A
pin-up girl or pin-up model is a
modelthumb|200px|Alesya Nazarova modeling a dress by [[bebe stores|bebe]]A model , sometimes called a mannequin, is a person who is employed for the purpose of displaying and promoting fashion clothing or other products and for advertising or promotional purposes or who poses for works of art.Modeling...
whose mass-produced pictures see wide appeal as pop culture. Pin-ups are intended for informal display. Pin-up girls are
glamour modelsGlamour photography is a genre of photography whereby people, usually female, are portrayed in such a way as to emphasize attractiveness and charm...
, fashion models, and actresses.
Pin-up may also refer to drawings, paintings and other illustrations done in emulation of these photos (see the
List of pinup artists).
A
pin-up girl or pin-up model is a
modelthumb|200px|Alesya Nazarova modeling a dress by [[bebe stores|bebe]]A model , sometimes called a mannequin, is a person who is employed for the purpose of displaying and promoting fashion clothing or other products and for advertising or promotional purposes or who poses for works of art.Modeling...
whose mass-produced pictures see wide appeal as pop culture. Pin-ups are intended for informal display. Pin-up girls are
glamour modelsGlamour photography is a genre of photography whereby people, usually female, are portrayed in such a way as to emphasize attractiveness and charm...
, fashion models, and actresses.
Pin-up may also refer to drawings, paintings and other illustrations done in emulation of these photos (see the
List of pinup artists). The term was first attested to in
EnglishEnglish is a West Germanic language that developed in England during the Anglo-Saxon era. As a result of the military, economic, scientific, political, and cultural influence of the British Empire during the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries, and of the United States since the mid 20th century,...
in 1941; however the practice is documented back at least to the 1890s.
The pin up images could be cut out of
magazineMagazines, periodicals, glossies or serials are publications, generally published on a regular schedule, containing a variety of articles, generally financed by advertising, by a purchase price, by pre-paid magazine subscriptions, or all three...
s or
newspaperA newspaper is a publication containing news, information, and advertising. General-interest newspapers often feature articles on political events, crime, business, art/entertainment, society and sports. Most traditional papers also feature an editorial page containing columns that express the...
s, or be from
postcardA postcard or post card is a rectangular piece of thick paper or thin cardboard intended for writing and mailing without an envelope. In some places, it is possible to send them for a lower fee than for a letter. Stamp collectors distinguish between postcards and postal cards...
or
chromo-lithographsLithography is a method for printing using a stone or a metal plate with a completely smooth surface...
, and so on. Such photos often appear on calendars, which are meant to be pinned up anyway. Later,
posterA poster is any piece of printed paper designed to be attached to a wall or vertical surface. Typically posters include both textual and graphic elements, although a poster may be either wholly graphical or wholly textual. Posters are designed to be both eye-catching and convey information...
s of pin-up girls were mass-produced. They became an instant hit.
Many pin ups were
photographA photograph is an image created by light falling on a light-sensitive surface, usually photographic film or an electronic imager such as a CCD or a CMOS chip. Most photographs are created using a camera, which uses a lens to focus the scene's visible wavelengths of light into a reproduction of...
s of
celebritiesA celebrity is a person who is famously recognized in a society or culture.Generally speaking, a celebrity is someone who gets media attention and most frequently has an extroverted personality. The desire to be notable is implied by some to be a part of Western culture and more specifically the...
who were considered
sex symbolA sex symbol is a famous person of either gender, typically an actor, musician, model, teen idol, or sports star. The celebrity "star system"—the tabloid papers, paparazzi, and gossip talk shows—play an important role in creating and sustaining the public perception of which stars are viewed as...
s. One of the most popular early pin-up girls was
Betty GrableBetty Grable was an American dancer, singer, and actress.Her iconic bathing suit photo made her the number-one pin-up girl of the World War II era. It was later included in the Life magazine project "100 Photos that Changed the World"...
. Her poster was ubiquitous in the lockers of
G.I.G.I. is a term describing members of the U.S. armed forces or items of their equipment. It may be used as an adjective or as a noun. The term is now used as an initialism of "Government Issue" , but originally referred to galvanized iron...
s during
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. Other pin-ups were artwork, often depicting idealized versions of what some thought a particularly beautiful or attractive woman should look like. An early example of the latter type was the
Gibson girlThe Gibson Girl was the personification of a feminine ideal as portrayed in the satirical pen and ink illustrated stories created by illustrator Charles Dana Gibson during a 20-year period spanning the late nineteenth and early twentieth century in the United States.Some people argue that the...
, drawn by
Charles Dana GibsonCharles Dana Gibson was an American graphic artist, noted for his creation of the Gibson Girl, an iconic representation of the beautiful and independent American woman at the turn of the 20th Century.-Biography:...
. The genre also gave rise to several well-known artists specializing in the field, including
Alberto VargasAlberto Vargas was a noted painter of pin-up girls and erotica.-Biography:Born in Arequipa, Peru, Joaquin Alberto Vargas y Chávez came to the United States in 1916 after studying art in Europe prior to World War I. He was the son of famous Peruvian photographer Carlos Vargas...
and
George PettyGeorge Brown Petty IV was an American pin-up artist. His pin-up art appeared primarily in Esquire and Fawcett Publications's True but was also in calendars marketed by Esquire, True and Ridgid Tool Company. Petty's Esquire gatefolds originated and popularized the magazine device of centerfold...
