Have you ever consumed media about someone long dead and thought “Damn, he’s delicious and I want that man?" Well, this is the post for you! Ghost Daddies might be gone but they are far from being forgotten, and with the Internet and streaming services many have found new audiences. Today we're going to look at some Famous Ghost Daddies of stage, screen, and other creative fields.
Paul Newman
One of the OG Ghost Daddies. Accept no imitators.
From his breakthrough film in Hollywood (Somebody up there Likes Me, 1956) onwards, Newman has made generations of women quiver. His performance in “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” with Elizabeth Taylor cemented his heartthrob status, and awards include several Oscar nominations and other accolades. Making him even sexier, Newman's devotion to wife and partner Joanne Woodward was well-documented for 50 years until her death, and was couple goals to a lot of people. His other titles include film director, race-car driver, philanthropist, and entrepreneur, and he formed the First Artist Production Company with Barbara Streisand and Harry Belefonte so actors could secure properties and develop movie projects for themselves, which was extremely progressive in 1969. Although he is no longer with us, streaming services like TMC and Criterion have made his work accessible for younger generations to appreciate his beauty.
Harry Belefonte
A Daddy by any other name is still hot.
This triple threat was a singer, actor, and activist who made Calypso music popular with international audiences in the 1950s and 60s. He first burst onto the scene in the movie "Carmen Jones" with the equally sexy Dorothy Dandridge (and made getting choked the fuck out look extremely hot) and made waves from there. His breakthrough album "Calypso" was the first album in the world to sell over one million copies in a year. In addition to all of this, he was a close advisor to Martin Luther King Jr. and was responsible for the famine relief single "We Are The World" which is the eight best selling single of all time; we love a Ghost Daddy with a social conscience!
Sessue Hayakawa
While looking at pictures of this man my clothes fell off. Seduce me with your eyes, sweet Daddy.
We're going to go all the way back to the Greatest Generation for our next Ghost Daddy. Sessue Hayakawa (born Kintarō Hayakawa) was a popular star and matinée idol in Hollywood during the silent film era of the 1910s and early 1920s. Hayakawa was the first Asian actor to achieve stardom as a leading man in the United States and Europe and drove all the girlies wild with his good looks, charismatic personality, and a generous amount of eye-fucking. He was also coded as a "Dom" (which made the girlies quiver more) and made certain folks big mad because they couldn't handle the fact that this hot ass Asian man was literally making American women go crazy, and he was one of the highest paid stars of the time. He left Hollywood for many years because of rising anti Japanese sentiment but later returned, and was nominated for an Academy Award for his role as Colonel Saito in "The Bridge on the River Kwai." Three of his films (The Cheat, The Dragon Painter, and The Bridge on the River Kwai) are in the United States National Film Registry, so check him out if you haven't already.
Freddie Prinze Sr.
The Sweet Daddy still in our hearts that left us much too soon.
POC in the 70s didn't have a lot of representation; we basically watched Soul Train, Good Times, The Jeffersons, Sanford and Son, and Chico and the Man. While Freddie was Puerto Rican there was true solidarity back then; if it starred any POC you watched it regardless. Everyone loved Scatman Caruthers, and Willy Wonka did a LOT of heavy lifting and goodwill for Jack Albertson so he was like everyone's Pop Pop, but the undisputed star of the show was Freddie Prinze Sr. which was no surprise because he was seriously hot. Whenever he smiled, it was like the sun coming out on a cloudy day, and he just had an easy breezy way about him that everyone loved, including Pam Grier, Raquel Welch, and Lonette McKee (all whom had a relationship with him at some point). To top it all off, he was funny as hell and was the first young comedian Johnny Carson had on his show. Unfortunately, being on the cusp of stardom could not save him from himself, and my grandmother (who loved him because of the whole Pam Grier thing) had the unenviable task of explaining suicide to a 7 year old. To this day it make me sad because it was a huge loss; he was so talented, and just seeing someone like him on TV back then was a HUGE deal. Gone much too soon...but never forgotten.
Ghost Daddies can come from all walks of life. Here are my personal two non-celeb faves:
László Moholy-Nagy
Can you give Tamera Tokens™ to dead people? Asking for a friend!
I first learned about Moholy-Nagy in grad school, and it was like a light switched on in my brain. One of the Masters of the Bauhaus, he was a true visionary in design and photography and created techniques with Photograms, Photomontage, Photography, and Graphic Design that are still used today. He would also be considered "woke" by today's standards because unlike the other Bauhaus masters at the school who shunted women into the weaving workshops, Moholy-Nagy thought that art and design was for everyone and happily welcomed women in his metal workshop (a discipline that women was barred from) to study under his tutelage. He kept this philosophy despite having his work featured in Hitler's "Degenerate Art" exhibition and being forced out of Germany because of the political climate. Moholy-Nagy ended up in Chicago, where he started the Institute of Design (later becoming part of what is now the Illinois Institute of Technology) and happily welcomed returning GIs and marginalized students after WWII. He didn't give a damn who you were or what you looked like, if you had an interest in art and design and had raw talent he wanted to teach you. His books Painting, Photography, Film (1927) and Vision In Motion (1947) were life-changing for me, and by "life changing" I mean I could literally feel my brain expanding into new creative directions while reading them, and they are still relevant today. Quite frankly, I don't know if I want him to fuck me like animal Nine Inch Nails style, or sit at his feet like he's Jesus and learn from him. Sadly, his life was cut short at age 51 from leukemia, but his contributions to art and photography are still with us.
Georg Olden
This one is self-explanatory, because...I mean, look at him. Damn.
Some people walked the hard walk so that future generations would be able to fly. This Ghost Daddy harkens back to the Golden Age of Advertising (Think Mad Men era, but make it Black). Olden was respected not only for helping to usher TV from a fledgling industry into a golden age, but also for serving as a model for Black America. I first featured Olden in my Black Dandies post but wanna talk about him again because he's just that fabulous. A pioneer in the field of broadcast graphics, he supervised the identities of programs such as I Love Lucy, Lassie and Gunsmoke, and collaborated with the popular artists and designers of that time, including David Stone Martin, Ed Benguiat, Alex Steinweiss and Bob Gill. He also designed the Clio Award in 1962, and ended up winning seven of them by 1970. Sure, the way he died was completely whack (not to mention sus) but once again, here is another man that I don't know whether I want him to haul my ashes, or sit at his feet like he's Sensei and learn from him. Either way, he has a legacy of both professional and creative accomplishments that still inspires designers today.
References:
Paul Newman: [X]
Harry Belefonte: [X]
Sessue Hayakawa: [X]
Freddie Prinze Sr.: [X]
László Moholy-Nagy: [X]
Georg Olden: [X]
Have at it, ONTD. Who are your favorite Ghost Daddies, and why? Not just actors; artists, authors, sports figures, scientists, and others are all welcome, the only criteria is that they be public-facing (in other words, no "My professor was hot but he died."). Also, please realize that attraction is subjective, so don't come in here yukking people's yums. Post plenty of pictures, and have fun!
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