47 Vintage Photos So Beautiful We Can't Look Away

Brigitte Bardot has always been a fashion icon who’s just as famous for her stylish good looks as she is her film roles. The star of movies like ...And God Created Woman and Contempt found it incredibly hard to be in the middle of so much attention. She was the most beautiful woman of the ‘60s but had trouble dealing with people, which is why she retired from performing to work with animals. Her biographer Jeffrey Robinson told The Dailymail: 

I don’t think there’s room in her heart for humans. That space is filled with animals. They love her unconditionally.

It’s not easy to be a love interest on Star Trek. First of all you’ve got to fit the uniform, and then you’ve got to be okay with running around a planet set for hours on end. Emily Banks knew the first part of the job but while speaking about the role she said she was shocked to discover how much activity was involved in being on the show:

I didn’t realize that I was going to be running around with legs hanging out [from the uniform] and shoulders hanging out [from the torn tunic]. But I do remember I did a lot of running. There was a lot of running. And I remember thinking on the first couple days, ‘They don’t want an actress, they want an athlete!’ I was exhausted, and we kept running and running.

Everyone knows this photo of Sophia Loren giving Jayne Mansfield major side eye for showing off her low cut dress, but the real story behind this photo is more than meets the eye. Taken at a Paramount party in Beverly Hills that was put together to welcome Sophia Loren to Hollywood, this photo is one of those classic pieces of perfectly engineered gossip. In 1957 Mansfield was at the peak of her fame, so showing up in an outfit so revealing was definitely going to get people looking. The main photos that are used from this party show Loren being annoyed, but in actuality she had a great time at the party. Who wouldn’t with Mansfield hanging around?

From 1965 to 1970 Barbara Eden was a constant in the lives of television viewers who loved to see her blinking her way through family problems for 30 minutes a week on I Dream of Jeanie. As one of the most magical women on television Eden was a doll to watch and a blast to work with, although she admits that she terrified her costar Larry Hagman. She told Closer that in their first rehearsal together she freaked him out with her exuberance:

I threw my arms around his neck and said, ‘Oh, Master!’ And he was like, ‘What is this woman doing?'

Natalie Wood started performing when she was just a girl, with appearances in The Searchers and Rebel Without a Cause coming before she was even 20-years-old. Even with those breakout roles under her belt her career was yet to skyrocket. It wasn’t until the 1960s that she starred in films that allowed her to appear from and center. After she was cast in Elia Kazan’s Splendor in the Grass she became a new kind of star. No longer shackled to her girlish roles she was able to try things out and actually take on serious roles. Her performance was so nuanced in Splendor that she earned nominations at both the Golden Globes and the Academy Awards for her work.

During her time in the sun Marilyn Monroe knew that all eyes were on her. She loved to wink at her audience and play her with image. One of the coolest things that she did was to play with her blonde bombshell persona in order to let people in the know realize that she was more than met the eye. Famously, in an interview with Marie Claire she said: 

You know, they ask me questions. Just an example: ‘What do you wear to bed? A pyjama top? The bottoms of the pyjamas? A nightgown?’ So I said, ‘Chanel No.5,’ because it’s the truth… And yet, I don’t want to say ‘nude.’ But it’s the truth !

Tina Louise may be most famous for playing the giggly Ginger on Gilligan’s Island but before landing that role she took her acting classes seriously and studied at the Strasberg institute, one of the premiere acting schools of the 20th century. She said that she didn’t use a ton of what she learned at the Institute while on the island, but she spoke of the teacher with fondness to Esquire:

I learned a lot from Lee about deep relaxation to get at something you were working toward. And then I found myself on Gilligan's Island, where somebody's telling you, ‘Go to the right.’ ‘Go to the left.’ That was an adjustment.

Sharon Tate only appeared in a few films but she was memorable in every single one of them. In 1967 she appeared in Don’t Make Waves, a film about a series of love triangles where she plays a character named Malibu, a gorgeous surfer with excellent “mouth to mouth” skills. Throughout the film Malibu has to deal with a boyfriend who doesn’t want to sleep with her and all of those pacific waves. As goofy as this movie sounds Tate said that working on the film was tense and that no one really got along. However, upon the film’s release she was made the centerpiece of the film’s marketing.