, and numerous lesser artists such as
Art FrahmArt Frahm was an American painter of campy pin-up girls and advertising. Frahm lived in Chicago, and was active from the 1940s to 1960s. Today he is best known for his “ladies in distress” pictures involving beautiful young women whose panties mysteriously flutter to the ground in public...
.
1910s and 1920s
- Vilma Bánky
Vilma Bánky was a Hungarian-born American silent film actress, although the early part of her acting career began in Budapest, spreading to France, Austria, and Germany.-Early life:...
- Belle Bennett
Belle Bennett was a stage and screen actress who started her professional career in vaudeville. She was born in Milaca, Minnesota.-Stage actress:...
- Clara Bow
Clara Gordon Bow was an American actress who rose to stardom in the silent film era of the 1920s. Her acting artistry and high spirits made her the premier flapper and the film It made her world famous...
- Mary Brian
Mary Brian was an American actress and movie star who made the transition from 'silents' to 'talkies'.-Early life:...
- Louise Brooks
Mary Louise Brooks , generally known by her stage name Louise Brooks, was an American dancer, model, showgirl and silent film actress, famous for pioneering the bobbed haircut. Brooks is best known for her three feature roles including two G. W...
- Camille Clifford
Camilla Antoinette Clifford was a Belgian-born stage actress and the most famous model for the "Gibson Girl" illustrations. Her towering coiffure and hourglass figure defined the Gibson Girl style....
- Betty Compson
Betty Compson was an American actress. Born Eleanor Luicime Compson in Beaver, Utah, she had an extensive filmography. As a youth her father died and she was forced to drop out of school and earn a living for herself and her mother...
- Joan Crawford
Joan Crawford was an American actress in film, television and theatre. Starting as a dancer in traveling theatrical companies before debuting on Broadway, Crawford was signed to a motion picture contract by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1925...
- Bebe Daniels
Bebe Daniels was an American actress, singer, dancer, writer and producer. She began in Hollywood during the silent movie era as a child actress, and later gained fame on radio and television in England...
- Marion Davies
Marion Davies was an American film actress.Davies is best remembered for her relationship with newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst, as her high-profile social life often obscured her professional career....
- Billie Dove
-Early life and career:Billie Dove was born Lillian Bohny on May 14, 1903 in New York City to parents Charles and Bertha Bohny, both Swiss immigrants. As a teen, she worked as a model to help support her family and was hired at the age of 15 by Florenz Ziegfeld to appear in his Ziegfeld Follies...
- Ruth Etting
Ruth Etting was an American singing star and actress of the 1920s and 1930s, who had over sixty hit recordings and worked in stage, radio, and film...
- Greta Garbo
Greta Garbo was a Swedish actress during Hollywood's silent film period and part of its Golden Age....
- Barbara Kent
Barbara Kent is an actress who was popular in silent movies. She is among the last surviving players from the silent film period....
- Bessie Love
Bessie Love was an American motion picture actress who achieved fame largely in the silent films and early talkie era. Petite and very pretty, she played innocent young girls, flappers, and wholesome leading ladies...
- Barbara La Marr
Barbara La Marr was an American stage and film actress, cabaret artist and screenwriter.-Early life:She was born Reatha Dale Watson to William Wallace and Rosana "Rose" Watson in Yakima, Washington...
- Colleen Moore
Colleen Moore was an American film actress, and one of the most fashionable stars of the silent film era.-Early life:...
- Mae Murray
Mae Murray was an American actress, dancer, film producer, and screenwriter. Murray rose to fame during the silent film era and was known as "The Girl with the Bee-Stung Lips" and "The Gardenia of the Screen"....
- Nita Naldi
Nita Naldi . was an American silent film actress. One of the most successful actresses in Hollywood during the "Roaring Twenties", she was often cast in the role of the "femme fatale"/"vamp", a persona first popularized by actress Theda Bara.-Early life:Born Nonna Dooley in New York City into a...
- Alla Nazimova
Alla Nazimova , born Miriam Edez Adelaida Leventon was a Russian/American theater and film actress, screenwriter, and producer. She is perhaps best known as simply Nazimova, but also went under the name Alia Nasimoff.-Early life:Nazimova was one of three children of Yakov Leventon and Sonya Horowitz...
- Pola Negri
Pola Negri was a Polish film actress who achieved notoriety as a femme fatale in silent films between 1910s and 1930s.-Personal life:...
- Anita Page
Anita Evelyn Pomares , better known as Anita Page, was an American film actress who reached stardom in the last years of the silent film era. She became a highly popular young star, reportedly at one point receiving the most fan mail of anyone on the MGM lot...
- Mary Pickford
Mary Pickford was a Canadian motion picture actor, co-founder of the film studio United Artists and one of the original 36 founders of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Known as "America's Sweetheart," "Little Mary" and "The girl with the curls," she was one of the first Canadian...
- Gloria Swanson
Gloria Swanson was an American actress. She was most prominent during the silent film era as both an actress and a fashion icon, especially under the direction of Cecil B. DeMille. She was also one of the first stars to challenge the Hays Code by producing the banned Sadie Thompson in 1928...
- Lilyan Tashman
Lilyan Tashman was an American silent film actress.-Family:Born in 1896 in Brooklyn, New York to a Jewish family, Tashman was the youngest of eight children, born to Morris Tashman, a manufacturer of children's clothes, and his wife, Rose Cook Tashman...
- Olive Thomas
Olive Thomas was an American silent film actress and socialite. She was a Ziegfeld girl and the original flapper. She is best remembered for her marriage to Jack Pickford and her untimely death.- Early life :...
