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Beefcake is a performance or a form of glamour photography depicting a large and muscular male body. [1] Beefcake is also a publication genre. A role a person plays in a performance may be called beefcake. The term was believed to be first used by Hollywood columnist Sidney Skolsky. [2]
Beefcake poses by male actors were used far less frequently than cheesecake (pin-up) layouts of actresses. Nevertheless, as early as the 1920s, photographs were taken of such stars as Rudolph Valentino and Ramon Novarro to highlight their physical appeal. Male physique shots of famous stars were even less frequent during the early talking picture era, outside of stars of jungle films such as Johnny Weissmuller (Tarzan) and Buster Crabbe. The 1940s saw a rise in shirtless shots of such stars as Tyrone Power, Guy Madison, Sterling Hayden and Victor Mature; and in the 1950s movie magazines began running swimsuit shots of actors such as Tony Curtis, Rock Hudson, Tab Hunter, Jeff Chandler, Robert Conrad and Robert Wagner almost as frequently as they did with actresses. This period also included the rise of bodybuilding magazines, which continue to be popular to the present day, as well as musclemen movie stars such as Steve Reeves who were often barely dressed in their action/adventure films. In the 1980s, heavily muscular actors Arnold Schwarzenegger, [3] [4] Lou Ferrigno, [5] and Sylvester Stallone [3] continued to star in beefcake-type action/adventure movies (such as Conan the Barbarian [3] or Hercules [5] ).
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The 1970s proved a golden age for beefcake with the debut of Playgirl magazine and its completely nude pictorials of men, Cosmopolitan magazine's famous semi-nude centerfolds of actors including Burt Reynolds, and the rise of pornography directed at both female and gay male audiences in both magazines and films.
Today, it is common to see beefcake shots of male sex symbols on the cover of general interest magazines. For many actors and models, shirtless poses are their most revealing, in line with their conservative images.
In advertisement, beefcake male models have become a popular ingredient for "spicy" (and often humorous) commercial spots; for example, British pop star Nick Kamen remains most famous for his 1985 beefcake performance in Levi's "Launderette" TV commercial. In the ad, he strips down in order to stone-wash his blue jeans in a 1950s style public laundromat while he waits clad only in boxer shorts; it was selected for "The 100 Greatest TV Ads" in 2000 and followed by many others, often bare-chested.
Many professional male bodybuilders advertise their services, offering advice concerning nutrition and training, sometimes marketing their videos in which training programmes are demonstrated.
A 1999 film of the same name, Beefcake , details the history of the Athletic Model Guild, an early company known for their photos of men in various publications.
Arnold Alois Schwarzenegger is an Austrian and American actor, businessman, filmmaker, former politician, and former professional bodybuilder known for his roles in high-profile action movies. He served as the 38th governor of California from 2003 to 2011 and was among Time's 100 most influential people in the world in 2004 and 2007.
The Terminator is a 1984 American science fiction action film co-written and directed by James Cameron and co-written and produced by Gale Anne Hurd. It stars Arnold Schwarzenegger as the Terminator, a cybernetic assassin sent back in time from 2029 to 1984 to kill Sarah Connor, whose unborn son will one day save mankind from extinction by Skynet, a hostile artificial intelligence in a post-apocalyptic future. Kyle Reese is a soldier sent back in time to protect Sarah. The screenplay is credited to Cameron and Hurd, while co-writer William Wisher Jr. received an "additional dialogue" credit.
Sylvester Gardenzio Stallone is an American actor and filmmaker. He has received numerous accolades, including a Golden Globe Award and a Critics' Choice Award, as well as nominations for three Academy Awards and two BAFTA Awards. Stallone is one of only two actors in history to have starred in a box-office No. 1 film across six consecutive decades.
Playgirl is an American magazine that has historically featured pictorials of nude and semi-nude men alongside general interest, lifestyle, and celebrity journalism, as well as original fiction. For most of its history, the magazine printed monthly and was marketed mainly to women, though it quickly developed a significant gay male readership.
Hercules in New York is a 1970 American fantasy action comedy film directed by Arthur Allan Seidelman and written by Aubrey Wisberg. It was released on home video under the title "Hercules Goes Bananas". It stars Arnold Schwarzenegger in his acting debut as the eponymous divine hero, who engages in escapades after traveling to New York City. Produced independently by Wisberg on a budget of $300,000, the film was shot entirely on location.
Last Action Hero is a 1993 American fantasy action comedy film directed and produced by John McTiernan and co-written by Shane Black and David Arnott. It is a satire of the action genre and associated clichés, containing several parodies of action films in the form of films within the film. The film stars Arnold Schwarzenegger as Jack Slater, a Los Angeles police detective within the Jack Slater action film franchise, while Austin O'Brien co-stars as Danny Madigan, a boy magically transported into the Slater universe, and Charles Dance as Mr. Benedict, a ruthless assassin from the Slater universe who escapes to the real world. Schwarzenegger also served as the film's executive producer and plays himself as the actor portraying Jack Slater. The film also marked Art Carney and Tina Turner's last feature film before their deaths in 2003 and 2023 respectively.
