100. June Wilkinson
A busty Brit who eventually acquired the nickname “The Most Photographed Nude Woman in America,” Wilkinson’s bare-chested odyssey began in the late 1950s when, at age 15, she was the youngest topless dancer at London’s Windmill Theater. Almost immediately she caught the eye of a young(ish) Hugh Hefner, and over the next decade Wilkinson appeared in Playboy more than half a dozen times. Although she was never an official playmate, Wilkinson was frequently referred to simply as “The Bosom” in Playboy’s pages, and would eventually be named to the magazine’s list of “sexiest stars of the century” (she was #30). Wilkinson appeared in more than 50 other men’s magazines during the ’60s, and also enjoyed a modest career in show business. She was given roles ranging from minor characters to leading ladies in 14 films, the last of which was released in 1974. In the decades since, Wilkinson appeared frequently in live entertainment shows of the Las Vegas variety, and has hosted multiple television shows involving film and fashion. But we’ll always remember her fondly as “The Bosom.”
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99. Catherine Bach
You can thank Catherine Bach for popularizing short, cut-off jean shorts in her role as Daisy Duke on The Dukes of Hazzard. The show took every opportunity to show off her long, tanned legs, whether in those famous cut-offs (later known as “Daisy Dukes”) or by wearing a red bikini to distract a dim-witted sheriff. Daisy played the naïf but proved herself smarter and tougher than any of the Dukes’ nemeses; she never backed down from a fight and always stood by her family. In short, she was the perfect Southern girl – sparkling, sassy, and ready for anything. (That accent, too, was surely part of her charm.) Oh, and did we mention she was good with cars? No wonder so many Dukes episodes featured strangers falling in love with Daisy.
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98. Tina Turner
Turner’s long legs and powerful voice propelled her to an epic music and acting career spanning more than five decades. The “Queen of Rock and Roll” first became a star with hits like “Proud Mary” and “River Deep, Mountain High,” which she performed alongside her ex-husband Ike. Sashaying across the stage with her big hair and even bigger vocal chords, Turner walked the line between consummate entertainer and leggy babe. Her divorce exposed a dark history of domestic abuse, but she returned to the stage with her trademark vivacity fully in tact, and would go on to sell more concert tickets than any other solo performer in history.
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97. Cybill Shepherd
After noticing Cybill Shepherd’s face on a 1970 issue of Glamour, director Peter Bogdanovich was so smitten that he immediately called her in for an audition. Shortly after that, Shepherd landed the role of Jacy, a small-town Texas beauty queen who plays a pivotal role in Bogdanovich’s career-defining 1971 film, The Last Picture Show. The role was hardly a stretch—Shepherd herself was a pageant winner in Memphis before launching a successful modeling career. That led to roles in Taxi Driver, as well as the sitcoms Moonlighting and Cybill, which eventually earned Shepherd three Golden Globe awards.
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96. Mila Kunis
You could say we’re being a bit premature including Mila Kunis on a list of the world’s all-time beauties. After all, unlike most other women found here, the star of Black Swan, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, and Friends with Benefits is only 27. That said, we’ll take our gamble with confidence. Here’s why: Despite her Ukrainian background—she arrived in the U.S. when she was seven—Kunis couldn’t be more of an American girl. For one thing, she’s the paradoxically hot voice of unpopular teen Meg on Family Guy. She’s also a self-proclaimed geek who plays World of Warcraft and board games like Settlers of Catan when she’s not, you know, filming dreamy lesbian sex scenes with Natalie Portman. (We understand if you need a moment to recover from that sentence.) And after a nearly decade-long relationship with child star Macaulay Culkin, she’s single again. Mila: trade you two wheat for two brick?
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95. Julia Roberts
We’ll always remember her as the original Pretty Woman—the ginger, curly-haired call girl with the wide, toothy smile who charmed Richard Gere in the hit 1990 romantic comedy. After that film catapulted her to stardom, Roberts gradually became one of the most powerful—and bankable—actresses in Hollywood, starring in movies like The Pelican Brief, Runaway Bride, Erin Brockovich, and most recently, Eat, Pray, Love. In the end, however, she settled down not with a sleek, prematurely gray power broker, but a cameraman named Danny Moder, who worked with Roberts on The Mexican. So it’s not just us: the camera really does love Julia.
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94. Kathleen Turner
Known for her sultry voice and an unparalleled ability to ooze straightforward sex appeal, Turner broke out in the 1981 film Body Heat. Acting alongside more famous actors like William Hurt, Turner’s frank sexuality (and steamy fellatio scene) made her an instant star. She would later become one of the eighties’ biggest box-office stunners, starring in hits like Romancing the Stone, which earned her a Golden Globe. And in 1988, she proved she could convey her sultry side just fine without even appearing on camera when she lent her seductive voice to Hollywood’s most memorable animated femme fatale, Jessica Rabbit.
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93. Linda Ronstadt
Few women could catch your eye—and, for that matter, your ear—in the ’70s quite like Linda Ronstadt. Nicknamed both the “First Lady of Rock” and the “Queen of Rock,” at the height of her career, the 10-time Grammy winner became a fixture on the covers of magazines like Rolling Stone, Newsweek, and even Time. She followed her pop, punk, and folk rock success with a stint on Broadway—winning a Tony award for her role in 1981’s The Pirates of Penzance. But while her stage presence showed a tantalizing knack for reinvention, her sex appeal—much to our relief—remained as steady as her six-string.
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92. Dolly Parton
Who could mistake that voice, that music…that bosom? If there’s a Dixie bombshell out there that trumps all the rest, it’s Dolly Parton. The country music star turned heads for decades, and not just because of her famous figure. Parton’s toured and recorded since the late ’60s, and her career hasn’t waned nearly five decades later. That’s one reason why the legendary Country star has piled up an astounding 25 number-one singles and more than 40 top-10 country albums. She’s also had a fairly prolific career in film and television—starring in classic films like Steel Magnolias and The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas. And if all that wasn’t enough, Parton continues to operate her own charity foundation, as well as a successful theme park, Dollywood, based near her Tennessee home.
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91. Susan George
Susan George isn’t a household name like, for example, Diana Rigg or Helen Mirren. But with two roles in the ‘70s, this British actress defined an incredibly hot paradox: Blatant, raw sexuality restrained in frustration behind a proper front. And that proper front was always on the verge of crumbling because of the carnal force behind it. That, of course, made both films controversial. In Mandingo, interracial lust dominates the film, which is set in the Deep South during the 1840s. You know things can’t turn out well when George, a plantation wife, has the best sex of her life with a slave. Then there’s Straw Dogs (the original Peckinpah version). She wants it. She doesn’t want it. She wants it. Moral ambiguity was never hotter. And neither was Susan George.
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90. Barbara Eden
With all due respect to Christina Aguilera, no actress (or musician) has ever portrayed a sexier wish-granter than Barbara Eden, star of the hit TV series I Dream of Jeannie that ran five seasons from 1965 to 1970. Despite the alluring premise—a bachelor (played by Larry Hagman) who lives alone with a permanently scantily clad, bottled-up blonde—the show rarely dabbled in the risqué. Its wholesome approach allowed it to become a modest hit and cult favorite that lasted in syndication for many decades afterward. When Jeannie’s run concluded, Eden starred in a handful of short-lived shows and made-for-TV movies, but they never reached the same level of popularity, despite the wishes of her many fans.
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89. Phoebe Cates
She set the standard for every teenage guy’s poolside fantasy in 1982’s cult classic Fast Times at Ridgmont High. Nearly 30 years later, the scene still remains an unparalleled and iconic bikini-drop moment—with Cates glistening divinely as she emerges from the water in Judge Reinhold’s soon to be not-so-private fantasy. On that credit alone, Phoebe Cates ensured the destruction of a million VCR rewind buttons, as proud a legacy as any eighties teen idol could hope for. After Fast Times, though, Cates starred in only a handful of other noteworthy films—Gremlins and Drop Dead Fred among them—before settling into semi-retirement with her husband, actor Kevin Kline. We’d venture to guess Mr. Kline put in a pool.
