Idris Elba named ‘sexiest man alive’

ACTOR Idris Elba, who James Bond fans are campaigning to be the next to play 007, was named the sexiest man alive on Monday by People magazine.

The London-born actor, 46, said he didn’t believe it when the magazine told him.

“I was like, ‘Come on, no way. Really’?” Elba told the celebrity publication. “Looked in the mirror, I checked myself out. I was like, ‘Yeah, you are kind of sexy today’. But to be honest, it was just a nice feeling. It was a nice surprise.”

One of Britain’s best-known stars, Elba won a Golden Globe for his lead role in BBC TV detective series Luther; he played a Norse god in Thor, and

appeared in the US TV series The Wire.

Other actors and singers given the title by the magazine’s editors in recent years include Blake Shelton, Chris Hemsworth, Adam Levine, George Clooney, and Channing Tatum.

Only two other black men – African-American star Denzel Washington in 1996 and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson (pictured) – whose mother is Samoan and whose father is a black Canadian, in 2016 – have won the title since 1985.

Fans have been campaigning for Elba, the son of African immigrants to Britain, to take over from Daniel Craig as secret agent James Bond in the lucrative movie franchise after the next Bond film, due for release in 2020. Elba in August stoked the rumours that he was set to become the first black actor to play Bond when he posted on Twitter using one of the character’s best-known lines – “My name’s Elba, Idris Elba”.

Days later he flatly denied it was going to happen though.