All the experts agree; a positive male role model is key to the successful development of a young man.

Sure, most of us have great fathers, uncles, older brothers, bosses, coaches and teachers to look up to, but if you want to be a real legend, – and don’t we all – you’ll need to find a truly great man to model. And not just any legendary role model will do; you need to find one that matches your own personal style.

The men listed below have lived and lived well. They loomed over the pack as larger than life heroes; they ruled the roost and rose to the top. They authored novels, dominated debates, dazzled with wit and won championships, women, wealth and wars.

Without any further ado, I present to you seven legendary men’s men in seven classic categories.

The Leader

Winston Churchill

“Courage is rightly esteemed the first of human qualities… because it is the quality which guarantees all others.”

What did he do to earn our respect?

Churchill toured with the British Army as a war correspondent through combat zones in Cuba, India, the Middle East and South Africa, where he was captured and then later engineered an escape from a POW camp during the Boer War of 1899. Also, despite criticism of the idea at the time, Winston Churchill was one of the key leaders involved in the development of the armored tank during WW1.

And oh yeah, he single-handedly picked England up by their tea cups and top hats to snatch victory from the nearly clenched jaws of defeat during WWII versus Adolf Hitler and the Nazis. If you can’t respect that stop reading this article.

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The Jock

Gordie Howe

“All hockey players are bilingual. They know English and profanity.”

What did he do to earn our respect?

Gordie’s professional ice hockey career started at age 18 with the Detroit Red Wings in 1946 and lasted until 1979-80, when he played his final, full 80-game season as a 51 year-old Hartford Whaler. A feat not since duplicated in any sport; Howe played 32 pro-seasons spanning 5 decades!

Not only was “Mr. Hockey” one of the most enduring athletes in history, he is also one the most skilled and toughest pro’s hockey players to ever lace up skates. To his honour, any player who scores a goal, an assist and gets into a fight in a single game is considered to have achieved a “Gordie Howe hat trick”. Over his career he won 6 Art Ross Trophies, 6 Hart Trophies and 4 Stanley Cups. To further entrench the idea of legends having legendary role models, Gordie Howe is often cited by Wayne Gretzky as the player he most wanted to be like.

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The Artist

Ernest Hemingway

“Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.”

What did he do to earn our respect?

Ernest Hemmingway is considered one the greatest writers in American history. His literary works defined what it meant to be a man in the 20th century. Hemmingway’s strong, stoic, male protagonists echoed the attitude of the “greatest generation” of American men; men who knew how to soldier on no matter the situation.

His life was dramatic, short and stuffed with ten times more adventure than an ordinary man could even hope to have. Hemingway was a medic in WW1, ran with the bulls in Spain, and battled giant marlins for days at sea . . . or was that the main characters of his novels? The short answer is both. Hemingway epitomized the saying “write what you know” by living through the experiences of his characters.

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The Intellectual

Noam Chomsky

“Any dictator would admire the uniformity and obedience of the U.S. media.”

What did he do to earn our respect?

Far more than just another cunning linguist, Noam Chomsky is widely considered the greatest living scholar on the plant. His lifetime contributions to the fields of linguistics, psychology and political science has earned him the honour of being the most cited academic alive today.

Noam Chomsky deserves to be on the man’s man list, however, not only because of his intellect, but because he has never been shy to voice critical opinions of those in power. His acclaimed thesis Manufacturing Consent expertly outlines how America’s elite use the mass media to subtlety push its agenda and keep the populace in line. His near cult status on university campuses offers hope to us all that future generations will be freer and more critical of those who would try to lead us.

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The Funny Guy

Johnny Carson

“I know a man who gave up smoking, drinking, sex, and rich food. He was healthy right up to the day he killed himself.”

What did he do to earn our respect?

High-oh! Johnny Carson teed up 30 years of late night laughs as the host of NBC’s The Tonight Show from 1962 to 92. As the undisputed, all-time king of late night, his show became the blueprint followed by today’s contemporary late night stand-ups such as Jay Leno, David Letterman and Conan O’Brian.

Carson’s impact on the comedy world cannot be understated. The list of comedians who got their break on the Tonight Show reads like a who’s who successful comics: outside of Letterman & Leno, Jerry Seinfeld, Drew Carey, Roseanne Bar and many others gained their initial national exposure on Carson’s show.

Carson tucked America into bed for 30 years; carefully walking the line between conventional and daring.

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The Business Man

Warren Buffett

“Price is what you pay. Value is what you get.”

What did he do to earn our respect?

Valued at US $62 billion, Warren Buffet is richest person in the world. The CEO of conglomerate holding company Berkshire Hathaway is considered to be the greatest stock market investor of all time. Not one to ride the roller coaster, Warren’s advises investors to buy based on value and not on speculation.

Do you wish you could be as rich as Warren Buffet? Start early. As a 13 year old paperboy Warren filed his first income tax return and claimed $35 for his bicycle as a business expense. Buffet still lives in the relatively modest home he bought near Omaha Nebraska in 1958 for $31 500. Today it is worth $700 000, or 7 years of his annual salary as CEO.

Although he is rich, Buffett is no miser. In 2006 he announced he is donating over 80% of his wealth to charity.

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The Ladies Man

Clark Gable

“Hell, if I’d jumped on all the dames I’m supposed to have jumped on, I’d have had no time to go fishing.”

What did he do to earn our respect?

“The King of Hollywood” Clark Gable was Hollywood’s premiere leading man from the mid 1930s until the early 1960’s. In his stage life he played opposite every Hollywood beauty of time: Vivian Leigh, Joan Crawford, Jean Harlow, Greta Garbo, Ava Gardner, Grace Kelly, Doris Day and Marilyn Monroe among others.

Not just an on-screen pretty boy, Clark was a fighter pilot in WWII and flew in five combat missions. Gable was also married five (5!) times and fathered his first child as the result of illicit affair with actress Loretta Young. A true man’s man of the times, Gable was a heavy whiskey drinker and smoked three packs of unfiltered cigarettes a day. Gable’s lifestyle, while undoubtedly manly, eventually led to his death after a fourth and final heart attack at age 59 in 1960.

Photos by: dbking, and Wikipedia Commons