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88. Dorothy Dandridge
Born into poverty during the Great Depression, Dorothy Dandridge may have seemed like an unlikely candidate to inspire future generations of black entertainers like Halle Berry, Jada Pinkett Smith, and Janet Jackson. Her parents gave her an early start in showbiz—acting in a troupe that toured the South, which eventually led to steady film work. Dandridge’s career peaked in 1954, when she won an Academy Award for her role Carmen Jones—the first black actress to do so. Until then, Dandridge had been known for portraying more conservative characters, and the role allowed Dandrdige to show a more sensual, and seldom-seen side of her personality. Regrettably, the moment was short-lived: Dandridge died of an accidental overdose in 1965, but her legacy lived on in HBO’s 1999 biopic Introducing Dorothy Dandridge—starring, fittingly, Halle Berry as Dandridge.
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87. Christina Hendricks
Few bodies have been as celebrated in the mainstream media as Christina Hendricks’. But even more hypnotic than her hourglass figure is the way she moves with it. When Hendricks sashays through the office as Joan Holloway in the hit series Mad Men, she exudes an unapologetic amount of composure, confidence, and strength. And let’s face it—there’s nothing sexier or more mesmerizing than a woman who doesn’t just own her body, but is damn proud of it, too.
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86. Grace Kelly
Grace Kelly began her acting career on Broadway when she was just a teen, starring in Broadway shows like The Father and The Philadelphia Story. It didn’t take long for the Philly native to go Hollywood, earning a Golden Globe and an Academy Award for her role opposite Clark Gable in Mogambo. Kelly also appeared in classic films like The Country Girl, Rear Window, and The Bridges at Toko-Ri. Her poise and elegance lent her an almost regal bearing off-camera, and so it surprised few when Kelly transitioned with ease into life as a Princess, marrying Prince Rainier III of Monaco in 1956.
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85. Sasha Grey
Sure, Jenna Jameson is a household name, and other San Fernando Valley starlets occasionally pop up in mainstream Hollywood productions, but Sasha Grey may be the first true star to cross over from the realm of porn. Her darkly sultry (and silicone-free) looks fall comfortably between girl-next-door and girl-on-the-stripper-pole. And while Grey’s recurring role as herself on HBO’s Entourage wasn’t exactly a stretch, her turn as a high-end prostitute in Steven Soderberg’s The Girlfriend Experience earned generous praise from critics like Roger Ebert. Who says Hollywood can’t respect an actress who has sex on camera?
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84. Loni Anderson
This former beauty queen from St. Paul, Minnesota, became a sex symbol playing Jennifer Marlowe, the superhumanly competent receptionist on WKRP in Cincinnati. With her pert nose, dimples, and bleached-blonde hair, she was often mistaken for a stereotypically dim blonde, but in reality she was the station’s most capable (and highest-paid) employee. She had the best lines, too: “I like older men better. They’re so mature and kind, and they tire easily.” Anderson’s bucked the 1970’s trend of “Jiggle TV” with her portrayal of a smart, ambitious, eminently capable woman. After WKRP, Anderson settled into lighter roles: she was always beautiful, but it was the class and verve she brought to Jennifer Marlowe that made her an icon.
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83. Lili St. Cyr
You could argue Lili St. Cyr was the Lady Gaga of her time—that’s a compliment, by the way. Though she wasn’t a musician, St. Cyr was brash and confident, elevating her raw, untamed sexuality into a kind of burlesque-inspired artform. Like Gaga, she also changed her name after high school (from Willis Marie Van Schaack) and unapologetically sought fame and fortune. “What’s the use of being beautiful,” she once said, “if you can’t profit from it?” And profit she did: At the peak of her career in the forties and fifties, St. Cyr earned nearly $7,000 a week, and even (allegedly) inspired Marilyn Monroe. Her most famous performance involved taking a bubble bath on stage, earning an indecent exposure charge in 1951. Scandal, as always, only helped fuel the hype, and St. Cyr quickly became one of America’s most famous (and infamous) showgirls, even enjoying a brief fling with director Orson Wells. She proved too much for Citizen Kane, however, and many other men, too, marrying six times before her death in 1999.
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82. Audrey Hepburn
For most of her career, Audrey Hepburn portrayed women with class (Roman Holiday, My Fair Lady)—roles that mirrored her personal life. But make no mistake: Hepburn could exhude sex appeal and sophistication in equal measure—as evidenced by her turn as a call girl in 1961’s Breakfast at Tiffany’s. Petite and fashionable, with wide, dark eyes and porcelain skin, Hepburn was the kind of woman you could imagine around your arm at a state dinner—at ease next to Jackie O. In later years, her status as a fashion icon—she was a favorite of designer Hubert de Givenchy—threatened to overshadow her considerable acting career: She’s still one of few actresses in history to win an Oscar, an Emmy, a Grammy, and a Tony award. Those accolades, among others, prompted the American Film Institute to name Hepburn the third greatest screen legend in history.
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81. Clara Bow
Legendary silent film star Clara Bow was so seductive that her on-screen sex appeal didn’t even require her to speak. And though we know better than to judge a woman based on appearances only, guys in Bow’s era didn’t have much of a choice. Appearing in dozens of silent standards like Mantrap, Wings, and Dancing Mothers—which now sound like foreign films—Bow epitomized the flapper woman of the 1920s: Short hair, shorter skirt, lavish lingerie, and plenty of bare skin. She’s still America’s first, and finest sex symbol, impossible to forget thanks to her enduring body—of work, that is.
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80. Elle MacPherson
You know you’ve made it as a supermodel when your peers nickname you, simply, “The Body.” Not that we can argue with them—for nearly three decades, men have found it impossible to resist MacPherson’s leggy and athletic six-foot frame. The Australian model left her biggest impression on popular culture in the eighties when she appeared on the cover of the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue a record six times, as well as inside dozens of issues of Elle before marrying (and later divorcing) the magazine’s creative director. While she’s less visible in front of the cameras today, focusing more on her flourishing cosmetics and lingerie businesses, MacPherson still, by some miracle, has managed to maintain her otherworldly physique.
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79. Kim Novak
One look at Kim Novak and you might empathize with Jimmy Stewart for losing his mind over the actress. Best known as the sexy, yet cunning star of Vertigo, Novak earned the respect of Hollywood thanks to her mastery of dual roles in the Alfred Hitchcock-directed thriller. Fueled mainly by that film’s success, Novak won star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. She also starred in a slew of other critically acclaimed films like 1960’s Strangers When We Meet before retiring abruptly from acting in 1991.
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78. Jane Seymour
Like so many other women before her, British-American actress Jane Seymour cemented her place as an international sex symbol after starring as a Bond girl, portraying Solitaire in 1973’s Live and Let Die opposite Roger Moore. But while her Bond days may be a thing of the past—most people remember her as the less salacious Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman—Seymour recently showed a flash of her old self. In 2005, she played a minor, but memorable role in Wedding Crashers as Kathleen “Kitty Kat” Cleary—the randy, alcoholic wife of Christopher Walken who puts the moves on a stunned Owen Wilson. Down, Kitty.
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77. Kelly LeBrock
Le Brock began her modeling career at 16, earning a slew of high-profile advertising campaigns, Vogue covers, and one infamous Pantene Pro-V commercial in which she coined the phrase, “Don’t hate me because I’m beautiful.” Lebrock’s striking blue eyes, voluminous eighties hairdo, and natural curves made her a natural to star in the1985 cult classic Weird Science, in which a couple of high school geeks engineer the perfect woman. No need to check the math, fellas.
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76. Anita Ekberg
How confident was Anita Ekberg in her appeal to men? The popular ’60s pinup once boasted, “It was I who made [director Federico] Fellini famous, not the other way around.” Perhaps Fellini is to blame for creating his own monster: the director cast Ekberg as an unattainable “dream girl” in his classic film La Dolce Vida. At least you can’t blame his thinking: Before she became an actress, Ekberg had been a professional model in Sweden and a former Miss Universe contestant.
