History Main / HandsomeHeroicCaveman

* ''WesternAnimation/MightyMightor'': The eponymous character was a prehistoric superhero with an idealized [[{{ComicBook/Shazam}} Captain Marvel]]-ish physique. He is the OlderAlterEgo for teenage caveman Tor (no relation to the comic book character Tor), who, along with his his girlfriend Sheera, also fit this trope.

* ''Anime/GenshiShonenRyu'' ("Ryu the Caveman") tells the story of a young adult that struggles to survive in a world ruled by dinosaurs (as you may expect, the series' BigBad is a one-eyed ''Tyrannosaurus rex'') and hostile rulers.

* Film/{{Maciste}} appears as one of these in ''MacisteAgainstTheMonsters, a musclebound caveman with an immaculate blond pompadour and a perfectly smooth face. As in ''Yor'' (which this movie eerily resembles), the evil cavemen of the Moon Tribe are a lot hairier and uglier, though not quite reaching FrazettaMan territory.

* Film/{{Maciste}} appears as one of these in ''Maciste contro i mostri'' ([[MarketBasedTitle best-known in the English-speaking world]] as ''Fire Monsters Against [[DolledUpInstallment the Son of Hercules]]''), a musclebound caveman with an immaculate blond pompadour and a perfectly smooth face. As in ''Yor'' (which this movie eerily resembles), the evil cavemen are a lot hairier and uglier, though not quite reaching FrazettaMan territory.

* ''ComicBook/{{Rahan}}'': A French take on this trope. With his tribe killed by an exploding volcano, Rahan was left to wander the prehistoric Earth. Even though he also fought dinosaurs and Neanderthals, his approach was often more intelligent than violent: he tried persuading other cavemen to cooperate and help each other, and also made a lot of useful inventions. Appearance-wise, he had long blonde hair and a chiseled body.

* Guy from ''WesternAnimation/TheCroods'' looks like a modern teenage boy in a caveman outfit, in contrast to the titular family who are cartoonish cavemen. Justified in that he's supposed to be a more "evolved" human than the Croods.
* Creator/RalphBakshi's animated HeroicFantasy movie ''WesternAnimation/FireAndIce''. The hero is Larn, a blond Music/GeorgeMichael-looking WalkingShirtlessScene, and his love interest, Teegra, is a textbook NubileSavage. The other good guys are mostly clean-shaved (Teegra's father has a neatly-trimmed beard) and [[BeautyEqualsGoodness universally good-looking]], while the villain's {{mooks}}, referred to as "subhumans", are a horde of ugly FrazettaMan types (literally, as Creator/FrankFrazetta himself was the main designer of the movie). Downplayed in the case of Larn's mysterious ally Darkwolf, a hulking, swarthy-skinned man whose face (or what little of it we can see under his [[MaskPower wolf-skin cowl]]) has much heavier features than most of the other "human" characters. Everyone in the movie - from the ugliest subhumans to the sexy heroine - is nearly naked, 100% of the time.

-->He was as strong as the leopard whose pelt he wore for single garment, and his smooth young skin showed tanned and healthy with good outdoor living. His lion-tawny hair had been cut [[BarbarianLonghair shoulder length]] and was bound back from his shrewd face with a snakeskin fillet. His chin, plucked clean of beard as custom decreed with bachelors, [[LanternJawOfJustice jutted squarely]]. His mouth was wide and good-humored beneath a straight nose, and his gray eyes opened widely, clearly.

* Creator/ManlyWadeWellman wrote a series of adventure tales, mainly for ''Magazine/AmazingStories'', about a brave young Cro-Magnon named Hok the Mighty. He's a bit of an AntiHero, as there's a fair bit of DeliberateValuesDissonance going on, although his handsomeness is beyond question.
-->He was as strong as the leopard whose pelt he wore for single garment, and his smooth young skin showed tanned and healthy with good outdoor living. His lion-tawny hair had been cut shoulder length and was bound back from his shrewd face with a snakeskin fillet. His chin, plucked clean of beard as custom decreed with bachelors, [[LanternJawOfJustice jutted squarely]]. His mouth was wide and good-humored beneath a straight nose, and his gray eyes opened widely, clearly.

* Takkar from ''VideoGame/FarCryPrimal'' is a handsome tall AmbiguouslyBrown caveman with BarbarianLonghair, ManlyFacialHair, and the BadassBaritone voice of Creator/EliasToufexis. You can only see what he looks like in the character portrait, since this game is a FirstPersonShooter, but Takkar is clearly heroic, fighting to defend his people the Wenja from the [[CannibalTribe Udam]] and [[KillItWithFire Izila]] tribes.

