with a bulge.
Jack Scalia — former model and had stupid detective show on tv.
Parker Stevenson — The Hardy Boys!
IanHunter
Eric Estrada in CHiPs. Those sultry looks, and that uniform…OMG, Yes please.
furrythigh
dobie gillis aka dwayne hickman!!! AND MY RICKY NELSON! am i showing my age. i dont care!
Donald Dork
Christopher Knight
Dick Gozinia
Willie Aames, Ralph Macchio, Scott Baio and Lance Kerwin.
JDT
Al Pacino (Godfather period)
Tom Cruise (in the 1980s, liked his looks and didn’t know anything about him otherwise)
humble charlie
chip on my 3 sons
David Myers
I was born in 1947 and my first movie crush was Robin . . . of the Batman and Robin movie shorts series that played new episodes every week at my local movie theater. I was 10 and going to the movies every Saturday in order to see each 20 minute episode of Batman and Robin (admission was 25 cents and coincidentally, my “allowance” was 25 cents per week). I knew there was something about Robin that really got my attention, particularly the smooth skin of his legs sticking out of his upper body tights . . . . I was totally shattered to eventually realize, years later that those legs weren’t bare but were instead skin coloured full legged tights. Sigh.
Update: While writing this I did some internet searching and found that there were two movie serials called Batman and Robin . . . the first originally made in 1943, and the second was made in 1949. I was seeing them in 1957. So I searched for and found photos from both (Robin was played by different actors in each of these early series). In the 1943 photos I could clearly tell that Batman was wearing leg tights, but Robin was indeed bare legged. The photos from the 1949 series shows Robin in leg tights. So I guess I wasn’t fooled by leg tights after all. Good news. 😉
bachy
High-Def shattered many of my erotic delusions.
JDT
Yes, and your comment reminded me of Burt Ward, Robin in the 1960s Batman TV show. I was pretty fascinated with him at the time.
Kernos
I was a teen in te 50s. My 1st crush was Spin from the Disney Spin and Marty. And from then on there was always someone to lust over…
radiooutmike
I was born in 1967. So here are mine:
Mark Goddard [Major West on Lost in Space]
Grant Goodeve [Oldest son on Eight is Enough]
Larry Wilcox [Jon on ChiPs]
Gary Sandy [Andy on WKRP in Cincinnati]
Karlis
I was born in 1960, and my first crush was on Robin on the beyond-camp live show. Burt Ward couldn’t act his way out of a paper bag, but he sure did look good in dem tights.
j2thesh
Many of these were my crushes as well. However, my biggest crush was Tom Netherton on The Lawrence Welk Show. Tall, blonde, beautiful smile, and a rich baritone voice. At the time, I did not understand what I felt every time I heard him sing. I found out years later that he was gay.