The men who were once voted the sexiest alive

Mel Gibson won People‘s Sexiest Man Alive in 1985, the first time that the magazine crowned its champion. 

The actor sat on the rougher end of the heartthrob section with his role in Mad Max and it seems to have come as something of a shock. Mel said at the time, “It’s all happening too fast.”

With his floppy brown locks and easy charm, Mark Harmon was a clear winner to fans everywhere in the ’80s, making his 1986 cover a well-deserved choice.

His two beloved projects St. Elsewhere and Moonlighting cemented Mark’s place on the cover, and in our hearts, but he didn’t get it himself: “All I see is a bunch of fake teeth and football scars,” Mark said at the time.

With a role as Perseus in Clash of the Titans and hot attorney Michael Kuzak on L.A. Law, it was no surprise when Harry Hamlin was voted Sexiest Man Alive in 1987.

But it did give the actor something more of a shock. He told the magazine at the time, “Certainly when I look in the mirror, I don’t get turned on. It’s not something I spend a lot of time considering.”

Nick Nolte was a more rugged change of pace from the pretty boys before him. He shot to fame on Lorenzo’s Oil and The Prince of the Tides, landing the 1992 cover.

He might have been beloved as a bad-boy but Nick was also regarded as having a heart of gold. His reputation might be even less spotless today, but in 1992 he was certainly getting audiences flushed.

Technically, Richard Gere shared his title with Cindy Crawford in 1993, as one half of the Sexiest Couple Alive but he soon enough had his own cover to boast about.

In 1999, at the age of 50, Richard secured his title. Diane Von Furstenberg said at the time, “He walked like a biker, and that attracted me. I knew I was going to get my hands on him. I seduced him.”

In 2002, who else but Ben Affleck could be chosen as Sexiest Man Alive? He met Jennifer Lopez in 2001 on the set of Gigli and got engaged in 2002. While fans were delighted at #Bennifer they couldn’t keep their eyes off the movie star himself. 

By then, he’d starred in Pearl Harbor, Forces of Nature and religious satire Dogma, making him a certified movie star and sex symbol.

Man-of-many-hairstyles Brad Pitt won the title of Sexiest Man Alive while rocking his longer locks in 1995, following star roles on Legends of the Fall and Interview with the Vampire.

He won the title again the year of the Millennium, recently wed to Jennifer Aniston, beloved as half of Hollywood’s Golden Couple in the early 2000s.