The Disappearing Male Mustache

At film was on the other night, on TCM, featuring Richard Dix--he had a mustache.

Male film stars, said a retired doctor on the trendmill next to me, no longer have mustaches.

Errol Flynn did. And Ronald Coleman. David Niven. And Robert Taylor, for a while.

But these days, Robert Redford sported one briefly. So did George Clooney. But most modern male leads--Cary Grant, Jimmy Stewart, Gary Cooper, Jimmy Cagney, Robert Mitchum, Kirk Douglas, Harrison For, Tom Cruise--didn't have one.

I myself always have always been suspicious of male movie stars with mustaches. What's wrong with the guy, that he can't get by without a mustache?

Tough guys don't have mustaches. Can you imagine James Bond with a mustache? Or cowboy heroes--Tom Mix, Roy Rogers, Gene Autry, Hopalong Cassidy, Marshall Dillon?