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75. Brigitte Bardot
Of all the sex symbols France has graciously provided the world, there’s none more quintessentially French than Brigitte Bardot. Her breakout film, And God Created Women, swept in with the New Wave and proved little more than an excuse to show Bardot in various states of undress—more than enough to cement her international reputation. With a sensual persona that bounded between energetic and pouty, she literally defined “sex kitten.” Her lack of inhibition made her a darling of the intellectuals, and not just the men: Simone de Beauvoir called her a “locomotive of women’s history.” She never went Hollywood, but worked with some of her country’s greatest directors, including Jean-Luc Godard and Louis Malle. At her peak she was the thinking man’s sex symbol: blonde, beautiful, and irresistibly French.
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74. Demi Moore
In 1991, men around the world took a surprising, new interest in pottery, deeply envying a lump of clay massaged into phallic magnificence by Demi Moore in Ghost. That’s to suggest we hadn’t already fallen in love with the husky-voiced dark beauty a hundred times before. A teen pin-up girl and soap actress, Moore quickly became a core member of Hollywood’s Brat Pack, her own hard-partying lifestyle set to an anthemic score in the young yuppie ensemble piece St. Elmo’s Fire. With Ghost, Indecent Proposal, A Few Good Men, and Disclosure, not to mention a famous pregnant-and-nude Vanity Fair cover, Moore was powerful, provocative, commanding, and hot. We were less aroused by her butched-out soldier in GI Jane, but dug her striptease on David Letterman’s talk show. On the personal front, her marriage to Bruce Willis died hard, and her union with much-younger Ashton Kutcher was recently Punk’d.
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73. Jane Russell
Gentlemen may prefer blondes, but if it’s true they marry brunettes, there was a time when every American man would have proposed to Jane Russell. Howard Hughes made one of the wisest moves of his storied career when he cast the voluptuous actress in 1943’s The Outlaw, causing a stir among young men—and movie censors desperate to temper down her sultry side. Other films made even more transparent attempts to capitalize on Russell’s assets, but it was in Gentlemen, starring alongside Marilyn Monroe as the sharp-witted Dorothy Shaw, that Russell secured her place as a timeless beauty.
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72. Suzanne Somers
One of the most iconic women of the ’70s and ’80s, Somers nearly resigned herself to roles like “Blonde in the T-Bird”—her actual description in American Graffiti. (Not exactly the stuff of Oscar nominations.) Three’s Company, lucky for us, gave her a more prominent role. As Chrissy Snow, Somers donned skin-tight shirts and extra-short shorts—the epitome of fashion in 1977—showing off her famously toned legs and perfect chest. Somers continued to stoke libidinal fires as she hocked the Thighmaster—a piece of exercise equipment that she squeezed slowly, rhythmically between her legs—in one of the decade’s most pleasingly brain-searing infomercials. Good thing, too. Somers’ perfectly toned body made her by far the hottest mom on prime time during the full run of the ’90s sitcom Step By Step.
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71. Cheryl Tiegs
In what could be called the belle époque of hot-girl wall posters, Cheryl Tiegs’ iconic 1978 pink-bikini shot (go ahead—Google it) ranks near the top of the pinup heap. A 5’10” knockout, Tiegs is most famous for her multiple appearances on the cover of SI’s swimsuit edition—gracing the cover in 1970, 1975, and 1983. Her long legs and broad smile also landed her on the cover of Glamour when she was just 17. Although her attempts to launch an acting career never took flight, she did manage to score an unexpected cameo on Family Guy as derelict bachelor Quagmire’s bombshell ex-wife. Giggity!
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69. Elizabeth Taylor
Perhaps the most lusted-after brunette of all time, Taylor began her long career as an adorable child starlet in the mold of Shirley Temple. When the cuteness wore off, however, a far more alluring star emerged. Taylor’s iconic look—luscious brown locks, voluptuous figure, and dewy, violet eyes—secured her a place in the imagination of every red-blooded American male—including the eight she famously married and divorced. In the most lauded of her 50-odd roles, Taylor portrayed the Queen Cleopatra, for which she earned a startling $1 million keep—the highest salary ever paid to an actress.
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68. Tawny Kitaen
Here’s how you make a voluptuous, long-legged, redhead even hotter: Ask her to do splits on the hood of your Jaguar. It worked for Tawny Kitaen, who became America’s favorite video-girl after her iconic Jaguar scene in Whitesnake’s Here I Go Again video. Though she appeared other rock videos, including Ratt’s Back for More and Whitesnake’s In the Still of the Night (it’s as if she married the lead singer or something), Kitaen isn’t your average video-vixen. She swapped her car dancing for a more wholesome gig co-hosting America’s Funniest People. She also made appearances in Married with Children, Seinfeld, and reality shows like Rock of Love and The Surreal Life. OK, not exactly Academy Award-caliber material, but we love that Kitaen’s the type of woman we could imagine having a beer with—and then taking for a joy ride in the Jag.
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67. Jean Harlow
Sex appeal isn’t always about looks alone. In the 1930’s, Jean Harlow was known as much for her wit as for her platinum blonde hair and voluptuous figure. Reportedly discovered while dropping off a friend at a Hollywood studio lot in 1929, Harlow became a protégé of Howard Hughes, who cast her in Hell’s Angels. By 1932, she was on contract with studio giant MGM, usually playing brassy, sharp-tongued women. Simultaneously, the young actress was dogged by scandal: Her second husband committed suicide, after which she married a cinematographer for less than a year. Later, Harlow was linked to several famous athletes and actors. Sadly, we’ll never know what could have come of her promising start in Hollywood—Harlow died of liver failure in 1937 near the peak of her celebrity.
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66. Alicia Silverstone
Somewhere, we hope Alicia Silverstone is still getting royalty checks for the Aerosmith singles Cryin’, Amazing, and Crazy. Her role in the iconic ’90s music videos as a sexy, rebellious teenager not only fueled the band’s popularity, but also made Silverstone a household name—without ever having to say a word. She used her popularity, fittingly, to land the lead in 1995’s Clueless as an attention (and boyfriend) seeking blonde at a Beverly Hills high school. (It’s okay, guys, you can admit you’ve seen it.)
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65. Nicole Scherzinger
While Carmen Electra may be the more famous of the Pussycat Dolls, it’s the group’s current lead singer, Nicole Scherzinger, who has recently emerged as the most lusted-after member of the Los Angeles-based dance ensemble. The Honolulu native formerly sung in a backup role for the ’90s rock group Days of the New before getting her break with the Dolls. Since then, she’s released a successful solo album—Killer Love—and won season 10 of Dancing with the Stars, prompting judges to declare her the best dancer in the show’s history. Not that we don’t trust those judges, but you’ll forgive us if we’ll have to take a second look for ourselves.
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64. Kylie Minogue
A pixie with edge, Kylie Minogue is a superstar in Oz—a beloved actress, fashion model, social activist, and pop star with a record-setting 20 consecutive top 10 hits in the UK. She first stole American hearts by demanding we do the “Locomotion” on her chart-topping 1987 single, then weaved a spell on audiences as The Green Fairy in Baz Luhrmann’s epic movie musical, Moulin Rouge. But Minogue’s not merely a bubble gum princess; detours into darkness with Nick Cave and Manic Street Preachers, not to mention a courageous rumble with breast cancer in 2005 have lent the blonde beauty an almost mythic quality. Her post-cancer work is sexier, more assured. She even recently launched her own lingerie line, Love Kylie. (We do, we do.)
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63. Tyra Banks
Before she became a multimedia force of nature with America’s Next Top Model and The Tyra Banks Show, she was Will Smith’s girlfriend on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. She was already on her way then, a gorgeous up-and-coming cover model. She became the first black woman on the cover of Sports Illustrated’s swimsuit issue, followed immediately by the cover of the Victoria’s Secret catalog. Along the way she transformed herself into an Oprah-like role model and guru, showing special concern for women and girls with body image issues. Once joking that she had 30 pounds of extra booty compared to other models, Tyra encourages women to find their own standards of beauty. What’s more down-to-earth-sexy than a phenomenally beautiful women who believes everyone can be sexy?