Throughout the 1960s Brigitte Bardot was the object of everyone teenage boy, adult, and well… anyone who can appreciate a beautiful figure. Throughout the decade she was the pinnacle of the free spirited nature of the era, it’s impossible to not think of her cutting a gorgeous figure along the beaches of France. Even though she wasn’t a classically trained actress her directors often referred to her as a natural. Louis Malle, the director of A Very Private Affair said that she wasn’t so much of a “professional” but more of an instinctive talent with an “Alice In Wonderland quality.”

It’s as if stewardesses didn’t have a say in their outfits until what… they ‘90s? Throughout the ‘60s airline outfits always had an air of sensuality to them but this costume for Scandinavian Airlines is ridiculous. Sure, this outfit looks great, I’m a fan, but it doesn’t look like something you’d want to wear while you work. The hat makes sense but just about everything else would be a disaster. 

Actually, the wrist cuffs kind of make sense but when you combine them with everything else this design is mind boggling. Obviously this wasn’t outfit wasn’t approved, but that’s okay. If you’ve seen some of the other airline outfits from the ‘60s then you know they weren’t that much more conservative.

You may remember Jocelyn Lane as Elvis’ paramour in Tickle Me, the film that saw The King star as a champion bull rider, but she had the quite the career long before she was a hunka-hunka burnin’ love. Cast as “Jackie Lane” in many of her early roles she was confined to playing the girlfriend or damsel in a series of fantasy movies like The Son of Hercules vs. Venus and War Gods of Babylon, but it’s her time with The King that we love the most. Even though she has that All-American vibe she’s actually an English actress who was born in Vienna.

Look again, that’s not Sophia Loren that’s Scilla Gabel, her body double for some of her most popular Italian films. They weren’t twins but they might as well have been. Hailing from Rimini, Italy, Gabel soon graduated from being a body double to starring in plays, appearing on television and even leading some films of her own. She never cracked the American film industry the way that Loren did but she made quite the name for herself in her home country. Scilla found critical acclaim on television, which is astounding when you think of how many body doubles never get out of the copycat game.

Faye Dunaway was already a huge star by the time she appeared in The Happening. Her breakout role in Bonnie and Clyde made her a household name among cinephiles and regular guys everywhere. Something out her laid back demeanor and raspy voice made people want to stand up and pay attention. Many of the people who’ve worked with her have stated that she’s one of the most intense performers they’ve ever shared the screen with, but even though she’s a handful it’s clear that she loves her job. Even today she throws herself into whatever production in which she appears, she says it’s so she can connect to herself in a completely unique way.

We may think of Janis Joplin as one of the most important and heartbreaking voices on the 1960s, but according to the singer herself there were two people who just didn’t get her - her parents. In an interview with Studs Terkel, Joplin explained that they never understood her music but were supportive none the less:

[My father] said he likes Bach. He said he couldn’t get into [my music]. He said, ‘I’m sure that you’re doing something up there that’s good, Janis. The kids all seem to like it, but I couldn’t really get behind it.’ Which is fine, that’s generous. He could say it was bad. My mother says, ‘Why do you have to sing so loud?’ She says, ‘You have such a pretty voice, Janis.’ She doesn’t understand.

The British born Alexandra Bastedo holds the fascinating title of being a Bond girl who wasn't actually in a sanctioned 007 film. She appeared as Meg in Casino Royale in 1967 which starred actors like David Niven and Peter Sellers as James Bond. When she wasn't spoofing one of Britain's greatest exports she was co-starring in The Champions, one of the unsung science fiction shows of the 1960s. After the show was canceled she continued working in film and television, and shifted her focus to her personal animal sanctuary later in life. 

There’s no one that embodies the ‘60s jet setting lifestyle like Priscilla Presley, the one true love of Elvis Presley. She was one of the few people who was actually in The King’s inner circle, and because of that she knew what he was like offstage. And according to her The King was always on. She told TV Insider:

He was the real deal. Even off the stage, he had a presence. He had charisma. He had style. You never saw him slouching on the couch. Looking back, he was always dressed. Always. He had that bigness as a star. He was also humble. Polite yet very strong. Sure of himself, yet he could be like a little boy. He really had it all.