- Alice White
Alice White was an American film actress.-Early life and career:She was born Alva White in Paterson, New Jersey, but raised in Los Angeles. White attended Hollywood High School along with future actors Joel McCrea and Mary Brian. After leaving school she became a secretary and "script girl" for...
1930s
- Annabella
- Joan Blondell
Rose Joan Blondell was an American actress.After winning a beauty pageant, Blondell embarked upon a film career. Establishing herself as a sexy wisecracking blonde, she was a pre-Hays Code staple of Warner Brothers and appeared in more than 100 movies and television productions...
- Virginia Bruce
Virginia Bruce was an American actress and singer.-Career:Born Helen Virginia Briggs in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Bruce began her acting career in minor roles in Hollywood in 1929...
- Marlene Dietrich
Marlene Dietrich was a German-born American actress and singer.Dietrich remained popular throughout her long career by continually re-inventing herself. In 1920s Berlin, she acted on the stage and in silent films...
- Dolores del Río
Dolores del Río was a Mexican film actress. She was a star of Hollywood films during the silent era and in the Golden Age of Hollywood, becoming an important actress in Mexican films later in her life....
- Jean Harlow
Jean Harlow was an American film actress and sex symbol of the 1930s. Known as the "Platinum Blonde" and the "Blonde Bombshell" due to her platinum blonde hair, Harlow was ranked as one of the greatest movie stars of all time by the American Film Institute...
- Sonja Henie
Sonja Henie was a Norwegian figure skater and actress. She was a three-time Olympic Champion , a ten-time World Champion and a six-time European Champion . Henie won more Olympic and World titles than any other ladies figure skater...
- Ruby Keeler
Ruby Keeler, born Ethel Hilda Keeler, was an actress, singer, and dancer most famous for her on-screen coupling with Dick Powell in a string of successful early musicals at Warner Brothers, particularly 42nd Street. From 1928 to 1940, she was married to legendary singer Al Jolson...
- Gypsy Rose Lee
Gypsy Rose Lee was an American burlesque entertainer, famous for her striptease act. She was also an actress and writer, whose 1957 memoir, written as a monument to her mother, was made into the stage musical and film Gypsy.-Early life:Gypsy was born Rose Louise Hovick in Seattle, Washington in ...
- Carole Lombard
Carole Lombard was an American actress. She was particularly noted for her comedic roles in several classic films of the 1930s, most notably in the 1936 film My Man Godfrey...
- Myrna Loy
Myrna Loy was an American actress. Trained as a dancer, she devoted herself fully to an acting career following a few minor roles in silent films. Originally typecast in exotic roles, often as a vamp or a woman of Asian descent, her career prospects improved following her portrayal of Nora Charles...
- Sally Rand
Sally Rand was born as Helen Harriet Beck in Hickory County, Missouri. She also performed under the name Billie Beck. She was a burlesque dancer and actress, most noted for her ostrich feather fan dance and balloon bubble dance.-Career:During the 1920s, Sally Rand acted on stage and appeared in...
- Ginger Rogers
Ginger Rogers was an American film and stage actress, dancer and singer.During her long career, she made a total of 73 films, and is noted for her role as Fred Astaire's romantic interest and dancing partner in a series of ten Hollywood musical films that revolutionized the genre...
- Barbara Stanwyck
Barbara Stanwyck was an American actress, a star of film and television, known during her 60-year career as a consummate and versatile professional with a strong screen presence, and a favorite of directors such as Cecil B. DeMille, Fritz Lang and Frank Capra...
- Thelma Todd
Thelma Todd was an American actress of the late 1920s and early 1930s film. Appearing in over 40 pictures between 1926 and 1935, she is best remembered for her comedic roles in films like Marx Brothers' Monkey Business and Horse Feathers, a number of Charley Chase's short comedies, and co-starring...
- Lupe Vélez
Lupe Vélez was a Mexican American film actress.Vélez began her career in Mexico as a dancer, before moving to the U.S. where she worked in vaudeville. She was seen by Fanny Brice who promoted her, and Vélez soon entered films, making her first appearance in 1924...
- Mae West
Mae West was an American actress, playwright, screenwriter, and sex symbol.Known for her bawdy double entendres, West made a name for herself in Vaudeville and on the stage in New York before moving to Hollywood to become a comedienne, actress and writer in the motion picture industry...
- Toby Wing
Toby Wing was an American actress and showgirl.Born Martha Virginia Wing, she began working onscreen at age 9; her father, Paul Wing, was an assistant director for Paramount Pictures. In 1931 she became one of the first Goldwyn Girls, and in 1932 she was seen in Mack Sennett-produced comedies made...
1940s
- Lauren Bacall
Lauren Bacall is an American film and stage actress and model, known for her husky voice and sultry looks....
- Diana Barrymore
Diana Barrymore was an American film and stage actress. She was the aunt of actress Drew Barrymore.- Early life :...
- Ingrid Bergman
Ingrid Bergman was a Swedish actress. She won three Academy Awards, two Emmy Awards, and the Tony Award for Best Actress in the first Tony Award ceremony in 1947. She is ranked as the fourth greatest female star of American cinema of all time by the American Film Institute...
- Vivian Blaine
Vivian Blaine was an actress and singer best known for originating the role of Miss Adelaide in the musical theater production Guys and Dolls....
- Jeanne Crain
Jeanne Elizabeth Crain was an American actress.-Early life:Crain was born in Barstow, California to George A. Crain and Loretta Carr; she was of Irish heritage on her mother's side, and of English and distant French descent on her father's. She moved to Los Angeles as a young child...
