Beefcake

Beefcake is a performance or photograph depicting a large and muscular male body. 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.

Actors typecast as beefcake

Beefcake poses by male actors were used far less frequently than cheesecake layouts of actresses. Nevertheless, as early as the 1920s photographs were taken of such stars as Rudolph Valentino and Ramón 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 handsome 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 would of 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.

Beefcake (film)

Beefcake (1999) is a docu-drama homage to the muscle magazines of the 1940s, '50s, and '60s—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 (published by Taschen) and was directed by Thom Fitzgerald.

The film stars Daniel MacIvor, Carroll Godsman, Jack Griffin Mazieka, Jonathan Torrens, and Joshua Peace in pastiche recreations of life at the Athletic Model Guild, mixed with interviews with models and photographers whose work actually appeared in the early magazines, including Jack LaLanne and Joe Dallesandro. The film was shot in Nova Scotia.

Beefcake premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 1999 and was released by Strand Releasing in the USA; it was nominated for three Genie Awards.

Cast

Beefcake (disambiguation)

Beefcake is a body shape.

Beefcake may also refer to:

See also