The Athletic Model Guild, or AMG, was a physique photography studio founded by Bob Mizer in December 1945. During those post-war years, United States censorship laws allowed women, but not men, to appear in various states of undress in what were referred to as "art photographs". Mizer began his business by taking pictures of men that he knew. His subjects would often pose for pictures which illustrated fitness tips and the like, but were also viewed as homoerotic material.
Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot is a 1992 American buddy cop action comedy directed by Roger Spottiswoode and starring Sylvester Stallone and Estelle Getty. The film was released in the United States on February 21, 1992. The film received highly negative reviews upon release but grossed $70.6 million worldwide.
Hercules is a 1983 Italian-American science fantasy adventure film written and directed by Luigi Cozzi and starring bodybuilding champion Lou Ferrigno. The film is based on Greek mythology and follows the exploits of Hercules. Supporting cast includes Brad Harris, Sybil Danning and William Berger. Filmed in Italy, Hercules was released theatrically in August 1983 and has grossed $11 million at the American box office. It received mostly negative reviews from film critics, although over the years it has become a cult movie. Ferrigno reprised his role in the 1985 sequel, The Adventures of Hercules.
Physique magazines or beefcake magazines were magazines devoted to physique photography — that is, photographs of muscular "beefcake" men – typically young and attractive – in athletic poses, usually in revealing, minimal clothing. During their heyday in North America in the 1950s to 1960s, they were presented as magazines dedicated to fitness, health, and bodybuilding, with the models often shown demonstrating exercises or the results of their regimens, or as artistic reference material. However, their unstated primary purpose was erotic imagery, primarily created by and for gay men at a time when homosexuality was the subject of cultural taboos and government censorship.
Beefcake (1999) is a docudrama homage to the muscle magazines of the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s—in particular, Physique Pictorial magazine, published quarterly by Bob Mizer of the Athletic Model Guild. It was inspired by a picture book by F. Valentine Hooven III and was directed by Thom Fitzgerald.
Scott Edward Adkins is a British actor, film producer and martial artist. He gained prominence with his villainous portrayal of the Russian prison fighter Yuri Boyka in Undisputed II: Last Man Standing (2006). He subsequently starred in its sequel Undisputed III: Redemption (2010), and Boyka: Undisputed (2017).
The Expendables is a 2010 American action film directed by Sylvester Stallone, who co-wrote it with David Callaham and also starred in the lead role. The film co-stars an ensemble cast of mostly action film actors consisting of Jason Statham, Jet Li, Dolph Lundgren, Randy Couture, Terry Crews, Steve Austin, Mickey Rourke, and Bruce Willis. The film was released in the United States on August 13, 2010. It is the first installment in The Expendables film series. This was Dolph Lundgren's first theatrically released film since 1995's cyberpunk film Johnny Mnemonic.
Matt McColm is an American actor and stuntman, and former model.
Glamour photography is a genre of photography in which the subjects are portrayed in erotic poses ranging from fully clothed to nude. The term may be a euphemism for erotic photography. For glamour models, body shape and size are directly related to success. This type of photography is also known as "cheesecake" or "pin-up" for women and "beefcake" for men.
The Expendables 2 is a 2012 American action film directed by Simon West, written by Richard Wenk and Sylvester Stallone and based on a story by Ken Kaufman, David Agosto and Wenk. Brian Tyler returned to score the film. It is the sequel to The Expendables (2010), and is the second installment in The Expendables film series. The film stars an ensemble cast of largely action film actors consisting of Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham, Jet Li, Dolph Lundgren, Chuck Norris, Terry Crews, Randy Couture, Liam Hemsworth, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Bruce Willis, and Arnold Schwarzenegger. In the film, The Expendables undertakes a mission which evolves into a quest for revenge against rival mercenary Jean Vilain, who murders one of their own men and threatens the world with a deadly weapon.
Escape Plan is a 2013 American prison action thriller film starring Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger, and co-starring Jim Caviezel, 50 Cent, Vinnie Jones, Vincent D'Onofrio and Amy Ryan. It was directed by Swedish filmmaker Mikael Håfström, and written by Miles Chapman and Jason Keller. The first film to pair up Stallone and Schwarzenegger as co-leads, it follows Stallone's character Ray Breslin, a lawyer turned prison security tester who is incarcerated in the world's most secret and secure prison, and recruits fellow inmate Emil Rottmayer, portrayed by Schwarzenegger, to stage a breakout. The film is the first installment of the Escape Plan film series.
The rivalry between American actor Sylvester Stallone and Austrian-American actor Arnold Schwarzenegger went on for about twenty years, often involving incidents of one-upsmanship and subterfuge from both parties.
Physique photography is a tradition of photography of nude or semi-nude men which was largely popular between the early 20th century and the 1960s. Physique photography originated with the physical culture and bodybuilding movements of the early 20th century, but was gradually co-opted by homosexual producers and consumers, who favoured increasingly homoerotic content. The practiced reached its height in the 1950s and early 1960s with the inception of physique magazines, which existed largely to showcase physique photographs and were widely consumed by a mostly-gay audience.
Firefighter calendars are a type of decorative calendar that feature images of shirtless or scantily-dressed muscular men depicted as firefighters. They are typically marketed towards heterosexual women, and are often created by fire departments to raise money for charity.