Toby Stephens: Actors & SKIN

Although born to two famous parents, Maggie Smith and Sir. Robert Stephens, English actor Toby Stephens didn't rely just on his parents and his good looks.   Stephens honed his acting skills by studying at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art.   Stephens began acting in 1992 in both television and film, along with roles on radio dramas and a long line of theatre roles.

Stephens is also uniquely tied to the James Bond franchise as one of the few actors to play both a primary Bond villain and James Bond himself.   He played the diamond-smuggling, adrenaline-obsessed billionaire Gustav Graves in the 2002 film Die Another Day opposite Pierce Brosnan.  Although he never played the famous spy on screen, Stephens is the official voice of James Bond for the BBC Radio 4 adaptations of Ian Fleming's novels. 

One of my biggest TV crushes remains Nick Nelson from Heartstopper.  Actor Kit Connor is another English ginger, and I love me a ginger.  Stephens reminds me a bit of an older Connor, and should play his father in a future piece.  In many of Stephen's nude scenes we get a hint of ginger with a flash of pubes.  

The true story of a group of Cambridge University Students who are recruited to spy for the Soviet Union in the early 1930s.

It's interesting that both of the nude scenes I'm featuring here did not occur in films, but in dramatic television projects on British network television. In 2003, Stephens starred alongside Tom Hollander and  Rupert Penry-Jones in the four-part British drama Cambridge Spies.  Based on the true story of four Cambridge University students who are recruited in 1934 to spy for the Soviet Union. Cambridge Spies was first broadcast on BBC Two in May 2003.

The Camomile Lawn

The stories of five young cousins, their family and friends as their paths cross and cross again.

Like so many actors, Toby Stephens had his biggest on-screen exposure in his first professional television role. The Camomile Lawn is a television adaptation of the 1984 book of the same name by Mary Wesley.  Set just before and during the Second World War, with an aftermath that takes place in the mid 1980s, the action begins at the Cornish country house of Helena Cuthbertson.  The title is drawn from a camomile lawn between the house and the sea cliffs on which some significant events take place.  If you check out the clip below, at the very end, there's a 'blink or you will miss it' full frontal.

Jonathan Cake: Actors & SKIN

'You know what they say: Love thy hot neighbour.'

Int he quote above, actor Jonathan Cake was discussing his role on And Just Like That, but I certainly wouldn't mind if Cake and actress Julianne Nicholson lived next door.  In addition to enjoying him (hopefully) mowing the lawn shirtless, I'm guessing both would make incredible guests to a neighbourhood potluck.  Oh the stories they could tell...

Camping (2016)

Brace yourself for a holiday to remember. A group of old friends go on a camping holiday in Devon to celebrate a landmark birthday. However, tensions and emotions quickly start to rise.

No Cake didn't have a frontal scene in the 2016 comedy Camping, but he did have several butt baring moments.  The frontal, from the pants Cake's character is pulling down, belong to actor Rufus Jones.  Cake did however, have a frontal in another project, just keep scrolling to see.

Jonathan Cake on Instagram

Mosley (1998)

An account of the colourful life of the infamous British fascist Oswald Mosley, concentrating on the period between the end of WW1 and his imprisonment at the beginning of WW2.

John Benjamin Hickey: Actors & SKIN

I remember when I was doing The Crucible on Broadway with Laura Linney, and Arthur Miller had been in rehearsal with us and was on stage on opening night. She turned to me during the curtain call and said, Lets make sure we remember this.

John Benjamin Hickey

Finding North (1998)

Screwball romance involving a woman who gets fired from her job as a bank teller when her friends arrange for a stripper to appear at the bank for her birthday. She then meets a man (Hickey) whom she had earlier seen jump off a bridge and had assumed had committed suicide. With nothing else to do, she follows him to Texas.

I think the first time I saw actor John Benjamin Hickey on screen was in 1997's Love! Valour! Compassion!  I remember being in school, and renting a VHS copy, not for the story, but for the male nudity.  I wasn't familiar with Hickey at the time, nor his impressive theatre credits, including two different productions of the film I was enjoying.

Although I went on to become a huge admirer of his acting and career, I missed many of his most notable television roles.  I do however remember watching his memorable turn as Neil Gross, the owner and founder of Chumhum on both The Good Wife and The Good Fight.  I remember how sinisterly sexy Hickey was in the role

Sex and the City (1998)

Sine first seeing him on screen, I've gone on to eventually see his turns in The Ice Storm, The Bone Collector, Pitch Perfect, Truth and Salem's Lot.  On television, I've enjoyed Hickey in dozens of roles and still have The Big C on my 'to watch' list.

The Big C (2010-2013)

Hickey's ass has certainly held up well, with butt baring scenes spanning the late 1990's through 2020.  Check out my separate piece featuring his frontal scenes in Love! Valour! Compassion! in the post just BELOW:

John Benjamin Hickey on Instagram

Sublet (2020)

A New York Times travel writer comes to Tel Aviv after suffering a tragedy. The energy of the city and his relationship with a younger man brings him back to life.

John Benjamin Hickey in Love! Valour! Compassion!

Eight Men, On Summer, you figure it out....

Gregory invites 7 friends to his secluded home: Bobby, couple Art and Perry, John, Ramon, AIDS-afflicted James, HIV+ Buzz. They spend the summer navigating relationships, illnesses, and personal dynamics.

I remember that even before renting Love! Valour! Compassion! on VHS, the attention over the nudity.  Mostly it concerned seeing Jason Alexander's ass, who was at the height of his fame during the final seasons of Seinfeld.  Years later, when I got online, it was Randy Becker's nude scenes that seemed to get the lion's share of attention.

Understandable, sort of, at the time, Alexander was the most famous actor in the cast.  Becker was the young hottie in the group, and in the movie.  I fell into the trap of salivating over the young hottie myself.  Re-watching again though, it's John Benjamin Hickey and his character Arthur, who I zoom in on, both actually, and emotionally.

'You're right, I'm butch; I can catch a ball, I genuinely like both my parents, and I hate opera. I don't know why I bother being gay.'

Arthur

Of all the characters, I'm probably most like Arthur, and I too, would follow the young Ramon, (Becker0 down to the wharf to skinny dip with.  I think Hickey's character also showed the most nudity, with several clear frontals including the scenes in the field, and on the wharf, shown here.