- Linda Darnell
Linda Darnell was an American film actress.Darnell was a model as a child, and progressed to theater and film acting as an adolescent. She made her first film in 1939, and appeared in supporting roles in films for 20th Century Fox...
- Yvonne De Carlo
Yvonne De Carlo was a Canadian-born American film and television actress, dancer and singer. In her six-decade career, her most prolific appearances in film came in the 1940s and 1950s and included her best-known film roles, such as Salome Where She Danced and The Ten Commandments, opposite...
- Lisa Fonssagrives
Lisa Fonssagrives , born Lisa Bernstone in Sweden, was a fashion model credited by some as the first supermodel....
- Ava Gardner
Ava Lavinia Gardner was an American actress.She was signed to a contract by MGM Studios in 1941 and appeared in supporting roles until she drew attention with her performance in The Killers . She became one of Hollywood's leading actresses, admired for her beauty, and highly regarded for her...
- Judy Garland
Judy Garland was an American actress and singer. Through a career that spanned 45 of her 47 years, Garland attained international stardom as an actress in musical and dramatic roles, as a recording artist, and on the concert stage. Respected for her versatility, she received a Juvenile Academy...
- Betty Grable
Betty Grable was an American dancer, singer, and actress.Her iconic bathing suit photo made her the number-one pin-up girl of the World War II era. It was later included in the Life magazine project "100 Photos that Changed the World"...
- Kathryn Grayson
Kathryn Grayson is an American actress and operatic soprano singer. Trained as an opera singer from the age of twelve, Grayson was contracted to MGM and established a career in films from the early 1940s...
- Jane Greer
Jane Greer was a film and television actress who was perhaps best known for her role as femme fatale Kathie Moffat in the 1947 film noir Out of the Past.-Career:...
- Anne Gwynne
Anne Gwynne was an American film actress of the 1940s. Known as one of the first scream queens because of her numerous appearances in horror films, the actress-model was also one of the most popular pin-ups of World War II....
- Susan Hayward
Susan Hayward was an American actress.After working as a fashion model in New York, Hayward travelled to Hollywood in 1937 in the hope of playing the role of Scarlett O'Hara in Gone With the Wind . Although she was not selected, she secured a film contract, and played several small supporting...
- Rita Hayworth
Rita Hayworth was an American film actress and dancer who attained fame during the 1940s not only as one of the era's top stars, but also as the era's greatest sex symbol, most notably in Gilda...
- June Haver
June Haver , was an American film actress, who was born in Rock Island, Illinois as Beverly Jane Stovenour. "June" was her nickname and her surname became "Haver" when her mother divorced and remarried. She is most well-known as a popular star of 20th Century-Fox musicals in the late 1940s, most...
- Lena Horne
Lena Mary Calhoun Horne is an American singer and actress. She has recorded and performed extensively, independently and with other jazz notables, including Artie Shaw, Teddy Wilson, Billy Strayhorn, Duke Ellington, Charlie Barnet, Benny Carter and Billy Eckstine...
- Candy Jones
Candy Jones, originally known as Jessica Arline Wilcox , was an American fashion model, writer and radio talk show hostess....
- Olga San Juan
Olga San Juan was an American actress, dancer and comedian, mainly active in films during the 1940s.She was born in Brooklyn, New York to Puerto Rican parents...
- Veronica Lake
Veronica Lake was an American film actress and pin-up model who enjoyed both popular and critical acclaim, most notably for her femme fatale roles in film noir with Alan Ladd during the 1940s, as well as her peek-a-boo hairstyle.-Early life and career:Veronica Lake was born Constance Frances Marie...
- Carole Landis
Carole Landis was an American film and stage actress.- Early life and family :Landis was born Frances Lillian Mary Ridste in Fairchild, Wisconsin to a Polish immigrant, Clara Stentek Ridste. Although Mrs. Stenek Ridste was married to Norwegian Alfred Ridste, who abandoned the family before Carole...
- Hedy Lamarr
Hedy Lamarr was an Austrian-born American actress and scientist. Though known primarily for her acting , she also co-invented an early form of spread spectrum communications technology, a key to modern wireless communication.-Early life and career in Europe:Lamarr was born Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler...
- Dorothy Lamour
Dorothy Lamour was an American film actress. She is probably best-remembered for appearing in the Road to... movies, a series of successful comedies co-starring Bob Hope and Bing Crosby.-Early life:...
- Joan Leslie
Joan Leslie is a former American actress.- Early life :Born Joan Agnes Theresa Sadie Brodel in Detroit, Michigan, Leslie began performing at the age of three as part of a vaudeville act with her two sisters...
- Viveca Lindfors
Elsa Viveca Torstensdotter Lindfors , better known under her professional name of Viveca Lindfors, was a Swedish stage and film actress.-Biography:...
- Marilyn Maxwell
Marilyn Maxwell , born Marvel Marilyn Maxwell, was an American actress and entertainer.Noted for her blonde hair and sexy persona she appeared in several films and radio programs, and entertained the troops during World War II and the Korean War on USO tours with Bob Hope.-Career:She started her...
- Marie McDonald
Marie McDonald was an American singer and actress known as "The Body Beautiful" and later nicknamed "The Body".- Early life :...
- Ann Miller
Johnnie Lucille Ann Collier, better known as Ann Miller was an American singer, dancer and actress.-Early life:...
