Bill Pullman One of Playgirl’s Sexiest Men of 1996

Tired of dangerous bad boys and sweet-talking Romeos? Had enough of big-screen heroes who, while sporting immaculate pecs and admirable abs, seem to have all the substance of celluloid? Longing for an old-fashioned, all-American leading man a’la Jimmy Stewart or Gregory Peck? Look no further than Bill Pullman, who---after winning Sandra Bullock’s heart in While You Were Sleeping---saved the world from alien tyranny as the president of the United States in Independence Day.

After an early career playing sweet saps who almost got the girl (who can forget his turn as an endearingly irritating yuppie smitten with Meg Ryan in Sleepless in Seattle?), fortysomething Pullman is making an impact on our collective hearts playing solid citizens with a touch of dash. "The whole thing about nice guys (finishing last) is a modern phenomenon," he has said. "It’s the climate of the stories right now. But I’ll tell you, there’s a certain audience that wants to see nice guys win. It takes a certain kind of story, a certain kind of director, a certain kind of truth." And a certain kind of star---like Bill!

This self-effacing, "Aw, shucks" attitude is not a pose. Bill keeps a low profile by Hollywood standards, preferring to spend his time not on the publicity/party circuit, but at home with his wife and three children. When asked about his not inconsiderable sex appeal, the boyish actor gets flustered and replies with an anecdote.

"When I was in Japan to promote While You Were Sleeping," he recalls, "I went to this screening where they had a thousand Japanese women who had won tickets in a radio contest. I felt like I was Elvis. They were screaming---the classic thing that you see on documentaries of the Beatles. And I’m standing there and my body feels so strange and I am so embarrassed. A girl asks a question and the translator talks to her, then turns to me and says, ‘She thinks you’re a very sexy man.’ It’s not even a question! And everyone just starts roaring with laughter." No matter how reluctant a sex symbol he may be, Bill Pullman is the star we’d most like to take home---to bed!