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

Olivier, who was playing Archie Rice, was at the peak of his acting career and considered something of a matinee idol.

From BBC • Jan. 17, 2025

Everyone knows that his cultivated image of a wealthy playboy who wined and dined beautiful women like he was some kind of matinee idol is another one of his lies.

From Salon • May 10, 2024

There was a stiffness to Mr. Belafonte’s early, untrained movie performances, and he admitted he was self-conscious in matinee idol roles.

From Washington Post • Apr. 25, 2023

But Raul Julia is rapidly becoming a local matinee idol, drawing fan mail by the bagful and constantly meeting crowds of autograph seekers outside the stage door.

From 100 New Yorkers of the 1970s by Millard, Max