Winston Smith | 04 Oct 2016 7:42 a.m. PST |
We have all seen pictures of our favorite ruthless dictators. Which one do you think was the best looking? 1. Hitler. Nope. He was not all that attractive, and that mustache didn't help. 2. Stalin. Smacked in the face with a shovel ugly. 3. Mao. See Stalin. 4. Alexander the Great. Handsome, but in a Pretty Boy kind of way. 5. Napoleon. Good looking guy. And French too. Looks rather modern, but I bet he would never get his picture painted with the fashionable 5 day stubble. 6. Santa Anna. Another good looking guy. Nominate your own. Yes. This is a silly poll. Got a problem with that? |
Winston Smith | 04 Oct 2016 7:47 a.m. PST |
Now I must admit that before photography, very few subjects of the artist's brush would tell the painter "warts and all". Most of Napoleon's Marshals look like they stepped out of an Adam and the Ants video. And any comparison between Louis XIV and RuPaul's Drag Races is just out of hand! He has an ugly nose too. |
Anthropicus | 04 Oct 2016 8:10 a.m. PST |
I gotta disagree on Stalin, he was a hottie in his younger years: link |
Jcfrog | 04 Oct 2016 8:12 a.m. PST |
Very strange question. Dictator is a mostly irrelevant term before the mid 19th century, as nearly every ruler by modern (western) standards was one up to he ability of his powers. Except early USA, maybe quasi democracies with some efficient rights like the Netherlands and the UK+ Iceland! |
Frederick | 04 Oct 2016 8:24 a.m. PST |
In his younger days Fredrick the Great could cut some rug Hard to say what a young Genghis Khan looked like What about Julius Caesar? Seems to have been quite the ladies man Franco was quite dashing when he was a Colonel in the Spanish Foreign Legion |
Milhouse | 04 Oct 2016 8:24 a.m. PST |
Napoleon was not French. He was Corsican . |
nevals | 04 Oct 2016 8:26 a.m. PST |
Tough one. I will have to go with Il Duce. |
nevals | 04 Oct 2016 8:29 a.m. PST |
Oh, man , I forgot one of my own! President Tito!
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willlucv | 04 Oct 2016 8:51 a.m. PST |
Kim Jong Il had great hair. |
vtsaogames | 04 Oct 2016 8:56 a.m. PST |
Stalin looks good in that young picture of him. Someone smacked him with a shovel later? For that matter, Mao before being smacked by the shovel: link |
coryfromMissoula | 04 Oct 2016 9:14 a.m. PST |
As Anthropicus's link mentions, Stalin's face bore smallpox scars, his photos by and large have been heavily touched up. I'm going with young Fidel Castro, the others were too old and portly by the time they took power. |
Ivan DBA | 04 Oct 2016 9:35 a.m. PST |
Alexander the Great was not a dictator. He was the legitimate king of Macedon (probably). |
Winston Smith | 04 Oct 2016 9:53 a.m. PST |
The picked nits are proliferating greatly today. |
miniMo | 04 Oct 2016 9:56 a.m. PST |
Dictator is an extremely relevent and precisely accurate term in Rome: link Of these, Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus should be in the running:
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Moonraker Miniatures | 04 Oct 2016 10:06 a.m. PST |
Charlie Chaplin – the Great Dictator and a smooth looking chappie: link Doug |
Stryderg | 04 Oct 2016 10:21 a.m. PST |
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Winston Smith | 04 Oct 2016 10:46 a.m. PST |
All the Old Bolsheviks looked like they never bathed. |
Coyotepunc and Hatshepsuut | 04 Oct 2016 11:12 a.m. PST |
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Shagnasty | 04 Oct 2016 11:48 a.m. PST |
Kings, queens and emperors are one thing,dictators are another. |
Martin Rapier | 04 Oct 2016 12:57 p.m. PST |
Stalin had the best hair. And of the proper 'dicatators', some chap called Gaius Julius Caesar was appointed dictator no less than four times, the last in perpetuity. He was a bit of a slaphead though. |
Winston Smith | 04 Oct 2016 1:13 p.m. PST |
Even bald, Caesar was quite a Lady's Man: "Home we bring our bald monger; Romans, lock your wives away!" |
Winston Smith | 04 Oct 2016 1:14 p.m. PST |
The Force of Pedantry is strong on this thread today….. |
Red Jacket | 04 Oct 2016 1:26 p.m. PST |
Józef Klemens Piłsudski – how can you not like the mustache? Plus, he beat back the less good looking Bolsheviks. José de la Cruz Porfirio Díaz Mori – again, how can you pass-up the mustache, plus that Latin sense of style? Álvaro Obregón Salido – Mexican "bad boy" look, great military career, astute politician plus being able to exit gracefully…well, okay he had some help. |
Buck215 | 04 Oct 2016 2:09 p.m. PST |
Muhammar Qaddaffi. Like Robin Williams once said, "he has the handsome face, but his eyes say, 'Helter Skelter! Helter Skelter!'"… |
Sundance | 04 Oct 2016 3:25 p.m. PST |
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pmwalt | 04 Oct 2016 4:10 p.m. PST |
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Winston Smith | 04 Oct 2016 5:01 p.m. PST |
Piłsudski's eyebrows are pretty fierce too. And his Wikipedia article calls him a Dictator too. |
Ragbones | 04 Oct 2016 6:16 p.m. PST |
Handsomest dictator? Why, our very own Dear Editor. |
peterx | 04 Oct 2016 7:41 p.m. PST |
What about the early punk band, The Dictators? They were my favorite dictators. If I have to pick handsome political dictators, both young Tito and young Castro looked OK, if you like Presidents for Life. |
piper909 | 04 Oct 2016 7:43 p.m. PST |
Yeah, Alexander of Macedon was a hereditary monarch, not a dictator per se. he did not "acquire" his position by his own hand (well not exactly, or so we think, maybe…) Otherwise he should be the clear choice. The ancient chroniclers (even those not on his payroll) all agreed he was hot stuff, and his image by -- Lysimmachus, was it? -- was what Jim Morrison of the Doors based his look on. Otherwise, I suppose Napoleon Bonaparte has to come up tops, esp. in his lean and hungry youth, all intense eyes and classical aquiline features. Plus contemporaries often mention how charming and mesmerizing he could be when he wanted. |
vtsaogames | 04 Oct 2016 8:06 p.m. PST |
Mirror mirror, on the wall, who's the handsomest tyrant of them all? |
miniMo | 04 Oct 2016 8:26 p.m. PST |
Hmm, The Dictators band…. Richard "Handsome Dick" Manitoba is the cutest! Also bears a striking resemblance to Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus. Coincidence?
And I believe the only dictator in history with the nick "Handsome Dick" ~,~ |
Robert Burke | 04 Oct 2016 11:13 p.m. PST |
Technically, Cleopatra was an absolute ruler so she qualifies as a dictator, right? Got to give the women equal time. |
Cyrus the Great | 05 Oct 2016 9:18 p.m. PST |
@miniMo, And the heart punch should be banned! |