What do you get when you put Raquel Welch, Ringo Starr, Peter Sellers, and pretty much every British comedy icon of the 1960s together with writer Terry Southern? One of the strangest movies that’s ever been commercially released. In the film Welch plays the Priestess of the Whip and somehow her barely there outfit is lost in the noise of this over the top satire of capitalism. Disjointed and pointed, the film is something that fans of cult ‘60s movies, or just Raquel Welch fans, have to see. Honestly, where else are you going to see a movie starring Ringo Starr with a song by Paul McCartney and a John Lennon impersonator? It’s a weird movie.

Long before she was Catwoman or even before she had an inkling of appearing on the screen Julie Newmar wanted to be a dancer. She focused on studying ballet, but as she grew to nearly six feet tall she no longer had the diminutive stature of a ballerina and she turned her sights on Hollywood. When she did appear in movies she rarely danced, but whenever she got the chance she absolutely relished it. She told the Observer:

I did a dance with Fred Astaire in the movie Bandwagon. I got to waltz just from left of camera to right of camera, and I’m taller than Fred Astaire. Fortunately, I was wearing a long skirt, so I waltzed with bended knees.

Long before she was the star of The Last Picture Show Cybill Shepherd was making a name for herself as a model. By the time she was 18 years old she’d appeared on Glamour and was the winner of the "Miss Teenage Memphis" title and represented the city at the 1966 Miss Teenage America pageant. While everyone else in her Memphis high school was worrying about where they were going to college she was fielding offers from producers. After director Peter Bogdanovich saw Shepherd’s face on the cover a magazine while grocery shopping he knew he’d found the star of his breakout feature film.

By the early 1960s Wood had transitioned from child star to a bonafide adult actress with critically acclaimed roles under her built. Throughout the ‘60s she made a series of smart moves that made her appeal to both regular film goers as well as the cinephiles in the audience. In the mid 1960s she starred in crowd pleasers like Sex and the Single Girl and The Great Race before closing out the decade with the dramedy Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice. She was one of the few actresses of the era who knew how to take all different types of roles and still be herself.

As one of Hollywood’s most promising newcomers Sharon Tate was still taking on small television and film roles in the 1960s. Even if audiences didn’t know her work they knew her face from the fashion magazines they passed in the grocery stores. While Tate mostly played dumb blondes in her films she was actually an intellectual. She spoke fluent French and was a voracious reader. She spent time in America, Europe, and England throughout her too short life and according to everyone who worked with her she was a pleasure to be around. She was taken away far too soon.

As one of the most beautiful women on the planet Sophia Loren could have gotten through the ‘60s on her looks alone, but she’s more than just a pretty face. Loren was a treasure to work with because she liked to turn her sets into a homey, friendly atmosphere. She told The Guardian:

Filming still makes me very nervous. We all need to help each other in this business. The first thing I try to do always when I am working on a film is to set up a nice, positive, friendly atmosphere, because if something is wrong and I don’t trust the crew, then I withdraw. I am not the same person any more. So I like to be surrounded by warmth and affection, by friends.

This gorgeous Italian film star has worked with some of the greatest directors to ever grace the cinema - Federico Fellini, Sergio Leone and even Werner Herzog. Even though she’s from Italy she grew up in Tunisia speaking French, and when she finally learned to speak her mother language she always had an otherworldly lilt to her husky voice. While working on Fellini’s groundbreaking 8 1/2 she rode to the set every morning with the director so he could talk to her about what he was looking for in their scene and get her to where he needed her to be. 

This sultry Bond girl only appeared in one Hollywood film but she’s played a starring role in our minds since she appeared along side Sean Connery in You Only Live Twice as Kissy Suzuki. After that film she decided that movies weren’t for her and that she wanted a family. She left her film career behind and went into television presenting. She explained her decision to the New York Times:

It was an honor to be a Bond girl, but once was enough. I didn’t want that image to stick with me. I am actually a subdued and steady person, but I felt that somewhere beyond my control, others were creating a character named ‘Mie Hama.’