- Carmen Miranda
Maria do Carmo Miranda da Cunha
GCIH, better known by the stage name Carmen Miranda was a Portuguese-born Brazilian samba singer and actress popular in the 1940s and 1950s....
- Maria Montez
María Montez was a Dominican-born motion picture actress who gained fame and popularity in the 1940s as an exotic beauty starring in a series of filmed-in-Technicolor costume adventure films. Her screen image was that of a hot-blooded Latin seductress, dressed in fanciful costumes and sparkling...
- Frances Rafferty
Frances Rafferty was an American actress, dancer, World War II pin-up girl and MGM contract star.-Early life:Born in Sioux City, Iowa, she moved with her family to Los Angeles, California at age nine...
- Ella Raines
-Life and career:Born Ella Wallace Raines in Snoqualmie Falls, Washington, Raines studied drama at the University of Washington and was appearing in a play there when she was seen by Howard Hawks...
- Donna Reed
Donna Reed was an American film and television actress.-Early life:Reed was born Donna Belle Mullenger on a farm near Denison, Iowa, the daughter of Hazel Jane and William Richard Mullenger. The eldest of five children, she was raised as a Methodist...
- Jane Russell
Jane Russell is an American film actress.-Early life:Born Ernestine Jane Geraldine Russell in Bemidji, Minnesota, she was the only daughter of Roy William Russell and Geraldine Jacobi...
- Ann Sheridan
-Life and career:Born Clara Lou Sheridan in Denton, Texas, she was a college student when her sister sent a photograph of her to Paramount Pictures. She subsequently entered and won a beauty contest, with part of her prize being a bit part in a Paramount film...
- Alexis Smith
Alexis Smith was a Canadian-born stage, film and television actress.-Career:Born Gladys Smith in Penticton, British Columbia, Canada, Smith was raised in Los Angeles. She was signed to a contract by Warner Bros. after being discovered by a talent scout while attending college...
- Gene Tierney
Gene Tierney was an American film and stage actress. Acclaimed as one of the great beauties of her day, she is best-remembered for her performance in the title role of Laura and her Academy Award-nominated performance for Best Actress in Leave Her to Heaven...
- Lana Turner
Lana Turner was an American actress.Discovered and signed to a film contract by MGM at the age of sixteen, Turner first attracted attention in They Won't Forget . She played featured roles, often as the ingenue, in such films as Love Finds Andy Hardy...
- Esther Williams
Esther Jane Williams is a retired American competitive swimmer and MGM movie star, notable for her musical films that featured elaborate performances with swimming and diving.-Early years:...
- Shelley Winters
Shelley Winters was an American actress who appeared in dozens of films, as well as on stage and television.-Early life:...
1950s
- Pier Angeli
Pier Angeli was an Sardinian-born television and film actress.-Early life and career:Born Anna Maria Pierangeli in Cagliari, Sardinia. Her twin sister is the actress Marisa Pavan. Angeli made her film debut with Vittorio de Sica in , after being spotted by director Léonide Moguy...
- Carroll Baker
Carroll Baker, is an American actress who has enjoyed popularity as both a serious dramatic actress and, particularly in the 1960s, a movie sex symbol...
- Brigitte Bardot
Brigitte Anne-Marie Bardot is an animal rights activist and a former French actress, fashion model and singer.In her early life Bardot was an aspiring ballet dancer. She started her acting career in 1952 and after appearing in 16 films became world-famous due to her role in the controversial film...
- Candy Barr
Candy Barr was an American stripper, burlesque exotic dancer, actress in one pornographic movie, and model in men's magazines of the mid-20th century....
- Virginia Bell
- Cyd Charisse
Cyd Charisse was an American actress and dancer.After recovering from polio as a child, and studying ballet, Charisse entered films in the 1940s...
- Mara Corday
Mara Corday is a showgirl, model, actress, Playboy Playmate and a 1950s cult figure....
- Hazel Court
Hazel Court was an English actress known for her roles in horror films during the 1950s and early 1960s....
- Dagmar
Dagmar was an American actress, model, and television personality of the 1950s. As a statuesque, busty blonde, she became the first major female star of television, receiving much press coverage during that decade....
- Dorothy Dandridge
Dorothy Jean Dandridge was an American actress and popular singer. Dandridge was the first African American to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress.-Early life and career:...
- Sandra Dee
Sandra Dee was an American actress. Dee began her career as a model and progressed to film. Best known for her portrayal of ingenues, Dee won a Golden Globe Award in 1959 as one of the year's most promising newcomers, and over several years her films were popular...
- Faith Domergue
Faith Domergue was an American television and film actress.-Early life and career:Born in New Orleans, Domergue was adopted by Annabelle Quimet and Leo Domergue when she was six weeks old...
- Diana Dors
Diana Dors was an English actress and sex symbol. She was born Diana Mary Fluck in Swindon, England and was educated at Colville House in Swindon...
- Anita Ekberg
Kerstin Anita Marianne Ekberg is a Swedish model, actress and cult sex symbol.-Biography:Ekberg was born in 1931, the eldest girl and the sixth of eight children. In her teens, she worked as a fashion model. In 1950, Ekberg entered the Miss Malmö competition at her mother's urging, leading to the...
- Gloria Grahame
Gloria Grahame was an American actress.Grahame began her acting career in theatre, and in 1944 she made her first film for MGM. Despite a featured role in It's a Wonderful Life , MGM did not believe she had the potential for major success, and sold her contract to RKO Studios...
