Brainy Pin-up

When I first saw this photograph, I thought it was from a 1960s pulp porn magazine and he was some rough-trade stud who posed naked for a few bucks or a bag of weed. He looks like the ideal mid-century gay icon with the skinhead haircut, laced leather shirt, grimy worn jeans, and old scuffed boots.

But this is a 1961 photograph of the eminent neurologist Oliver Sacks in his youth when he took a lot of drugs and lived in Topanga Canyon. He was into fitness long before it became popular and swam a mile or more every day.

Sacks has always lived alone and never married. Hmmm, I wonder...

Too bad he didn't pose on the motorcycle shirtless, because as you can see from this somewhat later photograph here, he has a fantastic hairy chest. You can also see the picture below in its original larger size here.