Jayne Mansfield and Lana Turner were two of the original “sweater girls” a type of actress who became popular in the ‘40s and ‘50s when they adopted the style of wearing a very tight sweater to accentuate their chests. At the time this trend was seen as a menace to society with the a Pittsburgh police superintendent describing these women as proof that the world was going to heck in a hand basket:

Women walk the streets, their curves accentuated by their dresses. But our real problem is with bobby soxers. They are the sweater girls—just kids showing off their curves and apparently liking it. What kind of mothers and wives are they going to be?

Raquel Welch is one of the most recognizable women of the 1960s, and even though we mostly remember her as a woman in a fur bikini that made everyone do a double take, she says that she didn’t think her looks would be such a big deal when she made it into the movies:

I didn’t know I was going to ‘burst on the scene as a sex symbol.’ I mean the first part that I played under my contract at 20th Century Fox was Fantastic Voyage where I played a scientist… and then to jump from that to a dinosaur movie [One Million Years B.C.] I thought, my gosh, I’m getting whiplash here. And that one came out first, because the Ray Harryhausen special effects in Fantastic Voyage took something like eight months to complete. But that particular costume that I wore in One Million Years B.C. hat image of me was circulated all over the world even before Fantastic Voyage really hit the screen.

Cher was one of the grooviest stars of the 1960s. She not only wore some of the coolest outfits of the era but she co-hosted a hit variety show with her former husband Sonny Bono and went on to have an amazing career throughout the ‘70s, ‘80s, ‘90s, and wow even the 2000s. Is Cher a wizard? While speaking to CBS she admitted that she doesn’t even understand her career:

My career has been such a strange thing, you know? It's had ... huge ups and downs. I went from, you know, Academy Award to an infomercial. But I just kept going.

We think of Sharon Tate as the consummate Angeleno, a sun-kissed blonde with a permatan, but she wasn’t actually from California, she was born in Dallas. As a young girl she was the toast of the pageant circuit and was even the Homecoming Queen of her local high school. Even though she always looked like a star, her earliest roles were on television as a dowdy waif in The Beverly Hillbillies and Mister Ed. It wasn’t until 1967 that she got her big break in the 1967 film Valley of the Dolls. Due to poor timing and bad luck many of Tate’s roles were overshadowed by her co-stars. If she made it to the 1970s there’s no doubt that she would have been a major star.

Even though Raquel Welch is one of the most beautiful women of the groovy era she says that fame never suited her. Welch may have been a babe but she says that she was never suited to fame. She actually avoided her fans until Jimmy Stewart explained why she needed to give them the time of day. Welch did her best impression of Jimmy Stewart while explaining the conversation to GQ: 

Jimmy came over and said, ‘Now now now.... Raquel, RA-quel. Now there’s something you have to understand here. It’s really simple. Now these are the people that BUY the TICK-ETS. And they’ve been waiting a LONG time to talk to ya’, and you should go right ahead and do that because this is part of the job.’ And I thought, if he says that, it’s gotta be true, because he’s the best. 

Aside from appearing in some of the most fun films of the 1960s, Ann-Margret loved to perform for the troops at USO shows during Vietnam. Even though she’s known as an actress, when she performed for the boys overseas she sang with a band, which must have been a blast to watch. She was so beloved during the era that soldiers lost their minds when they saw her perform. She said of her first trip to the war zone:

The first time in Vietnam was ’66. There were just four of us—me, Johnny Rivers, his bassist and drummer. We went everywhere. Then in ’68, there was the Bob Hope show—there were 85 of us.

Born in Vienna, educated in the States, and with an English pedigree, Jocelyn Lane was like a lot of groovy era starlettes. She studied to be a dance, but when she had an offer for modeling she took up the work, what’s wrong with making some money for looking good? Once executives realized how good she looked in front of the camera they started casting her in films. She acted with Elvis and played biker chicks, proving herself to be a malleable talent. After marrying Prince Alfonso of Hohenlohe-Langenburg in 1971 she retired from acting and began working on her own fashion line.

As a young actress in the 1960s, Leigh Taylor-Young took the world by storm in her role on Peyton Place. However, she says that she wanted to be more than a pretty face, something that held her back from onscreen success. She explained:

I come from an extremely intellectual and educated family. I fell in love with acting more through the classics than from watching movies or TV. I moved to Hollywood with a passion to be great. When I did Peyton Place they wanted me in bathing suits because I looked a certain way… The late ‘60s had to do with your body and taking off your clothes, and I didn’t have moral judgments about that. My problem was that Iw as much, much more than that.

