Rating: 
Summary: Description
Review: Commentary from Victor Terry of "Checkmatemag.com": Non-fiction. Illustrated. Index. Pictures of shirtless actors decade by decade from George O'Brien and Rudolph Valentino (the 20s) to Brendan Fraser and Brad Pitt (the 90s). Most of those pictured are noted for their film work, but some, like David Chokachi, Erik Estrada, Mark Harmon, and Michael Landon, are primarily known for their tv work. This parade of pecs shows how male physical development has changed over the years in Hollywood and thus in the country, from natural to gymbunny pumperup, with stops along the way for boys next door, frat boys, beachboys, twinkies, natural physiques, musclemen and bodybuilders, James Bonds, Tarzans; among those shown shirtless are John Barrymore, Harry Belafonte, Troy Donahue, Jamie Foxx, Cary Grant, Jude Law, Bruce Lee, Jason Scott Lee, Ricardo Montalban, Ronald Reagen, Sabu, Antonio Sabata Jr, Clint Walker more than 160 men, plus some unidentified men (one of whom is Ray Walston). Many of the men are hairy torso'd, but some have shaven torsos. (The hairiest chests shown? Probably Alec Baldwin, Sam Elliott, and Chuck Norris.) Reuter includes no genital nudity but he does include Leonard Whiting's bare butt.
Rating:
Summary: "Shirtless in Hollywood"
Review: I think there are enough men here to last a lifetime for everyone. If you like to see your men shirtless this is the book for you. Over 175 celebrity stars, actors, hunks, whatever you want to call them are here for your enjoyment. It's great that someone has finally brought together all the photos of these shirtless stars of past and present fame in one book. I rather enjoyed the comments made by author Donald Reuter throughout the book describing the photographs which helped to give the book a gay sensibility. As an added bonus it can serve as a reference book because all the stars dates of birth are given and regretfully the dates of those that have passed on. From the very attractive cover design to the unique size of the book, this is one book that should be in your collection. A few stars were missing, but all in all a good representation. Highly recommended!
Rating:
Summary: "Shirtless in Hollywood"
Review: I think there are enough men here to last a lifetime for everyone. If you like to see your men shirtless this is the book for you. Over 175 celebrity stars, actors, hunks, whatever you want to call them are here for your enjoyment. It's great that someone has finally brought together all the photos of these shirtless stars of past and present fame in one book. I rather enjoyed the comments made by author Donald Reuter throughout the book describing the photographs which helped to give the book a gay sensibility. As an added bonus it can serve as a reference book because all the stars dates of birth are given and regretfully the dates of those that have passed on. From the very attractive cover design to the unique size of the book, this is one book that should be in your collection. A few stars were missing, but all in all a good representation. Highly recommended!
Rating: 
Summary: I'd like to see more sexy bodies
Review: I was deeply disappointed when I received the book, since I was expecting to find more beautiful bodies of Hollywood-actors. However, almost of all photographs in the book are neither sensual nor aesthetic. Yes, I admit that a few of them are well-built and muscular , but the editor could have collected better photographs if he really wanted to do so. And I wonder why most of actors had such poor-looking bodies, and why they didn't exercise themselves in weight training, swimming, etc.
Rating:
Summary: I'd like to see more sexy bodies
Review: I was deeply disappointed when I received the book, since I was expecting to find more beautiful bodies of Hollywood-actors. However, almost of all photographs in the book are neither sensual nor aesthetic. Yes, I admit that a few of them are well-built and muscular , but the editor could have collected better photographs if he really wanted to do so. And I wonder why most of actors had such poor-looking bodies, and why they didn't exercise themselves in weight training, swimming, etc.
Rating:
Summary: Disappointing
Review: I was pretty disappointed with this book. I found the pictures to be lackluster and nothing special. Clearly the author has a "thing" for young twinkie types. If you feel the same way you might like this book. The guys who do it for me - the hairy daddy types like Sean Connery, Sam Elliott and Tom Selleck - are given the short end of the stick here, as it were. I also found the commentary to be a bit snide and leering. As I don't consider myself a prude at all, I don't quite know why I feel this way. But occasionally I wanted to tell the author to get over it!
Rating: 
Summary: Size does matter
Review: One reviewer favorably referred to the "unique size" of this book, but that's what I find its greatest fault. The dimensions of the book are 10.52 x 6.58, resulting in photo after photo being divided at the spine; I found it extremely frustrating to see so many gorgeous faces and bodies compromised, so to speak, in this manner. Also, because of the book's dimensions, many photos are reduced to tiny inserts on the page. All that said, there are too many fabulous photos here to write the book off. The pictures of Tab Hunter and Mark Damon alone are worth the price of admission. If only... I would be willing to pay much much more for a larger, coffee table edition of Shirtless. As it stands, I'll still keep this horizontally-challenged offering on hand for anytime I feel like drooling.
Rating: 
Summary: Where's Robert Redford?