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62. Veronica Lake
Pin-up princess Veronica Lake appeared mostly in silent films until her first speaking role in 1941’s I Wanted Wings. After that, male audiences demanded more of the petite, 4’11 bombshell—often posed with a single, curly lock of blonde hair hanging seductively over one eye. Lake graduated to bigger roles in 1940’s classics like This Gun for Hire, Sullivan’s Travels, and Hold That Blond. With her pouting lips, defiant attitude, and troubled personal life, Lake embodied the femme fatale—almost too perfectly, as it turned out. As Lake’s career went into decline during the 1950’s, the actress left Hollywood, took up bartending, and met a tragic, early death from hepatitis at age 50.
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61. Denise Richards
Give him all day and the average guy could probably name no more than three movies starring Denise Richards. One of those would be Starship Troopers. The other would be The World Is Not Enough—yes, she’s another Bond girl—and the third? Ah yes, 1998’s Wild Things—a movie with one of the most-watched three-ways in movie history. Men of a certain age will never forget the climactic scene, in which Richards hooks up with boh Neve Campbell and Matt Dillon. No red-blooded teenage male who grew up in the ’90s missed it—nor will he ever forget it. And for that reason alone—forget anything to do with Charlie Sheen or Dancing With the Stars—she’s forever deserving of our praise.
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60. Jennifer Lopez
Some ladies have hourglass figures, but Lopez—actress, dancer, pop star, fashion designer, television host, philanthropist—has la guitarra, a breathtaking figure that first stopped hearts as a dancer with Janet Jackson and on television’s In Living Color. Before long, the Puerto Rican Lopez—once linked to P. Diddy and Ben Affleck, go figure—was top-lining Hollywood movies like Selena, Shall We Dance, and Maid in Manhattan. Along the way, Lopez has sold some 30-million albums worldwide, fusing pop, funk, hip-hop, and salsa. But it’s when Lopez put her junk in a trunk—literally, cuffed and dumped to George Clooney in the brilliant Out of Sight—that our fire for Lopez went white-hot.
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59. Diane Lane
Until around 2002, Diane Lane had forged a quietly impressive career. She starred opposite Laurence Olivier in her first role, 1979’s A Little Romance, which led to an appearance on the cover of Time (the magazine branded her one of Hollywood’s ‘Whiz Kids’). Olivier himself called her the “next Grace Kelly.” And then, well, things cooled off for Lane. The Cotton Club flopped, and she took some time away from Hollywood to reconnect with family. That’s part of the reason why 2002’s Unfaithful blindsided us so dramatically. In the flick, Lane plays a middle-aged housewife who cheats on her husband with a French book dealer. The couple’s steamy, unforgettable sex scenes made her one of the first women (outside of maybe Stifler’s mom) to get branded as a sex symbol as she closed in on her 40th birthday—a status, we’re happy to report, that she’s still in no danger of losing nearly a decade later.
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58. Rita Hayworth
Born Margarita Carmen Cansino, Rita Hayworth was one of the best dancers to emerge from the Golden Age of Hollywood. Her career took off after she posed for an alluring photograph in LIFE—one that depicted her kneeling on a bed wearing in a silky negligee. The portrait proved to be a favorite among soldiers fighting in World War II, and Hayworth eventually became the second most popular pin-up girl of the era, trailing only behind the legendary Betty Grable. She further cemented her reputation by portraying the seductress Gilda in the eponymous film. The character carried such influence that Hayworth was later rumored to have remarked: “Men went to bed with Gilda and woke up with me.”
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57. Pam Grier
In the super-skinny era of Twiggy and Goldie Hawn, Pam Grier was all buxom curves and no-nonsense attitude. In the 1970’s, Grier graced the screen in a series of sexploitation and blaxploitation films with unsubtle names like Women in Cages and Black Mama, White Mama. But she reached true icon status with 1974’s Foxy Brown, a revenge flick in which Grier castrates and burns gangsters and drug lords. Director Quentin Tarantino—a longtime fan of grindhouse cinema and Grier in particular—breathed new life into her career with the 1996 film Jackie Brown. Since then Grier has maintained a presence both in theaters and on TV screens, teaching us how a woman can stay sexy at any age.
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56. Bo Derek
Here’s one way a woman can eliminate any insecurities about her looks: Get cast as the hot girl in a movie called 10—as in, the perfect 10. The 1979 role put Derek opposite Dudley Moore as a newlywed who Moore, in the throes of a mid-life crisis, pursues. Derek’s trademark cornrow hairstyle spawned a fad, while her career, to put it politely, failed to gain as much traction. Derek would go on to receive three nominations for the “Golden Raspberry” award, given out to the worst actress of the year.
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55. Mae West
Know one way to piss off a lot of people in the 1920s? Write, produce, direct, and star in a Broadway show titled, simply, “Sex.” Oh, and look like Mae West while you’re doing it. For that stunt, West spent 10 days in jail on charges of “corrupting the morals of youth.” Her stint in the clink, thankfully, didn’t do very much to realign her moral compass—especially if her later work (The Constant Sinner, Pleasure Man) is any indication. West’s star power rose with each of those alluring featurettes, and she soon found herself acting alongside stars like Cary Grant and W.C. Fields who, we’re certain, welcomed her corruption.
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54. Jessica Alba
We owe James Cameron for bringing us Jessica Alba. The writer-director chose her from more than a thousand candidates for the starring role in Dark Angel, his sci-fi series about a genetically-engineered super-soldier. Though it ran only two seasons, the show raised Alba’s profile, mainly by showcasing her beating on bad guys in tight-fitting assassin gear. Her exotic looks (she’s Mestizo Mexican, French, and Danish) surely didn’t hurt, either, and the action prepared her for films like Fantastic Four, Sin City, and Machete. But she also has a knack for physical comedy, taking a surprising number of pratfalls alongside Mike Meyers and Dane Cook. Some beautiful women try hard to be unapproachable; Alba takes the opposite tack. Her wide brown eyes always carry a trace of vulnerability, and in comedies she’s the goofy-sexy girl you wish lived next door.
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53. Lauren Bacall
The voice is legendary, sounding like 2 AM in a smoky, seedy gin joint. Lauren Bacall was only 19 years old when she—and her low, husky voice—starred opposite Humphrey Bogart in To Have and Have Not. With that voice, that sultry look, and those impetuously arched eyebrows, she captivated not only audiences, but her much older co-star: Bogart married her soon after. They reunited onscreen for the noir classic The Big Sleep; Bacall’s icy look and skill at delivering a cutting remark made her a perfect noir figure. She was poised and elegant, always in control of the men around her. Not that they minded: no man could resist when that voice asked, “You know how to whistle, don’t you?”
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52. Carrie Fisher
Carrie Fisher was only 19 when filming began on a little sci-fi project called Star Wars. You wouldn’t think a billowy, ankles-to-elbows white gown could be sexy, but as director George Lucas told Fisher, “There’s no underwear in space.” Fortunately for every male born after 1950, space does offer the metal bikini Fisher wore in Return of the Jedi. In fact, the “Slave Leia” costume remains such a fixture in geek fantasies that fellow all-time hotties like Jennifer Aniston have donned it. It’s Fisher, though, who wins a place in our hearts as the original princess we’d square off against Lord Vader to save.
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51. Kim Basinger
We don’t mean this as a disservice to women like Kelly Brook and Nicolette Nightingale, but few Playboy cover girls ever make the transition from bare-skinned bombshell to Oscar-winning actress. That’s what makes Kim Basinger such an enigma: A leading lady with both the chest and chops to rule Hollywood. Basinger used her blonde locks and big lips to become a model in the 1970s, a movie icon in the ’80s, and an award-winner for her role as a prostitute in L.A. Confidential in the ’90s. It’s true that her starpower may have cooled in recent years, but even in her fifties she’s still almost as sexy as she was when she graced the pages of Playboy nearly three decades ago.
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50. Brooklyn Decker
It’s been a few years since Claudia Schiffer and Christie Brinkley conquered the newsstands—and now a new blonde has surfaced: 24-year-old bombshell Brooklyn Decker. The Ohio native made four straight cameos in Sports Illustrated’s vaunted Swimsuit Edition, finally appearing on the cover in 2010. That drew the attention of Victoria’s Secret, who enlisted her to model swimsuits, while Esquire readers promptly voted Decker the “Sexiest Woman Alive.” By then, much to the dismay, sadness, and begrudging admiration of men everywhere, American tennis star Andy Roddick had wisely locked it up.