- Allison Hayes
Allison Hayes was an American film and television actress and model.-Early life:Born Mary Jane Hayes in Charleston, West Virginia, Hayes won the title of Miss District of Columbia and represented Washington, DC in the 1949 Miss America pageant...
- Eartha Kitt
Eartha Mae Kitt was an American actress, singer, and cabaret star. She was perhaps best known for her highly distinctive singing style and her 1953 hit Christmas song "Santa Baby"...
- Joi Lansing
Joi Lansing was a model, a film and television actress, and a nightclub singer.-Early life:Lansing was born Joyce Rae Brown in Salt Lake City, Utah to Jack Glenn Brown, a shoe salesman, and Virginia Grace Shupe Brown, a housewife. She would later be known as Joyce Wassmansdorff, which was the...
- Gina Lollobrigida
Gina Lollobrigida , is an Italian actress and photojournalist. She was one of Italy's most prominent actresses of the 1950s and early 1960s.-Youth:...
- Sophia Loren
Sophia Loren is an Italian film actress and an international sex symbol. In 1961, she won an Academy Award for Best Actress for Two Women, becoming the first actor to win an Academy Award for a non-English-speaking performance....
- Jayne Mansfield
Jayne Mansfield was an American actress working both on Broadway and in Hollywood. One of the leading blonde sex symbols of the 1950s, Mansfield was a Playboy Playmate of the Month, and appeared in the magazine several more times over the years. She won the Theatre World Award, Golden Globe and...
- Irish McCalla
Nellie Elizabeth "Irish" McCalla was an American actress and artist best-known as the title star of the 1950s television series Sheena, Queen of the Jungle. Sheena co-starred actor Chris Drake...
- Marilyn Monroe
Marilyn Monroe , born Norma Jeane Mortenson, but baptized Norma Jeane Baker, was an American actress, singer and model....
- Cleo Moore
Cleouna "Cleo" Moore was an American actress, usually in the role of a blonde bombshell, in 1950s Hollywood films.-Early life:...
- Kim Novak
Kim Novak is a two-time Golden Globe Award-winning American actress. She is best known for her performance in the classic 1958 film Vertigo...
- Maila Nurmi
Maila Nurmi was a Finnish-American actress, who created the campy 1950s character Vampira. Her portrayal of this character as television's first horror host and in the Ed Wood cult film Plan 9 from Outer Space was influential over the decades that followed.-Early life:Born as Maila Elizabeth...
- Bettie Page
Bettie Page was an American model who became famous in the 1950s for her fetish modeling and pin-up photos. She has often been called the "Queen of pinups". Her look, including her jet black hair and trademark bangs, has influenced many artists.She was also one of the earliest Playmates of the...
- Suzy Parker
Suzy Parker , born Cecilia Ann Renee Parker, was an American model and actress active from 1947 into the early 1960s. Her modeling career reached its zenith during the 1950s when she appeared on the cover of dozens of magazines, advertisements, and in movie and television roles...
- Barbara Payton
Barbara Payton was an American film actress.-Early life and career:Born Barbara Lee Redfield, in Cloquet, Minnesota, she was the daughter of restaurateurs, and raised in Odessa, Texas...
- Barbara Rush
Barbara Rush is an American stage, film, and television actress.A student at the University of California, Santa Barbara, Barbara Rush performed on stage at the Pasadena Playhouse before signing with Paramount Pictures...
- Lili St. Cyr
Lili St. Cyr , was a prominent American burlesque stripper.- Early years :...
- Gia Scala
Gia Scala was an English American actress of Italian-Irish descent.- Early life :She was born Giovanna Scoglio in Liverpool, England, to an aristocratic Sicilian father, Pietro Scoglio, and an Irish mother, Eileen Sullivan...
- Tempest Storm
Tempest Storm is an American stripper, burlesque star, and motion picture actress. Along with Lili St. Cyr and Blaze Starr, she was one of the best known burlesque performers of the 1950s and 1960s. She is regarded as having one of the longest careers as a burlesque performer, spanning more than...
- Märta Torén
Märta Torén was a Swedish stage and film actress of the 1940s and 1950s.Torén began her career on the stage and from 1947 she appeared in films. She appeared on the cover of Life Magazine in 1949....
- Mamie Van Doren
Mamie Van Doren is an American actress and sex symbol.-Early life:Van Doren was born Joan Lucille Olander in Rowena, South Dakota, the daughter of Warner Carl Olander and Lucille Harriet Bennett . She is of three-quarters Swedish ancestry; the remainder is mixed English and German...
- June Palmer
June Palmer, also known as June Power, was possibly the most famous Harrison Marks model in the 1960s, featuring in his publications Kamera and Solo...
1960s
- Pamela Green
Pamela Green rose to fame in the 1950s and 1960s as an English glamour model and actress. She was a regular model for Zoltán Glass, Horace Roye, and John Everard.-Career:...
- Margaret Nolan
Margaret Nolan, also known as Vicky Kennedy, is a British artist and former actress and glamour model.-Career:Born in Hampstead, London to Irish parents, Margaret Nolan adopted the name Vicky Kennedy when she burst onto the 'glamour' scene in the early 1960s...
- June Palmer
June Palmer, also known as June Power, was possibly the most famous Harrison Marks model in the 1960s, featuring in his publications Kamera and Solo...
1970s
- Loni Anderson
Loni Kaye Anderson is an American actress best known for her role as Jennifer Marlowe on the television sitcom WKRP in Cincinnati and as a former wife of Burt Reynolds . Her divorce from Reynolds was a bitter, well-publicized debacle.-Early life:Anderson was born in St...