The Handsome Heroic Caveman usually lives in OneMillionBC or a LostWorld, and fights with enemy cavemen (who are always depicted as ugly and shaggy, or even as {{Frazetta M|an}}en), [[KingKongCopy giant apes]] and [[ArtisticLicensePaleontology dinosaurs]]. A lot of times, the Handsome Heroic Caveman's love interest also gets the same treatment, as well. Having examples of this trope look identical to a modern human alongside the aforementioned FrazettaMan is sometimes a case of AccidentallyCorrectWriting, as anatomically modern humans have existed for at least 300,000 years and co-existed alongside more archaic forms of human relation.

* Tumak, the hero of ''Film/OneMillionBC'', is clean-shaven, doesn't have much body hair, and is generally [[{{bishounen}} kind of pretty]].

How realistic this trope is can be extremely variable. In real life, hunter-gatherer societies have often had much better personal hygiene than agrarians, so it's not entirely improbable that a caveman might be similiarly well-groomed. Hunter-gatherer societies have often been [[NationalGeographicNudity more relaxed about nudity]], as well. And there are also plenty of modern ethnic groups that naturally have very little in the way of facial or body hair, so it may be entirely reasonable for a caveman character to have a smooth chest and chin, depending on his ancestry.

The Handsome Heroic Caveman usually lives in OneMillionBC or a LostWorld, and fights with enemy cavemen (who are always depicted as ugly and shaggy, or even as {{Frazetta M|an}}en), giant apes and [[ArtisticLicensePaleontology dinosaurs]]. A lot of times, the Handsome Heroic Caveman's love interest also gets the same treatment, as well. Having examples of this trope look identical to a modern human alongside the aforementioned FrazettaMan is sometimes a case of AccidentallyCorrectWriting, as anatomically modern humans have existed for at least 300,000 years and co-existed alongside more archaic forms of human relation.

** In the 1966 remake, the much better-remembered ''Film/OneMillionYearsBC'', Tumak is still implausibly well-groomed, but he now has ManlyFacialHair and a fair amount of chest hair - both of which were quite fashionably in the '60s. Tumak's love interest, Loana, is also ''easily'' the most iconic NubileSavage in fiction, being essentially just a '60s bombshell in a FurBikini.

* ''Jungle Girl'', created by Frank Cho and Doug Murray, is this trope in all but name. She's a statuesque blonde woman who lives on a mysterious jungle island inhabited by dinosaurs, other prehistoric beasts, and cavemen. So it's a Prehistoric setting that doesn't acknowledge that it's Prehistoric.

* Tumak, the hero of ''Film/OneMillionBC'', is clean-shaven, doesn't have much body hair, and is generally [[{{bishounen}} kind of pretty]].
** In the 1966 remake, the much better-remembered ''Film/OneMillionYearsBC'', Tumak is still implausibly well-groomed, but he now has ManlyFacialHair and a fair amount of chest hair - both of which were quite fashionably in the '60s. Tumak's love interest, Loana, is also ''easily'' the most iconic NubileSavage in fiction, being essentially just a '60s bombshell in a FurBikini.

* ''Genshi Shonen Ryu'' ("Ryu the Caveman") tells the story of a young adult that struggles to survive in a world ruled by dinosaurs (as you may expect, the series' BigBad is a one-eyed ''Tyrannosaurus rex'') and hostile rulers.

* ''Tor'', created by Joe Kubert and Norman Mauer, is probably one of the first examples of this trope. He was a [[Franchise/ConanTheBarbarian Conan-esque]] caveman who fought apes and dinosaurs.
* ''Anthro'':
** The title character is a young caveman who looks very much like Tor and fights all kinds of real and fictional prehistoric beasts. He is described as "The First Boy", since he is supposedly the first Cro-Magnon human. His BettyAndVeronica girlfriends, Embra and Nima, who sometimes join Anthro on his adventures, are also Cro-Magnon (supposedly, they were born after Anthro) and follow this trope as well.
** ''Kong the Untamed'' is a direct descendant of Anthro. He is quite similar to his ancestor, both in adventures and looks, only he has blonde hair.
* ''ComicBook/{{Rahan}}'': A French take on this trope. With his tribe killed by an exploding volcano, Rahan was left to wander the prehistoric Earth. Even though he also fought dinosaurs and Neanderthals, his approach was often more intelligent than violent: he tried persuading other cavemen to cooperate and help each other, and also made a lot of useful inventions. Appearance-wise, he had long blonde hair and a chiseled body.
* ''ComicBook/TraggAndTheSkyGods'': The comic's two main characters, Tragg and Lorn, were the first modern humans on Earth, and looked drastically different from other cavemen. In a peculiar twist, it had a [[JustifiedTrope solid in-universe explanation]]: they were actually a result of AncientAstronauts tampering with caveman DNA. Tragg and Lorn fought a militaristic branch of the same AncientAstronauts who wanted to conquer Earth.

