The 14 most iconic kisses from TV & movies

Forget sand in awkward places or the ocean causing your hair to frizz. Before From Here to Eternity's cinematic clinch inspired a million lampoons, it was the ultimate image of passion overpowering all barriers: lonely officer's wife Karen Holmes (Deborah Kerr) embraces enlisted Sergeant Milton Warden (Burt Lancaster), and even the oncoming tide can't cool their ardor.

She's a sheltered pure-bred Cocker Spaniel named Lady. He's a roguish mutt named Tramp, from the wrong side of the tracks. A shared plate of spaghetti leads to an unexpected kiss (lick?) in the animated classic Lady and the Tramp.

She didn't bat an eye when Atlanta burned or she shot a Union soldier, but the feisty Scarlett O'Hara (in Gone With the Wind) more than met her match in Rhett Butler. Every time the swashbuckling Butler took her in his arms, we swooned.

If two people kiss beneath the Bridge of Sighs in Venice at sunset, they will be in love forever. So Lauren (Diane Lane in her film debut) and Thelonious believe in A Little Romance. The 13-year-olds evade parents, police and pickpockets on their trek from Paris to Venice, but, when their lips touch at sunset under the Bridge of Sighs, you'll believe too.

Who doesn't love a man in uniform? When Richard Gere's Zack rescues Debra Winger's Paula from her drab factory-working life, the local girl gets her happy ending—sealed with a kiss—in An Officer and a Gentleman.

Family forgot your birthday? Sister getting married tomorrow? Geekiest geek in school wants to borrow your underwear? If only we all had a Jake Ryan (in Sixteen Candles) to make turning 16 as sweet.

With the help of shoddy psychic Oda Mae Brown, Molly momentarily reunites with her murdered lover Sam. The strength of their love rips asunder the veil between life and death, all to the haunting strains of Unchained Melody.

Talk about letting the tension build! It took Ross and Rachel 31 long episodes before sharing their first real kiss.

After Friends, fans of The Office played Will They or Won't They? for a few seasons before these two co-workers finally kissed. Now married with children (on TV, we mean), Pam and Jim proved that enduring love could be romantic, too.

The star-crossed lovers may have been doomed from the start, but that's what made the feelings between Rose and Jack so intense.

Proving that (movie) love conquers all, Noah (Ryan Gosling) wouldn't let time, parents or even bad weather keep him from Allie (Rachel McAdams) in The Notebook.

Mary Jane may have been kind to shy neighbor Peter Parker, but it was Spider-Man who set her heart aflutter. We encourage non-superheroes to experiment with the upside-down kiss, too.

Robert Pattinson's Edward Cullen may have gone vegetarian, but that didn't stop his hunger for Bella.