The sartorial preserve of dads everywhere… until beards suddenly got cool and started appearing on the chins of every self-respecting
pop star, actor and TV presenter. Andrew Ross lists the hirsute pioneers who boast a staggering 44 offspring between them. |
| 1. Noel Edmonds |
Enjoying a renaissance with the addictive Deal or No Deal, father of four Edmonds is both a media and facial hair maverick. Starting out on Radio 1, the owner of media’s most manicured beard went on to front Multicoloured Swap Shop, The Late, Late Breakfast Show, Telly Addicts and Noel’s House Party. The latter attracted 16m viewers in its pomp and gave us Mr Blobby. So important to Edmonds’ career is his beard that he recently admitted that it is insured for £1m by Lloyds of London and has earned him countless upgrades on flights and free meals.
Verdict: Top of the pops |
| 2. Kenny Rogers |
This country music legend is such a standard bearer for hirsute men that there’s even a website dedicated to look-alikes that features a Kenny of the Month and several Beard Tips (www.menwholooklikekennyrogers.com). Rogers’ beard has stuck with him through five decades of hit-making that has seen the silverhaired singer sell over 80 million albums. Rogers attracted a new audience recently after one of his hits was used in cult film The Big Lebowski. The father of five is clearly in goodcondition – he recently fathered twins…at 65.
Verdict: Silver fox |
| 3. Bob Marley |
Bob Marley’s beard and dreadlocks have become as much a part of his legacy as the reggae and reefer. The man whose image graces thousands of student flat walls also fathered a staggering 11 children and adopted a further two before succumbing to cancer in 1981, when he received a state funeral in his native Jamaica. Exodus was voted Album of the Century by Time in 1999 while Legend, a compilation released posthumously, is the best selling reggae album of all time at 12 million and counting.
Verdict: Legend |
| 4. Sir Alan Sugar |
The real life Del Boy who lived up to the Trotters’ mantra, ‘This time next year we’ll be millionaires.’ Sugar started out selling car aerials before founding electronics company Amstrad. He consolidated his position in by buying rights to the ZX Spectrum from fellow bearded entrepreneur Sir Clive Sinclair and made a fortune. Like all good multi-millionaires Sugar dabbled with football club ownership. The father of three sold his shares in Tottenham Hotspur after a decade in charge calling it a ‘waste of my time.’ He is now known for his role as boss from hell on BBC’s The Apprentice.
Verdict: You’re fired! |
| 5. Sir Richard Branson |
Neither dyslexia nor a decidedly manicured ginger beard has stopped the Virgin supremo and father of two from being a hit in the
business world: he’s said to be worth £4bn. As he grows older, the record-breaking balloonist is becoming increasingly philanthropic. He is to donate £1.5bn toward renewable fuel research and has set up a think tank to tackle global conflicts. Current members include the bearded Kofi Annan. He may mean well but Branson was voted no. 86 in a recent list of 100 Worst Britons, yet remains a role model.
Verdict: High flyer |
| 6. Jonny Depp |
Depp’s straggly chin fluff has done little to harm his sex appeal: he’s dated some of the world’s most beautiful women and is currently shacked up with singer Vanessa Paradis. Depp says of fatherhood: “It’s given me real foundation, a real strong place to stand in life, in work, in everything.” Beautiful. Roles in classics such as Donnie Brasco have singled Depp out as the finest actor of his generation. Recently he’s starred in Pirates of the Caribbean and as a beardless Sweeney Todd, garnering Best Actor Oscar nominations for both performances.
Verdict: Black beard |
| 7. ZZ Top |
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees Billy Gibbons, Dusty Hill and, wait for it, Frank Beard, are responsible for perhaps the most
volumous celebrity facial hair of all. Okay, only two of the three actually have beards. The clean-shaven one? Beard, of-course. The
band, which boasts four offspring, enjoyed its most popular spell in the 1980s. So famous are ZZ Top’s beards that in 1984, Gillette is said to have offered Gibbons and Hill $1m each to shave them off. They declined, saying, “We're too ugly without 'em.”
Verdict: Sharp dressed men |
| 8. George Lucas |
Another super-rich bearded billionaire (are the clean-shaven among us missing something here?), George Lucas gave the world American Graffiti, Star Wars, Raiders of the Lost Ark and, erm, Ewoks – The Battle for Endor. The father of three is one of Hollywood’s biggest players and has one of it’s most famed set of whiskers – portly Lucas has opted to define his disappearing jaw line with a finely trimmed beard edge. Coupled with bouffant hair that could make Donald Trump green with envy, it’s a striking
combo. Stick to the sci-fi George.
Verdict: May the force be with you |
| 9. Fidel Castro |
Father of Cuba’s communist movement and no less than seven children, Castro also has one of politics’ most famous beards. What is less well known is that he recently entered his fiftieth year as patron of the Derbyshire Whiskers Club. He was elected after pledging not to shave until his country had a ‘good government’. Castro’s beard isn’t just a fashion statement – he
reckons not shaving saves him ten days a year. Don’t mock – it granted him an extra 490 days over the last half century to antagonise the US.
Verdict: Revolutionary |
| 10. SIr Sean Connery |
Third runner up in the 1950 Mr Universe competition, a smooth-faced Sean Connery went on to be the first and best James Bond. He’s sported a beard in various forms for much of his acting career since, however: a bushy, academic style beard in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade; a goatee in Highlander; trimmed, ship-shape, whiskers in The Hunt for Red October; and last but by no means least a straggly, hippyish beard in Medicine Man. Connery is the best advert for growing a beard that you’re ever likely to find.
Verdict: Never say never again |
