VIDEO: Bradley Cooper Is 'Sexiest Man Alive'

If you look back to 2001, Bradley Cooper was just a young actor with a minor role on ABC's Alias — very handsome, but largely unknown to most people. Now, thanks to the success of The Hangover and its sequel, not to mention a certain video of the actor speaking fluent French (see below), the blue-eyed Cooper, 36, is 2011's Sexiest Man Alive, according to People.

A graduate of Georgetown who dated actress Renée Zellweger for two years (they split in March), Cooper is humble about his new title, which in the past has gone to the likes of Brad Pitt and Ryan Reynolds. "I think it's really cool that a guy who doesn't look like a model can have this [title]," he said. "I think I'm a decent-looking guy. Sometimes I can look great, and other times I look horrifying."

Cooper, who says he is close with his mom, said he doesn't want to be labeled a player like other sexy men, because that's not who he is. "If you're a single man and you happen to be in this business, you're deemed a player," he said. "But I don't see myself as a ladies' man."

Watch Cooper speaking French here: