I never EVER got him. I read his biography (No One in Here Gets Out Alive). Mostly, yes, I think he took himself seriously and was trying to live up to what he 'thought' he should be acting like. (I also used to practically 'inhabit' 16 Magazine, and they wrote about how Sensitive and Serious he was, and how wonderful it would be to be his Girlfriend. Not likely, I guess.

But in his younger days, before he got bloated, he certainly was 'edibly gorgeous', just as you say.