Cybill Shepherd has had anything but a normal life. Growing up in Memphis, Tennessee she became a model while she was in high school. Her blonde hair and tan skin made a girl that people couldn’t look away from. She was the 1966 Miss Teenage Memphis and shortly after that she was on the cover of Glamour and Seventeen. Even though she’s an absolute beauty, when she competed in the Miss Teenage America and got what she calls an “ugly award.” She told Commercial Appeal:

I was Miss Teenage Memphis, and then I went into Miss Teenage America and didn't even make the finals. I got 'Miss Congeniality.' I still have that award, it's pretty ugly, I put it down in the office with all my ugly awards.

This Swedish beauty is known for many things: her sultry looks, her fascinating accent, and her many marriages. Stroyberg’s rise to stardom must have been shocking to everyone - including her - she was born in a small village in Denmark in 1936 and she would have stayed there had she not been noticed by the advertisers for Tuborg beer. After that company made her the face of their campaigns in the late ‘50s she made a move to film where she became one of the most must see women in film. Throughout her life she married a series of well to do gentlemen, but never lost her fair for performing.

Diana Rigg was one of the it girls of the swinging ‘60s. She partied with everyone from the Stones to The Beatles and somehow found time to work on pretty much every show on the BBC while doing stage work. Most people know her as Emma Peel from The Avengers or as Countess Teresa di Vicenzo in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, but her career spans decades - she’s even been in Game of Thrones. In 1988 she was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire and later that year she was awarded the title of Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire. Can you believe that all came from being a pretend spy?

We knew she was Bewitching, but who knew she could dance so well? Born into an acting family, Elizabeth Montgomery was acting from an early age thanks to being cast on her father’s television show - Robert Montgomery Presents - before winning a Theater World Award for her 1956 Broadway debut. In the 1960s she was cast as Samantha Stephens on Bewitched, a role that earned her multiple Primetime Emmy Award and Golden Golden Globe nominations. She went on to appear in multiple television movies, like a lot of them, and even lent her vocal talents to cartoons like The Flinstones and Batman: The Animated Series.

This space-age babe is Verushka, also known as Countess Vera von Lehndorff-Steinort. While growing up on an estate in East Prussia where she studied a variety of subjects but focused on art. When she was 20 she was discovered by a photographer and decided to ditch her schooling to become a full time model. During the 1960s she was one of the most well known fashion models and appeared on more covers than anyone else. When she realized that she was at the top of the mountain for modeling she quit the biz and never looked back. Her love of art lead her to working with Salvador Dalí and even hanging out at Woodstock. What a cool life this groovy model has lead.

Like a lot of the groovy stars of the 1960s Jacqueline Bisset wanted to be a dancer before she turned to acting. As a girl growing up in England she didn’t even watch movies until she was in her teens, before then it was all about the ballet. Unfortunately, Bisset says that the thing that kept from finding work in the ballet is the factthat she wasn’t very good. She explained:

I was very attracted to ballet. I wasn’t good enough, and I didn’t have the body for it, but I was graceful and I had great passion for it. And my mother encouraged me… I was never trained on any professional level, but I was really obsessed. I used to dream about it, and I would choreograph—actually, quite brilliantly, I think—at night, without being able of course to do the steps. 

In the 1960s the women’s lib movement hit its stride. Women were moving into the workplace and showing men that they didn’t need anyone to help them get by. While that was happening Goldie Hawn was wearing next to nothing and go-go dancing on primetime TV. She says that even though some women raised an eyebrow at her she didn’t think anything of it. She told Harpers Bazaar:

An editor from a women’s magazine came up to me and said, ‘Don’t you feel terrible that you’re playing a dumb blonde?’ I said, ‘I don’t understand that question because I’m already liberated. Liberation comes from the inside.’

Sally Fields has always been a favorite of everyone who grew up in the 1960s, and while she went on to star some of the most fun movies of the ‘70s she was a serious TV star in the grooviest decade. She was the cute surfer girl Gidget and the flying nun, a role that she says made her feel ashamed of her work when she was only 19 or 20 years old. The fact that people thought it was okay to make fun of her character really burned her up and she says she almost quit because she was the butt of every late night joke. Field says that this experience left her unclear about what she wanted to do and disconnected from the world of acting.

