Recently an NPR show was discussing "crushes." I thought at first they were talking about the boy a girl fell in love with in second grade, but the discussion was more about fan crushes than real-life crushes.
I'm not sure I had actual crushes so much as admiration, and even then, it was likely more so for the character the actor was playing than the actual person. Or singing a song I really liked.
I also had what one might call "fangirl" crushes on various female actors - mostly women playing strong roles, the kind of woman who could stick up for herself and others. And of course, there were singers I liked for various reasons.
So, without further ado, here are 13 "crushes" that I can recall over the last 60 years.
1. David Cassidy. Not the actual David Cassidy, but David Cassidy as Keith Partridge in The Patridge Family. I love that long hair, slightly bad boy look. I don't know much about David Cassidy except that Shirley Jones was his stepmother. And he sang well.
2. Shaun Cassidy. David Cassidy's half-brother caught my attention when he starred in The Hardy Boys. He wasn't as cute as David, but he certainly was easy on the eyes.
3. John Travolta. I saw him in Grease and thought he was hot and cute. But otherwise, I have never been a Travolta fan. I think he overacts. But Olivia Newton John liked him and that was good enough for me. (I suppose I was a fangirl for Olivia, too.)
4. Erik Estrada. Yes, I liked the motorcycle cop from CHIPS. In retrospect, he reminds me of Ranger from the Stephanie Plum books by Janet Evanovich.
5. Viggo Mortenson as Aragon in Lord of the Rings. Mortenson is a wonderful actor, but I honestly only like him as Aragorn. I've seen other things he's been in and was like, "meh." Again, I think it's that long hair shaggy look.
6. Orlando Bloom as Legolas in Lord of the Rings. I don't like the dark-haired Bloom in Pirates of the Carribean and other movies. Maybe it's a Lord of the Rings thing.
7. Kate Jackson, first in The Rookies and then as Jill Duncan in Charlie's Angels. I watched The Scarecrow and Mrs. King but did not like that as well. I always thought Jackson could act, and I admired the strong role of Jill Duncan.
8. Sharon Gless, as Christine Cagney in Cagney & Lacey. Another strong woman role model, although I related to the character for other reasons, too, including her vulnerability.
9. Lucy Lawless as Xena: Warrior Princess. I haven't seen anything else much that Lawless has been in, so it was really the character I admired. Xena was bad-ass and took no names but took care of herself and her gal pal Gabrielle without any trouble.
10. Stevie Nicks. How could I not love that witchy vibe she put off? And how could I not love her songs?
11. Melissa Etheridge. She's a singer songwriter that I've always admired. We're about the same age.
12. Lynda Carter. She played Wonder Woman in the series of the same name. I wasn't that big a fan, but I'm running out of names.
13. Johnny Gage, played by Randolph Mantooth. Gage was one of the paramedics on Emergency! I couldn't have told you the name of the actor, but I did have a crush on the character.
How about you? Who did you admire or "crush" on? Who do you admire or "crush" on now?
Thursday Thirteen is played by lots of people; there is a list here if you want to read other Thursday Thirteens and/or play along. I've been playing for a while, and this is my 815th time to do a list of 13 on a Thursday. Or so sayth the Blogger counter, anyway.
Elvis, but not for long. After I realized every girl I knew had a crush on him, I chose Ricky Nelson in his place. Even as an old woman I sometimes have crushes on actors or singers. I adored William Peterson on CSI; he was the only reason I watched it. My mother, in her 80's, had a crush on a local weatherman. She wrote to him and he sent her a picture of him and his dog. She would turn over in her grave if I could tell her he was an openly gay man.
ReplyDeleteI had a BIG crush on David Cassidy and watched the Partridge Family just to see him. I also had one on Jeff Bridges and once wrote a letter to James Taylor. Girl crush? Cher kind of.
ReplyDeleteApparently, I was into Shaun Cassidy when I was a kid. I had a t-shirt that I hated to wear, but why would my parents get me that if I wasn't into him? But I can't recall it that well.
ReplyDeleteI don't want to publicly air my crushes, though. Many of them turned out to be gay, which is not a problem, but I definitely have a type. If they didn't end up being gay, they ended up being terrible human beings. It's funny, really.
Oh my God! Johnny Gage and Roy Desoto! Engine 51! It's all coming back to me in a rush. My oldest friend and I used to write our own Emergency! fan fiction after school, page after page scrawled in pencil in our spiral notebooks. The whole paramedic thing was new and we found it terribly romantic.
ReplyDelete