The Corvette, 70 years: Hollywood stars with the iconic car

2023 marks the 70th anniversary of the Chevrolet Corvette, the longest-running nameplate of any car on the road. The classic car has pushed the boundaries of performance and style and has been an iconic ride of the coolest celebs since the very beginning. Here's a look at the cars and their fans over the years.

The Italian actress Sophia Loren didn’t have to wait long to get her hands on one of the most revolutionary cars of the day. Here she is with her 1954 Chevy Corvette.

Speed demon Betty Skelton broke records for land speed and paved the way for women in aviation, auto racing, astronautics, and advertising. Here she is with a souped-up Chevrolet Corvette on Daytona Beach circa 1956.

Here’s the incredibly popular actor and singer Pat Boone posing in his 1956 or 1957 Chevrolet Corvette sports car in the late 1950s.

When the car was already a classic, English guitarist Jeff Beck had one of these babies as part of his robust car collection. Here he’s seen posing next to one of his many Corvettes, this one from around 1958.

Designed by Larry Shinoda, these gorgeous wheels were never mass-produced, but an XP-755 Mako Shark concept car was used in the 1961 TV show ‘Route 66,’ which centered all around cross American-journeys in Corvettes.

Image: Chevrolet pre-1978 / Wikimedia

1963 was the year that the legendary model, the Sting Ray, dropped. It remains popular to this day, with Jay Leno being one celebrity with a C2 sting ray stashed in his garage to this day.

Photo: Softeis~commonswiki/ Wikimedia

All the members of the legendary band The Beach Boys are seen here posing with a fresh Sting Ray in 1963.

While only ever a model, the Corvette Mako Shark II from 1965 is said to be perhaps the most influential Corvette prototype ever produced.

In a 2020 election campaign video, US President Joe Biden was filmed driving around in his beloved 1967 Corvette Sting Ray. "I love this car, nothing but incredible memories… The thing I like most is you feel like you’re in complete control," he said.

Image: Joe Biden / YouTube

Inspired by the Mako Shark II, the third generation of the Corvette lasted for more than a decade and was seen all over the streets of Hollywood. This was probably the model Prince was singing about in the 1982 track ‘Little Red Corvette.’

The first American to go to space was a ‘Vette fanatic and started a long tradition of astronaut obsession with the car. Here’s his 1968 Stingray, which was on display at the Apollo Saturn V Center museum in Florida.

Image: 350z33 / Wikimedia

Here’s Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry leaning on his prized 1975 Corvette Stingray in Waltham, Massachusetts, 1975.

This was the first complete redesign of the car since 1963 and featured a boxier design than the previous models. It was famously driven by Templeton’ Faceman’ Peck of the ‘A-Team’ series.

Photo: NickWilson1964 / Wikimedia

The legendary American gymnast was able to buy herself a brand new Corvette when she was just 16 years old, after taking home a gold in the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.

Starting in 1985, the ‘Vette even lent its name to the TV series ‘Stingray.’ It starred Nick Mancuso, who played a mysterious character known only as Ray, whose trademark was a black 1965 Corvette Sting Ray.

Another athlete loving his fourth generation Corvette, here’s Olympic-medal winning sprinter Michael Johnson of the United States standing alongside his Chevrolet Corvette C4 Coupe on 10 January 1992 in Waco, Texas.

Sales of the fourth generation began to falter, so the fifth generation coup was the result of another ground-up redesign. Sir Paul McCartney has a souped-up custom C5 convertible in blue.

Photo: IFCAR / Wikimedia

Jay Leno tells his audience in his car review show on YouTube that the C5 is one of the "best performance bargains there is for the money," saying you can pick one up now for between $15,00-$20,000. Here, he’s next to a 1999 C5 Corvette.

Image: 'Jay Leno’s Garage' / YouTube

While the Corvette brand was almost discontinued after the C5, its engineers pushed on to the sixth generation. This next generation was described more as an evolution of the C5 than a complete re-do, with features including better fuel economy.

Photo: M 93 / Wikimedia

By the time the seventh generation came around, GM’s engineers wanted to shake the Corvette’s reputation for being an 'old man’s toy.' To counter that perception, they built the car to be more aspirational to young people. One fan was Paris Hilton, who had a C7 Stingray customized in Barbie Pink.

Photo: Norbert Aepli, Switzerland / Wikimedia

This is the first mid-engine Corvette since the model was introduced in 1953. There are three main models: the Stingray, the Z06, and the E-Ray.

Photo: Alexander Migl / Wikimedia

The KISS guitarist nabbed the first 2022 Chevy C8 Corvette to come off the production line and even helped design the metallic red color. He said it was like “coming full circle” since the first new car he got after KISS was successful was a 1977 Corvette.

Image: Barrett-Jackson / YouTube

The actress Tweeted that she was over the moon when her hubby “surprised/shocked” her with a bright red Z51 Corvette for her birthday.

Photo: @MingNa / Twitter

The notorious car collector says he loves Corvettes and was even the first person outside of GM to drive the 2023 Corvette Z06 for his YouTube program ‘Jay Leno’s Garage.’

Image: 'Jay Leno’s Garage' / YouTube

To celebrate its 70th anniversary, Chevrolet unveiled its first car to use hybrid technology — the 2024 Corvette E-Ray, the fastest Corvette yet. With many celebs concerned with the environment and flashing their wealth, this could become the next ‘it’ car to roam around the streets of Hollywood.

Image: Chevrolet / YouTube