Let’s be honest. When we think of our male screen heartthrobs do we fantasize them winning awards? No, we picture them splashed across tabloids under arrest, in rehab, or humiliating themselves by disrobing on screen and showing us their million-dollar ass. I’ll bet far more people have rented Tom Cruise’s All The Right Moves and fast forwarded to his nude scene (exactly 1 hour in) than watched his dramatic work in Magnolia. So, here’s the honor roll of favorites who dropped-trou and let their posteriors be preserved for posterity on celluloid.
Christopher Atkins. God bless him, right from the get-go, boyish beauty Atkins was unafraid to bare that classic bubble butt in practically all his early films from The Blue Lagoon (1980); A Night In Heaven (1983) to Wet And Wild Summer! (1992).
Johnny Depp. On the Jay Leno show Javier Bardem recalled the first time he saw Johnny Depp in his transvestite get-up in Before Night Falls he thought Johnny had one “nice ass.” But Depp disclosed that glorious rump pre-22 Jump Street days in a dumb sex comedy called Private Resort (1985) in which he and Rob Morrow are caught with their pants down running around a hotel suite.
Patrick Swayze shows his dirty dancing derriere getting out of bed in the movie Mystery Science Theater’s Mike Nelson facetiously called “the greatest movie ever made”- Road House (1989).
Leonard Whiting. Leave it to Franco Zefferelli to make a major movie out of William Shakespeare’s Romeo And Juliet (1968) and feature Romeo’s (Leonard Whiting) naked behind as he lies asleep across the bed of his lady love Juliet (Olivia Hussey).
Jean-Claude Van Damme. The muscles from Brussels action star delights in exposing his hinder in plenty of films but his best asset is spectacularly shown off in Universal Soldier (1992) and Nowhere To Run (1992).
Brad Davis. The late studly star first revealed his moneymaker when he was forced to strip down in front of guards in the grueling Turkish prison drama Midnight Express (1978).
Rob Lowe. The pretty boy and former brat packer won a special place in our hearts when he skated away clad only in a jockstrap in the hockey drama Youngblood (1986).
Richard Gere. Speaking of jockstraps- Gere never looked sexier than in Looking For Mr. Goodbar (1977) wildly doing pushups wearing an athletic supporter in front of Diane Keaton.
Michael Ontkean. Another memorable sports-related nude scene is Ontkean’s brazen jockstrap-only skate across the ice at the end of Slap Shot (1977).
Ken Norton. The hunky former boxer bared his muscular buns in the mega-sleaze slave epic Mandingo (1975) and it’s equally salacious sequel Drum (1976).
Robbie Benson showed off his boyish buttocks in an extended locker room sequence in Running Brave (1983), the true story of a Lakota track star. Benson also directed himself out of his pants in White Hot (1988) as a crack-dealing yuppie.
Casper Van Dien. The square-jawed good-looking actor proudly strutted naked across the shower room in Paul Verhoeven’s young-Aryans- in-space saga Starship Troopers (1990).
Lou Diamond Phillips. The La Bamba star briefly bares it in Shadow Of The Wolf (1993) and Courage Under Fire (1996) But for lingering full moon exposure. see Dangerous Touch (1994),
Mitch Gaylord. The famed gymnast flashed his fanny in his debut film American Anthem (1986) but was less coy about showing skin in American Rickshaw.
Matthew Modine stripped down for a weigh-in in the Citizen Kane of teen wrestling movies- Vision Quest (1985).
Jamie Foxx. In Oliver Stone’s sardonic take on professional football Any Given Sunday (1999), Cameron Diaz plays the team owner mingling with a bunch of nude dudes in the locker room. Jamie Foxx’s beefy booty is front and center.
Stephen Baldwin. Much is made about the beauty of Baldwin’s butt in the menage-a-trois tale Threesome (1994) and it’s proven correct during a skinny-dipping and lovemaking scene.
Eric Thal has a fabulous naked flip-out scene in the sci-fi movie The Puppet Masters (1994). writhing around in the shower possessed by a pesky alien.
Paul Mercurio. The Strictly Ballroom star bares that perfect dancer’s derriere when he’s tied up nude before dominitrix Dana Delaney in the desperately unfunny Exit To Eden (1994).
Brendan Fraser. Before he was fighting mummies, Brendan dropped his towel before aged film director James Whale (Ian McKellan) in Gods & Monsters (1998).
Dan Shor. The talented actor from Wise Blood (1979) wakes up and casually walks into the bathroom in the wonderfully offbeat cult horror film Strange Behavior (1981). That incredible ass should be insured by Lloyd’s Of London.
Jake Gyllenhaal. The Brokeback Mountain actor does an energetic dance in a G-string and Santa hat in the tense, marines-in-the-Gulf-War, drama Jarhead (2005).
Taye Diggs. The criminally handsome actor has a scene horsing around with his friends in an outside shower displaying a breathtaking bum in The Wood (1999).
Hugh Jackman. It was Jackman’s suggestion to do a Wolverine nude scene in X-Men: Days Of Future Past. Now why couldn’t the actor/singer/producer have performed The Boy From Oz that way on Broadway?
Chris Hemsworth. The criminally handsome Thor star showed great comic timing in Ghostbusters (2016). But revealing his meaty buns in (the fact-based film about the rivalry between two Formula One race car drivers) Rush (2013) sped us across finish line.
Brad Pitt. The handsome, versatile, actor showed more than his Achilles heel in a memorable nude scene in the big budget swords and sandals epic Troy.
Channing Tatum. Sure, there was skin in the male-stripper classic Magic Mike. But, gazing at his beautiful backside during a casual walk across a bedroom in The Vow (2012) was a religious experience.
Bradley Cooper. Before he scored with Silver Linings Playbook (2012), Cooper, and actor David Gail, embarrassingly had to strip naked before cops in the painful unfunny.romantic comedy Bending All The Rules (2002).
Gael Garcia Bernal. The impossibly cute Bernal was comfortable with nude scenes in the sexy Y Tu Mama Tambien (2001) but it was a blessing to see him peel off his underwear in Pedro Almodovar’s sensational Bad Education (2004).
Kellan Lutz. Before he slipped into a toga for The Legend Of Hercules (2014) this Twilight actor revealed his burly buttocks in the action thriller Java Heat (2013).
Zac Efron. Good-looking Efron has come a long way since High School Musical (2006) and has shown an interesting range. But laying naked across a toilet to cool off his raging hard-on in That Awkward Moment (2014) cannot be called a high point.
Chris Pratt. The beefy, affable, Guardians Of The Galaxy (2014) star reveals a celestial can while taking a shower in space in the sci-fi flick Passengers (2016).
Jason Momoa. The musclebound Khal Dogo on HBO’s Game Of Thrones stepped into Arnold Schwarzenegger’s shoes by remaking Conan, The Barbarian (2011) and, briefly, uncovered his awesome ass. If you’re extra nice I can show you this scene at my house in 3D.
Ryan Reynolds. Reynolds gleefully shucked his drawers in the campus comedy Van Wilder (2002) but it was even sweeter to see those cheeks in the hilariously irreverent Deadpool (2016).
But the award Bubble Butt Hall Of Fame has to go to Joe Dallesandro. The Andy Warhol “Factory” hunk Dallesandro was frequently shown in the altogether in movies. He never looked more beautiful than in the beginning of Paul Morrissey’s Flesh (1968) lying asleep naked in bed while the camera lingered on his epic backside. Though, in Je T’aime Moi Non Plus, he and Jane Birkin lazily (and nakedly) floated on a lake on an inner tube. Just the sight of that magnificent ass makes life worth living for.