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49. Jenna Jameson
It’d be easy to write off Jenna Jameson as nothing more than a porn queen who had her moment. Look closely (we know it won’t be difficult), however, and you’ll realize the platinum-blonde adult entertainer has a remarkable amount of business savvy for somebody who earned most of her living in flagrante. Want proof? In 2000, near the height of the dot-com boom, Jameson founded ClubJenna, an X-rated video service that shot and produced its own material. The success of that venture made Jameson a millionaire. She’s also hosted a reality show on Playboy TV, made a cameo on Family Guy, and wrote a best-selling memoir, 2004’s How to Make Love Like a Porn Star. We’re still waiting on the adaptation, Hollywood.
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48. Kathy Ireland
When it comes to breathtaking, bikini-clad women, no outlet turns its models into instant celebrities faster than Sports Illustrated. (For further proof, see Brooklyn Decker.) Kathy Ireland featured in the magazine’s much-anticipated franchise 13 years in a row, landing on the cover three times. A recent stint on Dancing with the Stars revived her modeling career, but these days Ireland focuses primarily on her marketing company, Kathy Ireland Worldwide, which makes everything from socks to skincare products. Forbes estimates the company generates at least $1.5 billion in sales every year—of which Ireland gets as much as $15 million.
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47. Sophia Loren
When Sophia Loren began acting in films, plucked as a teenager from a war-torn Italian village by a movie producer, she adopted the pseudonym “Sophia Lazzaro” – because, people reportedly joked, her beauty could raise Lazarus from the dead. One of world cinema’s greatest treasures, name-checked in Bob Dylan’s “I Shall Be Free,” boasting a swoon-worthy combination of ferocity and vulnerability, Loren has gone toe-to-toe onscreen with Brando, Gable, Chaplin, and Grant, to name but a few. In the process, through films like Quo Vadis, Aida, The Gold of Naples, Houseboat, and Grumpier Old Men, she’s earned an Oscar, seven Golden Globes, and love letters baring stamps from virtually every country on Earth. As for that nearly-mythic beauty? Loren says it’s no big deal; she’s merely lucky. “I had a beautiful mother,” she coos. Yeah. We thought that was sexy, too.
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46. Paris Hilton
Other than maybe Pamela Anderson, nobody has done more than Paris Hilton to advance the public’s fascination with celebrity sex tapes. Even when those sex tapes happen to consist of nothing more than grainy, poorly composed, nightvision-style footage. (Um, not that we’ve seen it or anything.) The now infamous video she made with Rick Salomon, 1 Night in Paris, is even featured on IMDB—like a real movie. Love it or hate it, America has embraced the rise of celebutantes—and 2003’s hit reality TV series The Simple Life, in which Hilton co-starred with fellow heiress Nicole Richie, guaranteed that they’re here to stay. This time, thankfully, with (slightly) better production quality.
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45. Michelle Pfeiffer
She may have gotten her start in the box-office failure Grease 2, but thankfully that didn’t stop Michelle Pfeiffer from becoming one of Hollywood’s most enduring hotties. She made up for the flop early in her career by starring in the cult-classic Scarface, and followed that with a memorable turn in The Fabulous Baker Boys as a lounge singer, even performing her own vocals. Her sizzling role as Catwoman in Tim Burton’s Batman Returns also helped reinvigorate the series, leading to a pair of appearances on the cover of People magazine as one of its 50 Most Beautiful People in the World.
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44. Aishwarya Rai
It’s a testament to Aishwarya Rai’s unparalleled exotic beauty that she maintains such a strong cult following in the U.S. without ever starring in a major American franchise. And no, we’re not counting the unmitigated disaster that was the spy comedy Pink Panther 2, in which Rai plays a criminology expert who attempts to seduce the aloof Inspector Clouseau (as if he, or any man, could ever resist). Even at 37, the stunning Bollywood actress and former winner of the Miss World pageant remains one of India’s biggest draws, starring in more than 40 Hindi, English, and Bengali films.
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43. Erin Andrews
Some things in life don’t need explaining—and one of those things is the enduring appeal of Erin Andrews. Chris Fowler could throw to Andrews reading from the Yellow Pages, and there’s a good chance we’d tune in as eagerly as if she were breaking a story about Tom Brady breaking Michael Vick’s knees. Confident, sexy, and always impeccably dressed, Andrews doesn’t just coast on her stunning good looks. She also knows her stuff. Listening to her analysis, it’s easy to picture her on the couch swearing at the big-screen on Sunday afternoon, all while updating her fantasy lineup—and probably fleecing you in a trade. If only you could be so lucky.
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42. Brooke Shields
Denim never looked better than in those early ’80s Calvin Klein commercials starring Brooke Shields. Other guys may recall Shields’ nude beach scenes in The Blue Lagoon—the flowing brown hair, the perfect smile, still managing to look wholesome despite her lack of clothing. Unlike many of her peers in that era, Shields continued to stay noticed for nearly three decades—whether starring on Suddenly Susan or getting hitched with Andre Agassi. Now if only we could find out whether she still fits into those CK’s.
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41. Miranda Kerr
Replacing the world’s hottest supermodel is no easy assignment, but in 2007 Kerr answered the call to fill Gisele Bündchen’s stiletto heels, making her the first Australian Victoria’s Secret model. Known for her approachable personality and girl-next-door looks (it’s those dimples), Kerr’s visibility only grew after marrying actor Orlando Bloom in 2010. Sincelast year, the 28-year-old has become one of the 10 highest-paid supermodels in the world thanks to campaigns with Levi’s and dozens of other brands.
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40. Mariah Carey
For the better part of two decades, Mariah Carey has played the role of the diva to near-perfection. And every time she appears on our TV, she proves again why any man would put up with her patented flair for melodrama. Even as her career has noticeably downshifted, settling into a more domesticated life with husband Nick Cannon, Carey’s retained the youthful physique, flawless complexion, radiant smile, and honey-blonde highlights that once propelled her to stardom with five hit singles in 1990 alone. Since then, she’s had over a dozen more—including 2008’s “Touch My Body.” You’ll never have to tell us twice, Mariah.
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39. Cindy Crawford
For a long time, supermodels followed a formula: tall, underfed, bleached-blonde, with coffee-straw legs and a blank, mildly intimidating stare. Then along came Cindy Crawford, the world’s most unforgettable brown-eyed girl. In the nineties, you couldn’t escape her. Besides getting married to Richard Gere, she graced literally hundreds of magazine covers, taking her only flaw—that famous upper-lip mole—and turning it into her most recognizable signature. Crawford combined confidence with a sharp intellect—she’s a former high school valedictorian—and showed a savvy for making risky, but profitable career moves. In 1998, for example, she spurned the advice of her managers and posed nude for Playboy—a full 10 years after her first shoot with the magazine. And in 2011, at age 45, we’d still encourage a third act.
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38. Teri Hatcher
Besides amemorable guest appearance on Seinfeld (in which a baffled Jerry enlists Elaine’s help to determine the, um, “authenticity” of her breasts), Teri Hatcher may be best known for playing Lois Lane on the hit ’90s drama Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman. These days, she’s also made a memorable turn as Susan Delfino, the loveable, clumsy, and accident-prone girl-next-door on the hit ABC-series, Desperate Housewives. With her down-to-Earth charm and self-deprecating sense of humor, we’ve never quit rooting for Hatcher—all while wishing we could be there to lend her a hand off the ground. Oh, and in case you were wondering? They’re still real, and they’re still spec-tacular.
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37. Claudia Schiffer
It must be encouraging when legendary fashion designers like Karl Lagerfeld brand you as the “new” Brigitte Bardot—the renowned French model and actress. The German-born Schiffer premiered as the face of Guess Jeans in 1989 and later signed on with companies like Chanel and Revlon. Her iconic face—long blonde hair, perfect white skin, radiant smile—dominated the newsstands through the ’90, appearing, by some estimates, on more than 500 magazine covers.