- Catherine Bach
Catherine Bach is an American actress. She is best known for playing Daisy Duke in the television series The Dukes of Hazzard and for playing Margo Dutton in African Skies.-Career:...
- Adrienne Barbeau
Adrienne Jo Barbeau is an American television, film, character and musical theatre actress, as well as the author of two books. Barbeau came to prominence in the 1970s as Broadway's original Rizzo in the musical Grease, Bea Arthur's divorced daughter Carol Traynor in the sitcom Maude, and in...
- Barbi Benton
Barbi Benton . is an American model, actress and singer. She became famous for being the girlfriend of Playboy founder and publisher Hugh Hefner. She was featured on the Playboy cover several times....
- Jacqueline Bisset
Jacqueline Bisset is a British actress. She has been nominated for four Golden Globe Awards and an Emmy Award. Her popular films include Bullitt , Airport , The Deep , and Class...
- Lynda Carter
Lynda Carter is an American actress and singer. She is best known for the Amazonian title role in the fantasy-adventure television series Wonder Woman which aired from 1975 to 1979.-Early life:...
- Farrah Fawcett
Farrah Fawcett was an American actress. A multiple Golden Globe and Emmy Award nominee, Fawcett rose to international fame when she first appeared as private investigator Jill Munroe in the TV series Charlie's Angels in 1976...
- Goldie Hawn
Goldie Jean Hawn is an American actress, film director and producer, whose career has spanned nearly four decades. Hawn is perhaps best known for her roles in Private Benjamin, Wildcats, Overboard, Bird on a Wire, Death Becomes Her, The First Wives Club, and The Banger Sisters...
- Lauren Hutton
Lauren Hutton is an American former model and occasional actress. She is best known for her starring roles in the movies American Gigolo and Lassiter, and also for her fashion modeling career....
- Kate Jackson
Kate Jackson is an American actress, director, and producer. She is a three-time Emmy Award nominee, twice in the Best Actress category and once in the Best Supporting Actress category...
- Cheryl Ladd
Cheryl Ladd is an American singer, author and actress, perhaps best known for her role as Kris Munroe in the 1970s television series Charlie's Angels.-Career:...
- Peggy Lipton
Peggy Lipton aka Peggy Lipton Jones is an American television actress. She played "Julie Barnes" in The Mod Squad, and Norma Jennings in Twin Peaks.-Early life:...
- Julie Newmar
Julia Chalene Newmeyer is an American actress, dancer and singer. Her most famous role is Catwoman in the Batman television series.-Early life:...
- Olivia Newton-John
Olivia Newton-John AO, OBE is a British-born, Australian-raised singer and actress. She is a four-time Grammy award winner who has amassed five No. 1 and ten other Top Ten Billboard Hot 100 singles and two No. 1 Billboard 200 albums...
- Jaclyn Smith
Jaclyn Ellen Smith is an American actress. She is best known for the role of Kelly Garrett in the television series Charlie's Angels, and was the only original female lead to remain with the series for its complete run...
- Bern Nadette Stanis
Bern Nadette Stanis is an American actress best known for her role as the strong-willed Thelma Evans on the CBS sitcom, Good Times. She is of African American, Puerto Rican and Greek descent.-Career:...
- Suzanne Somers
Suzanne Somers is an American actress, author and businesswoman, best known for her television roles as Chrissy Snow on Three's Company and as Carol Lambert on Step by Step....
- Cheryl Tiegs
Cheryl Rae Tiegs is an American model and actress.- Early years :Tiegs was born in Breckenridge, Minnesota but raised in Alhambra, California, and she graduated from Alhambra High School in 1965. She also attended the California State University, Los Angeles and became a little sister to the Sigma...
1980s
- Bobbie Brown
Bobbie Jean Brown sometimes credited as Bobbie Brown-Lane is an American actress, model, and former beauty pageant contestant...
- Christie Brinkley
Christie Brinkley is an American model best known for her three appearances on the cover of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue in the late 1970s and early '80s, for her long-running contract with CoverGirl and for being the ex-wife of musician Billy Joel.Brinkley has also worked as an actress,...
- Samantha Fox
Samantha Karen "Sam" Fox is an English former glamour model and dance-pop singer.- Background :As the eldest daughter of the late Patrick John Fox and Carole Ann Wilken, Samantha Karen Fox came from a family of market traders in the East End of London...
- Monique Gabrielle
Monique Gabrielle is an American model and actress.Gabrielle was the Penthouse Pet of the Month for December 1982. Since then, she has had a career as a B-movie actress. Many of Gabrielle's films have had overtly erotic overtones. Although she was in the 1982 adult film Bad Girls IV , she did...
- Tawny Kitaen
Julie "Tawny" Kitaen is an American actress and media personality in Southern California. She became famous in the 1980s for appearing in several heavy metal music videos for the band Whitesnake, including the hit "Here I Go Again". Kitaen was married to Whitesnake lead singer David Coverdale from...
- Madonna
Madonna is an American recording artist, actress and entrepreneur. Born in Bay City, Michigan, and raised in Rochester Hills, Michigan, she moved to New York City in 1977, for a career in modern dance...
- Brooke Shields
Brooke Christa Camille Shields is an American actress, author and model. Some of her better-known movies include Pretty Baby and The Blue Lagoon as well as TV shows such as Suddenly Susan, That 70's Show, and Lipstick Jungle.-Early life:Shields was born in New York City into a well-known American...
