Three Romantically Handsome American Actors

Three Romantically handsome American actors who give me chills not solely because of their good looks but also because of their immense talents are Denzel Washington, George Clooney, and Johnny Depp.

Denzel who is the eldest at 53 is a two time Academy Award winner.

George, who is 46, has received an Oscar once. Johnny (44) has been nomimated three times.

In tonight's 2008 Oscars, both Clooney and Depp are nominees, with Clooney for his role in Michael Clayton and Depp as Sweeney Todd.

Like me Clooney and Depp are southerners. Both were born in Kentucky. Also like me, Depp is of partial Native American ancestry. As for age, I am right in the middle between Clooney and Depp.

I see all three gentlemen as Renaissance men who are different and unique in their own way and with qualities that I admire. Clooney is not only an actor, producer, director, and screenwriter, he is also an activist. Depp has chosen to go his own way not only in the roles he chooses to play, but he has decided to not live the typical lifestyle of existing in vapid Hollywood, but resides in France immensed in old world charm with his lover French actress and singer Vanessa Paradis. Washington is also a director now, and unlike his counterparts he is married and has never been divorced, an extreme rarity in Hollywood. His church going grounds him, for he is a devout Christian. His father, Denzel Washington, Sr. was a Pentecostal minister He was born in New York, but his mother came from Georgia, my state.

Looks are not everything, but if I could pick a man with all the accoutrements that I like, I would pick one of these three. It is not about money for me either. It is about hard work, dedication, charisma, and sophistication, and all three have these qualities.

With the state of the African-American male being so pathetic with high incarceration rates, illiteracy, and irresponsibility, Denzel Washington is a rarity in so many ways just like Barack Obama. My mother has said several times that if I had been able to meet Denzel before he married and we had been attracted to each other, he would have been the perfect man for me.

Mexican Romantic: Alejandro Fernandez

Like many singers I love, I just happened upon Alejandro Fernandez by hearing one of his songs I liked on a CD I bought of Grammy Award Winning Latin singers.

Alejandro Fernandez is one of Mexico's most popular singers. He began his career singing mostly ranchera and mariachi music like his father Vicente Fernandez, another singer famous throughout Latin America. Alejandro has the nickname "El Potrillo" which means "the little colt." His father Vicente, is called "El Gran Garanon" meaning "the great stallion."

In the last several years, Alejandro Fernandez has changed his style to Romantic pop ballads, always sung in Spanish. He has partnered with singers like Gloria Estefan, Placido Domingo, Marc Anthony, and more recently with Beyonce.

At 36, Fernandez has been married twice and twice divorced. He has five children. He says of his music and himself, "“Romanticism is something that will never die. I’m super, ultra passionate."
I think of Alejandro Fernandez as a kind of Mexican Elvis, but sans (without) the moves. The following video is one of my favorite songs by him and is from his first acting effort Zapata: El sueno de un heroe; translated into English, "Zapata: The Dream of a Hero."