If you were watching television in the ‘60s then you know Senta Berger from just about everywhere. She was a favorite guest on The Man From U.N.C.L.E. but she also made appearances on It Takes A Thief and The Name of the Game. She wasn’t just on the small screen, she appeared in a variety of genre films in the ‘60s with actors like Kirk Douglass and Tony Randall. She’s been appearing onstage since she was four-years-old so it’s not like she doesn’t have a strong work ethic. She and her husband, director Michael Verhoeven, started producing films together in the groovy ‘60s and never looked back. 

As one of the stars of Petticoat Junction, Lori Saunders was a vivacious actress who never failed to make audiences crack up with her acting skills that mixed goofy body language with a sassy demeanor. According to Saunders, working on the show was a lot of fun both on and off set. Saunders told Closer Weekly: 

We did a matinee and two evening shows with singing and a little dancing — basically a big blitz for Petticoat. We were wearing these white, thigh-high boots and we were so tired of them. After the show, we took them off and dumped them in the ocean!

Even though she didn’t become as famous as she could have been, Sharon Tate was well known and loved in the Hollywood community. Michelle Phillips from the Mamas and Papas regarded her as a wonderful friend. In her book, Phillips described Tate as one of the most joyous presences she’d ever been in:

She was the gracious hostess who included anyone she might find charming regardless of status. She was adoring and adored. Back in Los Angeles she showed me swaths of wallpaper for the nursery — difficult to do, not knowing the sex of the baby. In that flowing chiffon paisley dress she floated in blissful readiness. Her wide, bright eyes shining in happiness. That is what she is —always and forever - a euphoric, radiant soul, a mythical creature who comes to me in my dreams and in all our joyful, elated, and gleeful moments. That’s Sharon.

One of the most important cinematic moments of the 1960s occurred when Ursula Andress walked out of the ocean in Dr. No wearing nothing but a white bikini. Her appearance onscreen made her one of the most famous women in the world and it created the concept of the “Bond girl.” As happy as she is about her life, Andress is still a little confused about the phenomenon. She told the Sunday Post:

It was a big moment for me. I think that simple bikini made a complete difference to my career. It made me into a success. I had made a few movies before then but nothing had the impact of that scene in Dr No. After being the first Bond girl, I had offer after offer and could take my pick of the roles that were around. It’s a mystery. All I did was wear this bikini in Dr No – not even a small one – and whoosh! Overnight, I made it. It gave me financial independence and changed my life completely.

It’s impossible to think about the 1960s without images of Brigitte Bardot conjuring into your head. Even if you can’t think of the names of any of her movies you know how she is. Born in France to wealthy parents, Bardot became a European sensation at the tender age of 15 when she became the cover girl for Elle Magazine. This appearance gave her all the whelp she needed and she was quickly hired to appear in …And God Created Woman. It’s fascinating to think that she was so young when she became famous. Her early roles made much hay of her coquettish good looks and it wasn’t long before she was an international icon.

This Austrian actress may not be immediately familiar, but if you love cult Italian spy movies like Secret Agent Super Dragon and Danger: Diabolik then you’ve seen Mell on the big screen. Faux-bond movies weren’t her only stock and trade, over the course of her career she appeared in dozens of films, but by the 1980s her fame waned even in Italy where she was most popular. She’s quite possibly most famous in America for starring in the disastrous musical Mata Hari which had so many technical issues in its preview run that the director just decided to close up shop.

The 1960s wouldn’t be the same without Raquel Welch. Throughout the grooviest decade she made the screen pop with sultry performances in everything from One Million Years B.C. to Bedazzled, and even The Kansas City Bomber. Born in 1940, she studied ballet from the ages of seven to seventeen when she was finally told that she’d never be tiptoeing across the stage because of her shapely figure.

After winning Miss Fairest of the Fair, Miss Photogenic, and Miss Contour at the County Fair held in San Diego she decided to pursue a career in acting. She later took a job as a weather forecaster before earning her first roles on television on McHale’s Navy, The Virginian and Bewitched. It’s amazing to think that she became so popular so quickly. It makes since if you just get one look at her.