matinee idol
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Even better, he has used his beauty not to become a matinee idol but to unsettle and surprise us, portraying characters whose handsomeness is very much the point but not the whole story.
From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 5, 2026
He’s a dashing, square-jawed, clean-shaven matinee idol with a luxurious head of long, curly black hair.
From Los Angeles Times • Sep. 10, 2025
In that potboiler, a film he later disavowed as too tame, he was publicized as the first Black matinee idol for mainstream audiences.
From Washington Post • Apr. 25, 2023
In 1945 she eloped with the matinee idol Richard Cromwell, who was 16 years her senior but the relationship failed after less than a year after he revealed he was gay.
From BBC • Oct. 11, 2022
I fought for that long hair but the management said the audience has got to, have some Hackett—why I could not see—but he is a matinee idol and that long with the box office.
From Vanished Arizona by Summerhayes, Martha
