The “Sexiest Man” Resentment

Harmon was named People’s Sexiest Man Alive in 1986. The “long rumor” is that this title haunted him for decades. He felt it made him a “joke” in the eyes of serious directors

​To “kill” the image, he took the role of serial killer Ted Bundy in The Deliberate Stranger immediately after receiving the title. Even in 2026, Harmon reportedly has a strict ban on the “Sexiest Man” magazine being brought onto any set he is working on. He views his career as a “laborer’s job” and has spent 40 years trying to prove that he is a “character actor in a leading man’s body.”