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36. Betty Grable
During World War II, if an American G.I. wasn’t carrying around a snapshot of a girlfriend from back home, he was toting a pinup of Betty Grable. Her most famous photo, taken in 1943, shows Grable from behind, looking over her right shoulder with arms akimbo, wearing high heels and what today looks like an incredibly modest one-piece swimsuit. It was enough to throw your young grandfather into a tizzy. The photo was so ubiquitous, in fact, that Life magazine later named it one of the “100 photos that changed the world.” Meanwhile, Grable was appearing in several Hollywood studio films a year with actors like Bob Hope, George Burns, and Fred Astaire. The hard-working actress raked in a bigger salary than any other American woman in the late 40’s, earning upwards of $300,000 annually.
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35. Halle Berry
With apologies to legit fans of the dull-as-bricks Swordfish, the only reason any dude spent his hard-earned dough to watch the 2001 dud was to catch a rare glimpse of Halle Berry’s bombshells. Lucky for her, Swordfish proved a mere blip in a long, otherwise illustrious career. (Okay, we’re also going to ignore Catwoman.) She’s played the vixen to perfection since the early nineties, carrying both blockbusters like X-Men and Oscar bait like Monster’s Ball. The latter secured her a statue for Best Actress in 2002, making her the first black woman to ever win the award.
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34. Claudia Cardinale
As the irrepressible star of Italian classics like 8 ½ and Rocco and His Brothers, Claudia Cardinale established herself as one of the sixties’ most sought-after stars. The mesmerizing brunette could always play a Tunisian goddess just as convincingly as the girl next door. Bob Dylan was so captivated by her looks that he inserted a photo of Cardinale into the original liner notes for Blonde on Blonde. Even acknowledgment from the legendary singer, however, couldn’t lure the actress to the U.S. for long. Cardinale continued to film primarily in Europe, though her popularity in America remains strong. In a 2011 survey, Los Angeles Times readers voted Cardinale the seventh most beautiful woman in film history.
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33. Beyonce
Last name? Who needs a last name? Like fellow sex icon Madonna, Beyonce does just fine with a single, three-syllable moniker. And in the last decade-plus, that name has become synonymous with spectacular pipes, formidable acting skills, and most importantly, skintight suits. She’s also known for a remarkable string of hits: Beyonce’s third album, I Am Sasha… Fierce, set a record in 2008 with six Grammy wins in the same night. That same year, the Houston native married rapper and entrepreneur Jay-Z—instantly making the duo one of the highest-earning and most powerful couples in music.
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32. Penelope Cruz
What a wonderful thing it was to see Penelope Cruz swaggering alongside Johnny Depp in the last—er, next to last—of the Pirates sequels. Cruz spent the early part of her career scene-stealing in a series of indie films before she broke out in Vanilla Sky. With a major franchise, and a still-fresh marriage to actor Javier Bardem under her belt, it’s a relief to know that Cruz won’t be going anywhere—partly because it’s not just men who share such fond admiration for those Spanish curves. In 2011, plastic surgeons in Hollywood asked female patients to pick the celebrity body they would most love to have. Cruz blew away the competition, finishing in the top three alongside Jennifer Aniston and Giselle Bundchen. Bien, señorita.
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31. Farrah Fawcett
In the late 1970’s, Farrah Fawcett’s beaming smile and headful of blonde curls (subject to much imitation in high school yearbook photos of yore) made her the all-American girl of the era. In fact, you’d be hard-pressed to find a woman who looked more wholesome, vibrant, and athletic in any time period. Even her posters—you know, the ones of her in a red swimsuit—sold in the millions. Despite the so-called “Jiggle TV” focus of Charlie’s Angels, the series that launched her into super-stardom, Fawcett later picked up several Emmy nominations for her work in serious made-for-TV movies like Burning Bed. And when Fawcett appeared in the December 1995 issue of Playboy wearing only gold paint—at the age of 48—it became the best-selling issue of the decade.
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30. Jayne Mansfield
With this blonde bombshell, it’s all about the numbers. Her IQ was reportedly 163, but Mansfield—a classically-trained pianist and violinist who spoke five languages fluently and could quote Marlowe, Shakespeare, and Shelley on command, knew her fans were more interested in a different set of numbers: 40-21-35. Those were the measurements of her absolutely breathtaking hourglass figure. Of course, there’s also the number 34 – the age at which Mansfield perished in a grisly 1967 Louisiana highway accident. Gone too soon, Mansfield was too beautiful to be taken seriously, and she knew it, unlike rival blonde Marilyn Monroe, who often seemed surprised, almost injured by her power over men. So with a certain intellectual detachment, Mansfield kitsched, squealed, and purred her way through a wide range of film projects, from the good (The Girl Can’t Help It) to the lousy (The Fat Spy) to the naked (Promises! Promises!). In the latter, released in 1963, Mansfield became the first mainstream American actress to ever go fully nude in a film, making her one of that year’s top-10 box office draws. A favorite of both the USO and Playboy, appearing more than 30 times, one of Mansfield’s last professional choices was to reject the role of Ginger on television’s Gilligan’s Island. In her personal life, though, the starlet lived for pink champagne, memorialized in Siouxsie and the Banshee’s seminal modern rock tune, “Kiss Them for Me.”
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29. Anna Kournikova
For a few years in the late ’90s, the mere sight of Anna Kournikova’s long blonde hair, toned upper body, drool-worthy legs, and midriff-revealing Adidas shirts were among the only reasons that men tuned in to watch pro tennis. Sure, she wasn’t the most talented player to ever hit the courts—often being criticized for “looking good but never winning”—but even that characterization isn’t entirely fair. While her singles career stagnated, Kournikova did carve out an impressive doubles career—earning a pair of Grand Slam titles in 1999 and 2002 with partner Martina Hingis.
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28. Ann-Margret
In addition to IKEA, ABBA, Nobel Prizes, and the smorgasbord, we must also thank Sweden for Ann-Margaret, the luscious, effervescent redhead who wooed Jack Nicholson, Steve McQueen, and Elvis Presley. In her first professional gig, Ann-Margaret tap-danced with God—well, George Burns, anyway—in Las Vegas. Before she was 21, the entire world had fallen in love with the multi-gifted Swede. She was an international pop sensation, a box office star, a teen idol, and a sex kitten. Despite steady gigs in solid fare like Carnal Knowledge, The Cincinnati Kid, and Tommy, and being handpicked by Tennessee Williams to topline a 1984 run of A Streetcar Named Desire, Margaret’s jobs were leaning more heavily toward characters like Lady Bobby and Jezebel Dezire. She’d score one more hit in the ’90s, however, playing the mutual love interest of Walter Mattheau and Jack Lemmon in the Grumpy Old Men franchise.
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27. Natalie Portman
Her beauty is a given, but it’s the brains, ambition, and heart that gives Natalie Portman her extra appeal. Born in Jerusalem, Portman and her family relocated to the U.S. when she was a child—and already dreaming of being an actress. Her role as Padme Amidala in Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace secured her A-list status for life, but Portman never lost sight of her education—she’s been known to skip movie premieres to study for exams. Over the past decade, she’s continued to show remarkable versatility, too, starring in V for Vendetta (with a shaved head), fighting poverty abroad, and piling up award nominations in Black Swan. Oh, and did we mention that Harvard degree?
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26. Kim Kardashian
She may have two reality shows, a family worth a fortune, and even an infamous sex tape, but don’t confuse her with Paris Hilton. Kim Kardashian is the opposite of a rail-thin blonde—an irresistibly exotic combination of long black hair, light brown eyes, and flawless bone structure—all owing to her Armenian heritage. Combined with her knockout curves, it’s almost worth putting up with Kardashian’s annoying family. (Just beware of her godfather, O.J. Simpson.) Thankfully, Kardashian doesn’t seem too caught up with the family drama. She plans to start her own fashion line and recently released a new book, Kardashian Konfidential, with her two sisters.