- Kelly LeBrock
Kelly LeBrock is an English actress, model, and '80's sex icon known for her acting debut in The Woman in Red, co-starring comedian Gene Wilder, and the subsequent cult film Weird Science, directed by John Hughes....
- Jeana Tomasino
Jeana Tomasino was born on September 18, 1955 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Tomasino graduated from Whitnall High School located in Greenfield, WI in 1972. When she was younger, she worked as a model and actress...
- Linnea Quigley
Linnea Barbara Quigley is an American scream queen, B movie actress, and film producer.-Early life and career:Linnea Quigley was born in Davenport, Iowa, the daughter of Dorothy and W. Heath Quigley, a chiropractor and psychologist. She moved to Los Angeles in the late 1970s to pursue her dreams...
- Vanity
1990s
- Pamela Anderson
thumb|rightPamela Denise Anderson is a Canadian/American actress, sex symbol, glamour model, producer, author, activist, and former Showgirl....
- Tyra Banks
Tyra Lynne Banks is an American media personality, actress, occasional singer, former model and businesswoman. She first became famous as a model in Paris, Milan, London, Tokyo and New York, but television appearances were her commercial breakthrough...
- Linda O'Neil
Linda O'Neil is an American model and actress.-Early life:O'Neil was born near Sacramento, California, U.S. on Mather Air Force Base. She is naturally brunette; hence the description on her official website World's Sexiest Brunette. She is 1.70 m or 5' 7" tall. Her family moved several times and...
- Cindy Crawford
Cindy Crawford is a former American model. Known for her trademark mole just above her lip, Crawford has adorned hundreds of magazine covers throughout her career. She was named #3 on VH1's 40 Hottest Hotties of the 90s...
- Carmen Electra
Tara Leigh Patrick , professionally known as Carmen Electra, is an American glamour model, actress, television personality, dancer and sex symbol...
- Cindy Margolis
Cynthia Dawn "Cindy" Margolis is an American glamour spokesmodel and actress.-Early life:Margolis was born in Los Angeles, California...
- Anna Nicole Smith
Vickie Lynn Marshall , better known under the stage name of Anna Nicole Smith, was an American model, sex symbol, actress and television personality. She first gained popularity in Playboy, becoming the 1993 Playmate of the Year. She modeled for clothing companies, including Guess jeans and Lane...
2000s
- Jami Deadly
Jami Deadly is an American born actress, glamour model, singer, burlesque dancer, and horror host. Jami grew up in Texas where she starred in the NTTV show, Deadly Cinema. Jami has been featured in Lowrider, Rue Morgue, Skin Two, Marquis, Deadbeat Magazine, Ol' Skool Rodz, Bite Me, CK Deluxe,...
- Bernie Dexter
Bernie Dexter is an American model. She lives in San Diego, California, and is married to neo-rockabilly musician Levi Dexter.-Early career:...
- Drakaina
Drakaina is a French actress and model.-Early life:Drakaina was born in Vincennes, France. Her father, Gilles, is a retired restaurant owner and her mother, Catherine, is a breeder of Pyrenean Mountain Dogs. Drakaina began her acting career after being spotted in a club...
- Jessica Sutta
Jessica Lynn Sutta is an American dancer, singer, and actress. She is best known as a member of the pop/R&B group the Pussycat Dolls.-Biography:...
- Heidi Van Horne
Heidi Van Horne is an American Actress, Pin Up model and writer. A Modern "Pin Up Queen" and "Superstar Re-creation Specialist", known most for her pin up work in magazines and as cover girl of numerous books and publications, she also has been seen acting on television on iconic shows like ER ,...
- Sabina Kelley
- Loulou von Brochwitz
Loulou von Brochwitz is a Swiss pin-up and cheesecake model living in Zurich, Switzerland. She is a modern "Cheesecake Starlet" and "Atomic Age Pin-Up Girl", known most for her modeling work in magazines and advertising prints and publications...
- Dita Von Teese
Dita Von Teese is an American burlesque artist, model and actress.-Early life:Dita Von Teese was born Heather Renée Sweet on September 28, 1972 in Rochester, Michigan, the middle of three daughters. Her mother was a manicurist and her father was a machinist at a company that made graphite...
- Dayna Delux
Other kinds of pin-ups
In comic books, a
pin-up is simply a full-page piece of artwork, most often without dialogue, that showcases a character, group of characters, or significant event, published within a single issue or annual rather than made available by itself as a poster.
In professionally published fan magazines for
filmFilm encompasses individual motion pictures, the field of film as an art form, and the motion picture industry. Films are produced by recording images from the world with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects....
s and television series, a posed photograph of actors or actresses from the subject matter, but might also showcase specific scenes from the subject matter in photograph form (called
stills) are occasionally called
pin-ups. The label is very casual, though, as these types of fan media are more accurately described as
posters.
See also
- Irving Klaw
Irving Klaw was an American photographer and filmmaker.Klaw is best-known for operating a mail-order business selling photographs and film of attractive women from the 1940s to the 1960s...
- Good girl art
Good girl art is found in drawings or paintings which feature a strong emphasis on attractive women no matter what the subject or situation. GGA was most commonly featured in comic books, pulp magazines and crime fiction...
- Bad girl art
Bad girl art is a superheroines artform genre coined after the analogy of good girl art which also includes strong female characters in comic books...
- List of pinup artists
- Page three girl
Page Three is a feature found in British tabloid newspapers The Sun, consisting of a topless or even nude photograph of a female glamour model traditionally published on the newspaper's third page. Women who model regularly for the feature are known as Page Three girls...