NySocBoy's Beefcake and Buddy-Bonding: Jan-Michael Vincent: His n*de photo was the talk of West Hollywood

Sep 24, 2026

Jan-Michael Vincent: His n*de photo was the talk of West Hollywood

**Link to the n*de photos**

In the 1990s, you rarely saw male actors with their shirts off, and seeing them n*de was a once-in-a-lifetime experience. So when the photo on RG Beefcake and Boyfriends appeared in the gay magazine In Touch, it was a sensation. Everybody bought a copy. Everyone having brunch at the French Quarter was speculating on it. The blurb told us that he was Jan-Michael Vincent in Buster and Billie (1974), but was it a gay movie? Was it adult? Was Jan-Michael Vincent one of us?

Some of us remembered him from Danger Island, a serial on the Banana Splits Saturday morning show (1968-69): An archaeologist, his daughter, and his assistant Link (Jan-Michael)) are shipwrecked on a desert island, where they befriend a stranded gay couple -- nearly overt, with lots of "we've been together for years" and "I won't leave you."

And Big Wednesday (1978), with Jan-Michael, William Katt, and Gary Busey as surfer buddies.

But otherwise we came up blank. In the days before the internet, you couldn't look up an actor's works easily, and Jan-Michael's movie and tv appearances weren't of much gay interest.

The Mechanic (1972): Assassin Charles Bronson takes on his buddy's son (Jan-Michael) as an apprentice.

The World's Greatest Athlete (1973): Coach John Amos goes to Africa and recruits a Tarzan-type (Jan-Michael) to be a track and field star. He falls in love with a girl named Jane.

The n*de vine-swinging scene on RG Beefcake and Boyfriends does not appear in the movie. It must be an out-take.

Bite the Bullet (1975): A newspaper sponsors a 700-mile horse race across the Old West, and a group of misfits, including Gene Hackman, Candace Bergin, and Jan-Michael, compete.

Vigilante Force (1976): Um...Jan-Michael fights Kris Kristofferson while The Girl serves drinks?

More after the break

The Winds of War (1983): A TV miniseries about World War II.

Airwolf (1984-86): Jan-Michael, Ernest Borgnine, and Jean-Bruce Scott (a girl) go on missions in an aging helicopter. It was on Saturday nights opposite The Golden Girls; only kids were watching.

Tarzan in Manhattan (1989). The Lord of the Jungle is played by Joe Lara. Jan-Michael plays the villain, Brightmore, who kidnaps Cheetah for illegal testing.

By the time we started paying attention, in the 1990s, Jan-Michael was pushing 50, still buffed but getting increasingly craggy due to a long string of bar-room brawls, drunk-driving accidents, and domestic abuse charges. He was appearing mostly in low-budget indies and late-night adult videos (but not as the romantic leads).

In Indecent Behavior (1993), the s*x therapist is married to Jan-Michael, but Gary Hudson (n*de on RG Beefcake and Boyfriends) does all the bedroom stuff.

His "Known For" list includes Bufffalo '96 (1998): Vincent Gallo kidnaps a woman to pretend to be his girlfriend during a visit with his parents. Jan-Michael plays "Sonny," but his character is not listed in the plot synopsis.

Jan-Michael retired from acting in 2003. He died in 2019, at the age of 74. There's no evidence that he was gay or bi in real life, but no evidence that he was homophobic, either. And he left us with the most famous n*de photo in West Hollywood.