Top Ten ’90s Heartthrobs: From Leonardo DiCaprio to Jonathan Taylor Thomas Inline
Photo: Alamy1/10Leonardo DiCaprio
We fell in love with pre-dadbod Leo over and over again in the nineties. Maybe the obsession began when he was just a wiry, chain-smoking teen in The Basketball Diaries, or as the hubristic gunslinger in The Quick and the Dead. But by the mid-nineties, Leo sealed his fate as the decade’s leading heartthrob with the one-two punch of Romeo + Juliet and Titanic. And we’ll never, ever let go.
Photo: Alamy2/10Ethan Hawke
For the girl who’s into anti-establishment rants, unwashed hair, and contemplative toothpick chewing, it doesn't get better than nineties-era Ethan Hawke.
Photo: Getty Images3/10Usher
Usher’s second album, My Way, was released in September 1997, bringing us such middle school dance classics as “You Make Me Wanna . . .” and “Nice & Slow.” The album went platinum six times over in the United States. But forget all that: Usher introduced us to the appeal of skullcaps, billowing button-downs (always undone), and, of course, his abs. He also starred in She’s All That as the school’s resident DJ and on the UPN television series Moesha. (Remember Moesha?)
Photo: Alamy4/10Devon Sawa
Chances are after seeing Casper and Now and Then, you had just about enough of Christina Ricci stealing all those Sawa smooches.
Photo: Getty Images5/10Jonathan Taylor Thomas
You literally cannot get anymore peak nineties than JTT: He was the voice of Simba in The Lion King, starred in Wild America with fellow teen heartthrob Devon Sawa, and was on Home Improvement. (Home Improvement, anyone?)
Photo: Everett Collection6/10Joshua Jackson
It was love at first triple deke. Joshua Jackson spent most of the nineties quacking into our hearts as Charlie Conway in The Mighty Ducks. Once that was over, he went on to play the brooding heartthrob Pacey Witter on Dawson's Creek, securing his hunk status well into the aughts.
Photo: Everett Collection7/10Luke Perry
The teen idol to end all teen idols, Luke Perry played Dylan McKay on Beverly Hills, 90210 for the entirety of the decade and also starred in the film version of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. You know you've made it when Cher Horowitz is saving herself for you.
Photo: Getty Images8/10Jared Leto
The only constant with Jared Leto is his ever-changing hairstyles. In the nineties, we saw him sporting a bright white do in Fight Club and an unkempt bowl-cut in Girl, Interrupted. But, to us, he’ll never outdo the perfectly shaggy hairstyle of _My So-Called Life’_s Jordan Catalano. Man, could he wear a choker necklace.
Photo: Everett Collection9/10Will Smith
Who can’t recite the entire opening of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air? After Smith made a name for himself as the wisecracking Bel Air transplant, he went on to star in some of the biggest blockbusters of the decade, including Bad Boys, Independence Day, and Men in Black. As the Fresh Prince would often say, “Jean-Claude Van Damme, I’m fine!”
Photo: Everett Collection10/10Ryan Phillippe
It might seem that one couldn’t get more nineties than starring in the campy horror film I Know What You Did Last Summer alongside Sarah Michelle Gellar, Freddie Prinze, Jr. (a hunk for another list), and Jennifer Love Hewitt. But then, Ryan Phillippe outdoes himself with Cruel Intentions. The 1999 film had it all: That famous smooch between Gellar and Selma Blair, a coke necklace, a moody ballad by the Counting Crows, and, of course, a young Reese Witherspoon. Ryan and Reese forever!
