Mustache Ride: A salute to ten classic celebrity 'staches

Oh, Brad; oh, George. Sexiest Men Alive you may be, but surely you've learned by now that the mustache is not for everyone.

With Pitt stating that he'd like to bring back the 'stache and the Huffington Post naming 2008 "The Year of the Mustache", we thought it might be fun to take a look back at some of the upper lip's finer furry moments.

Here's a purely subjective list of 10 mustache-wearers who got away with it...

1. Clark Gable. MGM made him shave it off for Parnell, and it was one of his few flops, so he clearly had a Samson thing going on with his 'stache. Women (and any number of men) swooned for Gable's scorching screen sexuality, and the facial hair played a big role in his success.

2. Burt Reynolds. Sporting perhaps the quintessential 1970s mustache, Reynolds was one of the decade's reigning sex gods. And thanks to his nearly-nude centerfold in Cosmopolitan magazine, post-Stonewall gays could objectify practically every inch of the Smokey and the Bandit star.

Which other notables wore one better? Find out after the jump.

3. Sam Elliott. He may never have reached the peak of Reynolds' stardom, but he's definitely the winner in terms of career longevity. Whether brown or silver, his mustache is world-class.

4. Billy Dee Williams. He swept Diana Ross off her feet in Lady Sings the Blues and Mahogany, he piloted the Millennium Falcon and he even came close to making malt liquor look classy. But would Billy Dee be as smokin' a stick of black dynamite without the facial hair? Probably not.

5. The Cowboy and The Leatherman in The Village People. The '70s may have been the last time straight guys could get away with mustaches without a hint of irony, but the gay members of the Village People grew the kind of facial hair that said, "My mouth is right here, boys." Randy Jones and the late, great Glenn Hughes get particular props for their landing strips.

Butch and Sundance

Nick Nolte

6. Robert Redford and Nick Nolte. Let's not forget the blonds. While both of these aging sex symbols currently remind us of the importance of sunscreen, the mustaches they sported in their primes were pure gold.

7. Freddie Prinze, Sr. The legendary comedian's son seems not to have inherited the facial-hair gene from his dad, but the Chico and the Man star rocked a Fu Manchu like nobody's business.

8. Tom Selleck. You may not agree with his pro-gun politics, but there's no denying that his Magnum P.I. look singlehandedly kept the mustache afloat in the Reagan era.

Jay Johnston

Broken Lizard

9. Alternative comedians who play cops. Jay Johnston's 'stache on The Sarah Silverman Program is both a put-on and a turn-on, and several members of the Broken Lizard troupe grew great ones for Super Troopers. Bonus points to director and co-star Jay Chandrasekhar (above left) for offering "mustache rides" to a slutty Eurotrash woman AND her boyfriend in the movie. If we were talking about beards, I'd be paying homage to Zach Gallifianakis, but that's another list entirely.

10. Dick Fisk. Late '70s and early '80s gay porn was rife with awesome facial hair (and way, way fewer tattoos) than the current crop of stars, but Fisk's mustache makes him one of the rare porn icons who can turn you on with just a picture of his face. (Not that the rest of the Falcon man wasn't awesome as well.)