* Creator/MarvelComics' ''Ka Zar'', while being a TarzanBoy type of character, bears a slight resemblance to this trope, owing to the Prehistoric feel of the LostWorld called Savage Land where he lives.

[[folder:Films -- Animation]]

[[folder:Films -- Live Action]]

* The title character of ''Film/{{Eegah}}'' becomes this once they [[SheCleansUpNicely shave off his beard]], though he's ill-suited to the modern world and ends up [[NonMaliciousMonster causing a lot of trouble, even if he doesn't mean to.]]
* D'Leh from ''Film/TenThousandBC'' is a handsome young caveman from the Yagahl tribe with a neat beard and [[DreadlockWarrior dreadlocks]], played by Creator/StevenStrait, who embarks on a quest to save his people who were taken captive by foreign raiders. His name is even an anagram of the German word "Held", for "Hero". His mentor Tik-Tik is an older version, played by Creator/CliffCurtis.

* Film/{{Maciste}} appears as one of these in ''Maciste contro i mostri'' ([[MarketBasedTitle best-known in the English-speaking world]] as ''Fire Monsters Against [[DolledUpInstallment the Son of Hercules]]''), a musclebound caveman with an immaculate blond pompadour and a perfectly smooth face. As in ''Yor'' (which this movie eerily resembles), the evil cavemen are a lot hairier and uglier, though not quite reaching FrazettaMan territory.

* ''Series/TheLostWorld2001'' features a Handsome HeroAntagonist Caveman, Achille. The son of the Plateau tribe's chief, Achille is mistrustful of the {{bold explorer}}s - except for [[GreatWhiteHunter Lord Roxton]], whose hunting skills and non-interventionist attitude he appreciates - but he's clearly a decent guy, quite handsome, and not entirely in the wrong. His tribe are generally pretty devoid of facial hair and body hair.

* ''ComicBook/TraggAndTheSkyGods'': The comic's two main characters, Tragg and Lorn, were the first modern humans on Earth, and looked drastically different from other cavemen. In a peculiar twist, it had a [[JustifiedTrope solid in-universe explanation]]: they were actually a result of AncientAliens tampering with caveman DNA. Tragg and Lorn fought a militaristic branch of the same AncientAliens who wanted to conquer Earth.

* Theater/{{Firebringer}} has a SuperiorSpecies show up at the end of the musical, an InhumanlyBeautifulRace of highly advanced humans known as ''Neanderthals''.

* ''Theater/{{Firebringer}}'' has a SuperiorSpecies show up at the end of the musical, an InhumanlyBeautifulRace of highly advanced humans known as ''Neanderthals''.

* ''{{Theater/Firebringer}}'' has a SuperiorSpecies show up at the end of the musical, an InhumanlyBeautifulRace of highly advanced humans known as ''Neanderthals''.

The Handsome Heroic Caveman usually lives in OneMillionBC or a LostWorld, and fights with enemy cavemen (who are always depicted as ugly and shaggy, or even as {{Frazetta M|an}}en), giant apes and [[ArtisticLicensePaleontology dinosaurs]]. A lot of times, the Handsome Heroic Caveman's love interest also gets the same treatment, as well.

* Koda on ''Series/PowerRangersDinoCharge''. His hairiness is confined solely to his long, messy head hair; otherwise he's muscular, hairless, tall, and handsome, reflecting his brave and selfless character, above that of his contemporaries (as with all Power Rangers).

* The ''VideoGame/JoeAndMac'' series is about two cavemen who goes to rescue some [[NubileSavage beauty cavegirls]] from other cavemen tribes. Both characters got their faces shaven, have muscles, wear loincloths and have [[YouGottaHaveBlueHair blue (Joe) and green (Mac) hair]] compared to the Cro-Magnon enemies they have to fight, which seems to be the standard of their world.