Water polo players, Hollywood sirens and shameless flirts: LIFE's sexiest photos of all time
By Daisy Dumas
Last updated at 7:11 PM on 17th November 2011
Theirs is an imperfect, unairbrushed and largely unformulaic beauty.
From the dark tans and healthy smiles of girls frolicking on a beach to the come-hither flirtation of Liz Taylor, LIFE magazine's sexiest shots all have a natural realness about them.
Celebrating 75 years of LIFE, the photos are part of a collection of defining images from the news magazine's formidable history.
Lean to: Actress Elizabeth Taylor posing in bathing suit on location during filming of motion picture The Night of the Iguana in Mexico
Liz Taylor, lounging against a tree in Mexico flirts playfully - as ever - with the camera. Visiting her husband at the time, Richard Burton, on the set of Night of the Iguana in 1963, the screen megastar relaxes in a summery beach suit and flip flops.
By the time the photo was taken, says LIFE, the star had already won her first Oscar and was Hollywood's highest-paid actress.
Legs eleven: Betty Grable models a shirt of her own design while showing off her famous pins in the process
The stunning beauty found herself at the subject of several scandals in the years leading up to the shot, though her beauty was never in dispute.
In another, Steve McQueen drapes a languidly protective arm around his wife, Neile Adams, as she envelops The Great Escape star in an embrace.
Shot by John Dominis, the image, also from 1963, is taken in the actor's home after the photographer developed a close working relationship with McQueen. LIFE writes that the handsome star would often walk around his home and garden in the nude - here, swimmers protect his modesty.
Splashin around: Girls play in the ocean in California, the photo was taken as part of a Co Rentmeester essay on the state's beach life
California dreamin: Another shot from Co Rentmeester's essay on California beach life shows a splashing woman in the sun
Doll-like: Actress and sex symbol Jayne Mansfield lounges on an inflatable raft in a swimming pool surrounded by bottles shaped like bikini-clad versions of herself, Los Angeles, 1957
A colour photo from the Fifties shows Jayne Mansfield and her perfect physique on a pool lilo, surrounded by plastic dolls. The dolls are hot water bottles modelled on the pin-up's figure.
On to another pin-up, and Betty Grable is caught, arms aloft, showing off the military-style jacket she decorated herself. The coat paid homage to the troops, writes LIFE, who had made the siren a star, her famous and much lusted-after legs on show, as ever.
Revealing: Actor Steve McQueen is photographed at home with wife Neile Adams in 1963
Balls aloft: US water polo team, circa 1966, L-R, Rick McNair, Alex Rousseau, Chris Humbert and Chris Duplanty
Soap suds: Actress Jeanne Crain balancing a huge soap bubble on her index finger as she luxuriates in a bubble bath in scene from the movie Margie
In a ruffle: Taken in 1954 by Gordon Parks, this image captures garters in their everyday glory, before they had become a true staple of the x-rated wardrobe
Fresh as a daisy: Brigitte Bardot during filming of the movie En Effeuillant la Marguerite, or 'Plucking the Petals from the Daisy'
Smoking hot: Brigitte Bardot on set during filming of Lady and the Puppet
New York fashion, 1969: While many of her peers sported Woodstock style, this young lady strides up a city street looking sleek and sophisticated
Other images include the US water polo team. Toned, dark and wide-grinned, the naked men - who became immensely popular with ladies - hold water polo to protect their modesty as they laugh together.
Another sees Jane Fonda, anachronistic and faintly comical in full Barbarella get up, staring wilfully at the camera. In one, an unnamed girl of the swinging Sixties strides up a New York street, her sleek fashion at odds with her Woodstock-loving peers.
Beaten and bruised: Actor Clint Eastwood is bare-chested and bandaged after a brutal beating scene from Dirty Harry, 1971
Roller girl: Actress Raquel Welch in roller derby uniform during filming of The Kansas City Bomber, 1972
Unearthly woman: Jane Fonda in full Barbarella get-up, 1967, is a plastic-encased, gun-toting force to be reckoned with
Boudoir: Texan model Suzy Parker lounges in her California apartment for photographer Allan Grant in 1957
Oscar winner: Faye Dunaway takes in her Oscar win over breakfast and papers at the Beverley Hills Hotel in 1977
A beaten, bruised and bandaged Clint Eastwood appears to shake off his injuries with a smile in a 1971 shot from the filming of Dirty Harry. The macho man played policeman Harry Callahan, propelling the actor to the top of the pile of Hollywood action heroes.
'It's easy to be beautiful - just be born that way,' once said model Suzy Parker, according to the magazine. A photo of the red-head in a summer dress lying in her California home, proves that that the Texan was blessed with more than her fair share of natural beauty.
As ever, Marilyn Monroe shows how to do it best, looking directly at the lens, not showing an ounce of flesh and simply giving the camera a look that could melt a million men.
'It's easy to be beautiful - just be born that way,' once said model Suzy Parker, according to the magazine. A photo of the red-head in a summer dress lying in her California home, proves that that the Texan was blessed with more than her fair share of natural beauty.
As ever, Marilyn Monroe shows how to do it best, looking directly at the lens, not showing an ounce of flesh and simply giving the camera a look that could melt a million men.
Satin sheets: Actress Rita Hayworth looks stunning - wearing her trademark charming, nonchalant look - in a nightgown in 1941
Saving the best for last: Inimitably sexy Marilyn Monroe outside her home, shot by Alfred Eisenstaedt
As ever, time has only accentuated the sexiness of many of LIFE's best shots. Faye Dunaway, shot in 1941 on satin sheets and casually throwing a coy look that became dubbed the 'Mona Lisa of pinups,' hit superstardom shortly after the photo was taken.
The screen siren, natural-looking, voluptuous and every bit the pin-up star, encapsulated a style that is firmly lodged in a bygone era.
Her ensuing fame makes the innocence of the shot yet more endearing.
View more images from LIFE's stunning collection at LIFE.com.
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