16 April 2015

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.

10 comments:

  1. Anonymous07:12

    Se veía muy guapo y masculino.Amigo venezolano,Cucuta

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  2. Anonymous07:54

    In his older pic, he looks like Alan Arkin in "Wait Until Dark."

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  3. Anonymous08:18

    Good looking guy in that motorcycle shot but that was in 61. . .I wonder what he looks like now . . is he still alive even? Ive never heard of him actually. Im sure living in LA at that time was much different than it is now but yeah, looks like he may have been a popular guy from his looks there.

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  4. Anonymous08:21

    Isnt it funny and also scary how fast time goes by. .. .here is this guy in this pic looking so hot and handsome back in 1961 and yet that was over 50 years ago and TODAY, well, Im sure he looks nothing like this. . .. Sad when you think about hot father time changes everything... even us! Life is SO short as your parents always told you but we never thought about that until we got a little older too. I think Im gonna go cry now! hehe

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  5. Anonymous11:28

    Damn he was smokin' hot!

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  6. Love his books. Had no idea he was so hot!

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  7. Dr. Sacks recently wrote an article in the New York Review of Books about his metastatic melanoma in the liver and his treatments for it. A very remarkable man.

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  8. THAT is the guy the Robin Williams character in Awakenings is based on? If there is ever a remake they will have to get Bradley Cooper!

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  9. Anonymous07:53

    Just look him up I found several pictures of him as he looks today and also the pic you have on here. And yes he is still alive.

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  10. Anonymous17:59

    He is indeed gay; it's fairly well-known in NYC medical circles though I'm not sure Sacks has ever actually come out. He has a hot younger (early 50s) boyfriend. Had no idea he was such a hottie in his younger days.

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