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25. Gisele Bundchen
There’s that sultry smile, framed by just the right amount of red freckles, and the slim, stacked figure. Few supermodels in history have dominated the fashion world quite like Gisele Bundchen, who at 30 has already amassed a fortune worth more than $150 million—more than any other model since 2000. Perhaps best remembered for her six-year run as a Victoria’s Secret angel during which she once sported a $15-million bra, it’s easy to see how the Brazilian model managed to win over both actor Leo DiCaprio and, eventually, Patriots’ quarterback—and current husband—Tom Brady.
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24. Cameron Diaz
Those legs. They’ve been seared into the subconscious of every young, American male over the past two decades—from goofy romantic comedies like There’s Something About Mary to Diaz’s most recent hit, Bad Teacher. Even at 38, Diaz pulls off a miniskirt better than almost any other actress working in Hollywood. That and her legendary, sharp-witted sense of humor, of course, is one of the main reasons why her list of boyfriends reads like an invite list to an Oscar party—from longtime squeeze Justin Timberlake to her current man, all-star Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez.
23. Carmen Electra
The career of Carmen Electra (born Tara Leigh Patrick) launched with one of Hollywood’s “lucky break” stories. At the age of 18, she was discovered while dancing at a Los Angeles nightclub by a talent scout for Prince. The rap-funk record she recorded with the R&B icon flopped, however, so Electra moved back to L.A. to pursue another path to fame: appearing in the pages of Playboy in 1996 (and several other times since). Electra soon replaced Jenny McCarthy on MTV’s Singled Out, and a few months later joined the slow-motion beach running cast of Baywatch. She married (and divorced) both basketball bad boy Dennis Rodman and former Jane’s Addiction guitarist Dave Navarro. Electra has maintained her sex symbol status by performing with the Pussycat Dolls, and with regular appearances in parody flicks like Scary Movie, Epic Movie, and Meet the Spartans.
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22. Salma Hayek
It’s hard to believe that a woman as stunning as Salma Hayek ever had problems finding steady work, but it wasn’t until the Mexican beauty landed the role in the cult-classic Desperado opposite Antonio Banderas that her career finally took off. While the curvaceous Hayek could have found steady work on her looks alone, we’ve always admired her willingness to branch out. In 2002, for example, she grew a unibrow, donned frumpy clothes, and stunned audiences everywhere with her gripping (and, honestly, still kinda’ hot) portrayal of the painter Frida Kahlo.
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21. Monica Bellucci
It’s a shame Monica Bellucci isn’t better known in America, where the Italian beauty has quietly produced knockout work in major franchises like The Matrix Reloaded, The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, and The Passion of the Christ, in which she depicted Mary Magdalene. (Sunday school would have been way more fun if the women in the Bible were really that hot.) As any international sex symbol is apt to do, Bellucci has also appeared in sultry spreads for magazines like Vanity Fair over the past two decades. She’s far more revered in her native Italy, but consider this part of our ongoing effort to help change that. (You’re welcome.)
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20. Heidi Klum
Heidi Klum could make the even greatest overachiever look like a sloth. The German supermodel is a successful fashion designer, host of Project Runway, television producer, actress, and mother of three kids with her husband, the musician Seal. Even childbirth didn’t take a toll on Klum’s fit, 5’9 frame. Best of all, her hard work paid huge dividends—last year, Klum trailed only Gisele Bundchen on the Forbes list of the world’s highest earning models, earning about $20 million.
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19. Heather Locklear
In a distant chamber of Satan’s art gallery, there must hang a Dorian Gray-like portrait of a feculent, decrepit Heather Locklear, for on this planet the 50-year old blonde is as knee-weakening beautiful today as when we first fell in love with her on Dynasty. Then again on TJ Hooker, and again on Melrose Place, and once more on Spin City. Heck, even the Wayne’s World nimrods considered Locklear the most eminently schwingable lass to walk the Earth. The “lucky penny” of legendary TV producer Aaron Spelling (because every time he cast Locklear in a role, the show became a hit), Locklear’s flaxen mane and azure eyes, not to mention her sensual presence, have made her so much more than the “flavor of the month” so many ‘80s-bred beauties became. (Locklear’s bathing suit poster rival Heather Thomas, anyone?) Indeed, you might call Locklear the female Cary Grant: every woman wants to be her, and every man wants to bed her.
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18. Shakira
She’s the Britney Spears of Spain and Latin America, and on at least a few occasions, she’s seemed poised to achieve the same popularity in the U.S. Shakira’s first hit single “Whenever, Wherever” dominated radio countdowns in 2001 and made her—however fleetingly—a worldwide sensation. Of course, it didn’t hurt that the platinum blonde, athletic Columbian favored skimpy tops, bikini-style bottoms, and a gyrating, rhythmic dance style that emphasized every last one of her curves—never more notably than with her follow-up track, “These Hips Don’t Lie,” which became one of the best-selling singles of the past decade. Her most recent hit, “Waka Waka,” was the official anthem of the 2010 World Cup—and helped propel the pop star to 1 billion YouTube views, second only to Justin Bieber and Lady Gaga
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17. Anna Nicole Smith
It may be hard to remember now, but before Anna Nicole Smith became a loopy, overweight reality star, she was one of the hottest pinups of the ’90s. A high school dropout who wisely curried favor with Hugh Hefner, Smith quickly earned a place on the cover of the March 1992 issue of Playboy—taking her idolatry of Marilyn Monroe to an almost uncomfortable level. (Hey, we said almost.) Turns out, imitating Marilyn is never a bad move. Smith won Playmate of the Year and married 89-year-old oil tycoon J. Howard Marshall. The courtroom battles, you may recall, raged on for years after his death. Not long after that, we were left with only the mumbling, semi-coherent, tragically fading star of The Anna Nicole Show. For her sake (and okay, ours too), we’ll choose to remember the good years.
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16. Christie Brinkley
Blonde-haired, blue-eyed, All-American babe Christie Brinkley was nearly inescapable in the eighties and nineties. Now in her fifties, Brinkley still models cosmetics, but the clothes stay on—mostly. Meanwhile, her run in professional modeling remains nearly unparalleled: Brinkley was featured on more than 500 magazine covers over the span of her career, ranging from Vogue to Glamour to LIFE, and her three-year-streak as the Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition cover girl is matched only by Elle Macpherson.
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15. Jenny McCarthy
Somewhere between the champagne & bubble gum flirtations of sex symbols past and the charred self-absorption of this new millennium’s ingénues lived a girl who was just one of the guys, really—always ready with knee-slappingly grotesque bon mots about vomit and boners and hilariously vulgar gags about flatulence and menstruation. Except this girl was also a Playboy Playmate of the Year in 1994. She toys with taboos and goes full frontal, but she’s also a scalpel-sharp satirist and a bestselling author. In the early ‘90s, McCarthy was a girl next door, a Catholic school grad, a nursing student – the kind of girl you fantasize about holding beneath a disco light, and actually stand a chance of winning. She’s accessible, but smokin’. In subsequent years, she’s become better known for motherhood, her activism in the world of child autism, and for a long coupling with Mr. Talks Out His Butt, Jim Carrey, but McCarthy will always be Generation X’s flaxen-haired sweetheart.
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14. Megan Fox
Whether you think 2007’s Transformers is an action movie classic or a cinematic crime against humanity, you have to thank director Michael Bay for giving us Megan Fox. You know the scene: Fox is fiddling around under the hood of a Camaro while the camera slowly and lovingly pans across her taut bared abs, provocatively arched back, and trim hips. And as if appearing in a movie based off an 80’s cartoon wasn’t enough, Fox also upped her geek cred by admitting to a love of comic books, anime, and video games. Even her revelations that she’s obsessive-compulsive and self-conscious about her clubbed thumbs (a genetic trait) haven’t dimmed her sex appeal—as if anything could
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13. Catherine Deneuve
When it comes to combining sex appeal with sheer elegance, French actress Catherine Deneuve may be the only woman in the world to ever challenge Princess Di. Deneuve was so universally admired and lusted after in her native country that in 1985 the government picked her to pose as the statue of Marianne, the French national symbol. (Imagine if we’d nominated Angelina Jolie as the surrogate Statue of Liberty and you get the idea.) More than just a pretty face, Deneuve rose to stardom with memorable turns in critically acclaimed films like Roman Polanski’s Repulsion and Tony Scott’s The Hunger, in which she portrays a lesbian vampire who hooks up with a young Susan Sarandon. Let’s see the Statue of Liberty do that.
