Actor Chris Hemsworth has been named the sexiest man alive for 2014 by People magazine, telling the publication he thought the decision “pretty funny”.
The 31-year-old Australian actor, known for playing an alien who shares the name of a Norse god in the Marvel superhero movies, succeeds last year’s winner singer Adam Levine. Levine, like George Clooney, Mel Gibson, Sean Connery and other winners selected by People over the years, is still alive and considered attractive.
Hemsworth told People he thought the news “bought me a couple of weeks of bragging rights around the house. I can just say to her, ‘Now remember, this is what the people think, so I don’t need to do the dishes anymore, I don’t need to change nappies. I’m above that. I’ve made it now.”
The news was announced on late night show Jimmy Kimmel Live, where Hemsworth told Kimmel that he had to think his parents “for putting this together”. He has appeared in The Avengers, Star Trek and Rush, and will star in director Ron Howard’s adaptation of the story that inspired Moby-Dick next year, In the Heart of the Sea.
Hemsworth is married to 38-year-old Spanish model Elsa Pataky, with whom he has a young daughter and twin sons. His younger brother, Liam, is known from the Hunger Game movies and a much-examined relationship with pop singer Miley Cyrus.