Review: There are over 150 photographs here, many in color, of Hollywood actors from the famous to those barely remembered or not remembered at all. For the most part they are placed in chronological order. The chapters are "In The Beginning","The Thirties", "The Forties", "The Fifties", "The Sixties"," "The Seventies", "The Eighties", "The Nineties And Beyond", and a final chapter, "Man To Man" with photographs of "men of color", "pugilists", "changing body types", and "Tarzan types." Many of the hunks throughout the years you expect to see are here, and often in two-page color: Clark Gable who set off a firestorm in 1934 when he appeared in IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT with Claudette Colbert and revealed, as he prepared for bed, that he wasn't wearing an undershirt, thereby changing the wearing apparel of the American male forever. In spite of his weight now, Marlon Brando will always represent the 50's as the steamy Stanley in A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE. (pp. 42-43) Paul Newman, still handsome and sexy as he approaches 70, calls to mind the 60's. Burt Reynolds in the 70's became famous for his nude photo in COSMOPOLITAN magazine. One could hardly pick up a magazine in the 80's without seeing the smooth-chested Richard Gere on the cover. One's acting ability obviously has nothing to do with who makes the cut here so we have Tab Hunter on the cover of this book and see the likes of George Hamilton and Pat Boone inside, along with two actors who later became governors of California. Worst photo selection of a very attractive actor is for that of Alec Baldwin. Where did he get that spikey haircut I ask? While I understand this is not as important as whether or not the U. S. found weapons of mass destruction when we invaded Iraq, but missing in action, just to name three, are Warren Beatty, Steve McQueen and Robert Rutherford. How could either of these been omitted when Pat Boone was included? Finally a word about the layout-- the author apparently wanted to imitate the move fan magazines of the past (PHOTOPLAY, for example)-- this works rather well, but the names of the actors in white outlined in black and two different kinds of type, some of it bold and some of it not, make for very difficult reading.
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Summary: For sheer indulgence this book will please the masses!
Review: Whether you're male or female, gay or straight, everyone will find something they like about this book. Donald F. Reuter, whom I still have not seen a picture of, has done some great work in preserving the Hollywood idols of past and present in his previous works "Heartthrob: A Hundred Years of Beautiful Men" and "Heavenly: A Hundred Years of Unforgettable Women". "Shirtless: The Hollywood Male Physique" is his third opus in this series of celebrity worship and captures the deft essence of the muscle-bound male torso that has sent the public into a manic frenzy of passion and adoration for the past 70-80 years. The real stand-outs are smooth hotties Paul Newman (pg. 155), Ryan O'Neal (pg. 11), Robert Mitchum (pg. 34), Clark Gable (inset, pg. 26) and Brendan Frasier (pg. 145), the in-bewteens Robert Conrad (pg. 84-5), Marlon Brando (pg. 42-3) and Hugh O'Brian (pg. 64-5) to the downright hairy hunks Burt Reynolds (pg. 104-5), Sean Connery (pg. 90-91; pg. 149), Clint Walker (pg. 86-7), Tom Selleck (pg. 127), and William Holden (pg. 44-5). There are, unfortuantely, several undeserving ommissions from this book as well: Patrick Duffy, Keanu Reeves, Liam Neeson, Hugh Jackman, Lucky Vanous (the famous bare-chested Diet Coke model), Patrick Stewart, Bruce Willis, Denzel Washington, Maxwell Caulfield, Viggo Mortensen, Sam Behrens (tv's SUNSET BEACH), Tom Cruise and most unforgivable of all... Robert Redford!!![...] Who would put together a book that celebrates the Hollywood Hunk in all his bare-chested glory and then leave out possibly the one sex symbol this side of Gable who's been sending gals swooning by the dozen for the past thirty-plus years? There could also have been better shots taken of some who did make it into SHIRTLESS (most notably: #1-Tom Selleck, #2-Alec Baldwin #3-William Holden and #4-Charlton Heston). I guess there's no such thing as a perfect anything beit book, film, etc. But on the upside this publication still offers up plenty of sexy, satifying and all-around turn-you-on pics of those eye-pleasing, heart-pulsing beings we call the Hollywood Heartthrobs.
Rating:
Summary: Celebrity Skin
Review: You can tell from the cover photo of 50s beach icon Tab Hunter, still beautiful after all these years, that this book is something special. When you open to the frontispiece of sweetly innocent Sal Mineo, then turn to the double-page title spread picturing heart-stopping Johnathan Schaech suggestively straddling a Harley, you know you're in for quite a treat. Donald F. Reuter, author of Heartthrob: A Hundred Years of Beautiful Men, has done it again. He has, in fact, outdone himself. There is something almost fetishist in our attraction to celebrities and our fascination with their beauty. Hollywood knows this and caters to it at every available opportunity. What better and more direct way to our wallets is there than through our collective libido? For proof of this, we need look no further than the past few seasons' crops of teen-dream flicks, all attempting to capitalize on our lust. From "Titanic" to "I Know What You Did Last Summer" to "Here On Earth" to "Dude, Where's My Car?" we are inundated with images of the faces and bodies of beautiful men-all to get us to plant our butts in theater seats and separate us from eight bucks. And it works...sometimes with huge success, others less so. For the purposes of this volume, Reuter divides our celebrity history into decades, the Thirties through the Nineties, prefaced by a section on silent film stars. These photos of pre-Hayes Code film actors showing off their best assets are especially noteworthy. Bevies of beautiful men from each decade are featured in all their bare-chested glory. In the accompanying enjoyable and often catty commentary, Reuter examines the appeal of each celebrity hunk and analyzes changes in society and in our attitudes toward objectification and worship of the male body. Over the course of 150+ pages, over 160 film and television icons are presented for our enjoyment and edification. The photos are glorious and often rare, some from the author's personal collection. There is truly something for everyone. Although Shirtless! is ambitious in scope and completely successful in its achievement, no book of finite size can be infinite in scope, and everyone is bound to have a favorite celebrity who escaped inclusion. Where are Keanu Reeves, Scott Wolf, Simon Rex? Don't let the impossibility of including every movie and television star who ever took off his shirt deter you from adding this book to your personal library. After all, there are always Scott Baio, Jimmy McNichol, and Matt Dillon!
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