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12. Scarlett Johansson
It’s not often that child actors grow into successful adult stars, but Scarlett Johansson is a boldfaced exception to that rule. Her resume boasts critically acclaimed films like Lost in Translation, The Horse Whisperer, and Vicky Cristina Barcelona—and it’s easy to see why directors like Woody Allen are so taken with the New York native. Not only did Johansson demonstrate serious acting chops in those flicks, but she also proved to be one of the first women since Marilyn Monroe to get universal admiration for her voluptuous curves, luscious lips, and curly blonde hair.
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11. Sharon Stone
With one tantalizingly slow cross of her legs, Sharon Stone instantly became one of Hollywood’s most infamous sexual icons. Before she made Michael Douglas sweat in Basic Instinct, however, Stone made it to Hollywood the old-fashioned way. She started as a beauty pageant winner in Pennsylvania, later signing on with the Ford Modeling agency. That led to dozens of bit parts before she finally scored the career-defining role opposite Arnold in Paul Verhoeven’s 1990 sci-fi thriller Total Recall. And it was Verhoeven again, God bless him, who granted us the gift of Stone’s skin-tight white dress (and little else) just two years later.
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10. Angelina Jolie
We’re not sure what it says about us that we’re so drawn to a woman best known for playing characters who can beat us up—whether it’s as Lara Croft, the ass-kicking heroine of Tomb Raider, or most recently, Russian sleeper agent Evelyn Salt. Maybe it’s those famous lips, or the sultry promise of her myriad tattoos—no star in Hollywood conveys sexiness with just a hint of danger quite like Angelina Jolie. Off the screen, of course, Jolie conveys a radically different persona, taking frequent trips to Africa with husband Brad Pitt and their six children to act as United Nations Goodwill ambassadors.
9. Jane Fonda
Jane Fonda has always straddled the line between hot and crazy. In the campy 1968 science fiction film Barbarella, her title character was brimming with so much sexual energy that she broke a machine designed to kill her with orgasms. Only a few years later, Fonda stirred up controversy while protesting the Vietnam War, denying POWs’ claims of torture and earning the nickname “Hanoi Jane.” By the eighties, thankfully, Fonda was back to hot again after filming a series of exercise videos that popularized aerobics, spandex, and lonely guys watching videos of spandex-clad women doing aerobics. (It was before there was an Internet, okay?)
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8. Pamela Anderson
Holding the record for most appearances on Playboy’s cover would be enough to earn Pamela Anderson a place on this list. But the pneumatic Canadian has become a household name, from her early roles in Home Improvement and Baywatch, through her very public relationships with a series of rock stars, to her Comedy Central roast and reality-TV show. For over two decades she’s defined the busty blonde archetype, and her honeymoon video with Tommy Lee ushered in the era of the celebrity sex tape, for better and worse. She’s not afraid to use her status for good causes, whether in support of PETA or marijuana legalization. But she never takes herself too seriously, either, whether she’s being roasted or appearing in Borat. Pamela Anderson may have started as a centerfold, but she’s become one of the iconic sex symbols of our time.
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7. Bettie Page
She was the “Queen of Pinups,” a Southern bombshell with the curves, charm, and famous jet-black bangs to get her scarcely-clad figure into men’s magazines across the country. She was one of the first fetish models, getting her start with whips and spike heels before getting a big break in Playboy. Her centerfold and nude pictures later caused a Senate investigation into pornography. Page eventually quit the modeling business, many decades before a sudden resurgence in her work during the ’90s, which only proved her timelessness. The same shots that turned men on decades ago still work the same magic today.
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6. Ursula Andress
When Ursula Andress walked out of the sea in 1962’s Dr. No, she set the standard for every Bond Girl who followed. And few could match her entrance: wet blonde hair glistening in the sun, conch shells in hand, and a diving knife clipped to that now-iconic white bikini. (It later sold for £35,000, by the way.) Even Sean Connery seemed almost outmatched by the Swiss bombshell, who had already caught Marlon Brando’s eye. When audiences got their eyeful she became an instant sex symbol. Small wonder she went on to play Aphrodite, the goddess of love, in Clash of the Titans. But it’s as Honey Ryder—beautiful, aloof, and a little dangerous—that she’ll always be remembered.
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5. Madonna
It’s been a long time since the Material Girl was like a virgin. In fact, 30 years after she made her debut, Madonna—through more costume changes than a one-man stage production of Ben Hur—has captured the world’s heads, hearts, and hormones with startling consistency. She’s like a flip-book of fashion, gyration, and melody bonded by a Zeitgeist-defining compunction for incessant, provocative reinvention. It’s as impossible to imagine pop culture without Madonna as it is to guess what a light bulb would do without Benjamin Franklin. From shredded wedding dresses to cone-shaped bras, fascist military fatigues to, uh, absolutely nothing, being faithful to Madonna—who has sold some 300-million albums worldwide—is getting to love a million women at the same time, and that’s something we cherish.
4. Britney Spears
Clad in a schoolgirl’s plaid skirt, white stockings, and pigtails, a 17-year-old Spears shot to fame with the music video for “(Hit Me) Baby One More Time.” The album, in turn, went double platinum, earning Spears a Grammy and becoming the highest-selling recording by a teen. After a series of follow-up hits, and a bit of reputed surgery that may or may not have increased the star’s “assets,” Spears was arguably the most famous (and sexually- charged) female performer in America. Near the height of her fame, Spears endured a very public meltdown, complete with embarrassing outbursts, rumors of substance abuse, and that whole thing with the head shaving. Thankfully, Spears overcame the drama, and after an extended lull she returned in 2011 with back-to-back hit singles off her most recent album, Femme Fatale.
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3. Marilyn Monroe
She’s the quintessential blonde—the star who single-handedly seduced a sitting President, charmed a baseball legend, and inspired countless generations of women to stock up on peroxide. Marilyn Monroe—or, if you prefer, Norma Jeane Mortenson—was never apologetic about her sexuality. She once posed nude for a calendar—reportedly to help pay the rent—and helped launch the inaugural issue of Playboy, gracing the cover and the centerfold and spawning legions of imitators from Anna Nicole Smith to Lindsay Lohan, who dyed her signature red locks bleach-blonde for a nude photo shoot in New York. Monroe, no doubt, would have been flattered—though the key to her allure was always in its seeming effortlessness. “Sex is nature,” she once said, “and I believe in going along with nature.”
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2. Raquel Welch
It’s one of the most iconic posters of all-time: a vulnerable Raquel Welch, clad in mankind’s first bikini. So vaunted was the still-shot that Andy Dufresne picked it to guard his escape route in the final act of The Shawshank Redemption. Dwell on that iconic pose long enough, and you’d have trouble believing Welch started her career not as a curvaceous, monosyllabic cave woman, but as a weather forecaster in San Diego. Later, after a string of modeling gigs and TV cameos, she starred in the 1966 sci-fi hit Fantastic Voyage. Roles like that inspired Playboy to name Welch the most desired woman of the ’70s. Though a Golden Globe followed for her (slightly) more subdued role in The Three Musketeers, it was Welch’s vivacious sex appeal that left the most lasting impression on Hollywood—and at least one jail cell.
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1. Jennifer Aniston
Funny is sexy, and Jennifer Aniston is funny—she was invited to join Saturday Night Live before her big break with Friends. Her down-to-earth persona makes her seem attainable, and anyone who’s seen her in Office Space has to admit she makes even pieces of flair look good. She rarely plays the airhead, and she seldom overplays a role: she’s funny in a quiet, refreshingly human way. And her all-too-human love life off screen inspires sympathy that not even a string of bland romantic comedies can diminish. Other sex symbols drift toward one-dimensionality, becoming flat icons in the process, but throughout her career Aniston has remained sexy, funny, and unmistakably real.
Via Men’s Health.
