Gay Hollywood Actors of Old

I've heard rumors about Liberace.

Van Johnson, Golden Age Hollywood Queen.

Billy Haines. Who, when told "play along or don't play", told the studio to shove it and became the most sought after interior decorated in Hollywood/Beverly Hills. He and his partner, Jimmie Shields, were together until Haines death from cancer at 73. Soon afterward Shields committed suicide.

Joan Crawford, a friend, called them "the happiest married couple in Hollywood".

After telling Hollywood to go pound salt Mr. Haines went on to become one of the most acclaimed interior decorators of the 20th Century

Furthermore:

Billy Haines furniture, books, etc... are all highly collectable.

Found this website when looking for information regarding the late Clifton Webb. Do not know how accurate some of their claims are but the list of "old Hollywood" is extensive.

after reading Scott Eyman's book on LB Mayer, I wasn't surprised about Van Johnson and Keenan Wynn

Can't find any info on whether these actors were gay/bi but I've heard rumors about the following: -Orson Welles (rumored to be bi) -John Barrymore (rumored to be bi) -Al Jolson -David Wayne (rumored to be in a lavender marriage with his longtime wife) -Rod La Rocque -Erik Rhodes -Jack Benny (!) -Eddie Quillan -Edmund Lowe -Harpo Marx (rumored to have had more than a close friendship with columnist Alexander Wollcott) -

Keenan Wynn???? Really? I never once would have guessed he was gay. I never got any "ping" from him. I would believe you if you said his father, Ed Wynn, was gay.

John Barrymore?

Now there's a man who genuinely would do anything while drunk, and wouldn't have a clue in the morning!

R9, Ed Wynn set tongues wagging when, in 1946, he commented about his son Keenan, daughter-in-law Evie, and their bestie Van, "I can't keep them straight. Evie loves Keenan. Keenan loves Evie. Van loves Evie. Evie loves Van. Van loves Keenan. Keenan loves Van."

The following year, Keenan and Evie divorced, and the very next day, she married Van.

R8 Erik Rhodes was a gay porn star, so I think that one is not in question.

I knew an old actor who did a USO tour with Raymond Burr - traveled together with the troupe. He woke up one night with Burr sucking his cock. Burr hissed, "Don't say a word, don't say a word," and resumed sucking.

R13 Well, I never!

Gee and here I thought Raymond Burr never got married because of his weight.

Columnist James Bacon said it was an open secret in 1950s Hollywood that Raymond Burr was gay. Bacon said that because Burr wasn't a traditional leading man and that Burr worked in television rather than the movies, no one called out Burr for his sexuality.

That's not Raymond Burr -- it's Delta Burke.

Tyrone Power - technically bi, but he preferred men

Robert Taylor - He ran in gay circiles as a young man, then married Barbara Stanwyck at the studio's demand. After divorcing Babs, he married a foreign actress and had a family. Babs lived with her female secretary for the last 25 years of her life

Some obvious character actors: Franklin Pangborn, Edward Everett Horton, Eric Blore

Some not-so-obvious character actors: Andy Devine, Edgar Buchanan, George Tobias, Richard Deacon

I can believe that Orson Welles was gay because he was married to Rita Hayworth And let her go! That would be the equivalent of a gay man being married to Matt Bomer and letting him go.

Cary Grant and Randolph Scott.

If we can expand this out to include international film stars one sad example would be Dirk Bogarde.

By some accounts DB never became a big name in Hollywood because of his refusal to enter a "Lavender marriage" and of course the morality clauses common in studio contracts of the day. DB would never leave Anthony Forwood "alone" in England much less shack up with some starlet to make good PR, so that was probably that.

Regarding Raymond Burr can remember hearing about him being gay when one was a child, so it couldn't have been *that* much of a huge secret.

Am surprise no one has mentioned Richard Chamberlain yet.

Kerwin Mathews and Tom Tryon were two gorgeous hunks who never set my gaydar on fire while watching their movies (I especially loved Kerwin in all those Ray Harryhausen adventure movies as a kid).

And I've read recently that Richard Haydn was actually gay. The man pinged to high heaven on screen but I've always thought that was just that typical British flamboyant act (similar to George Sanders' one).

I've also heard that Walter Pidgeon was gay but I don't think there are any reliable sources about that claim.

For most people who were around in the 1950s, the most surprising of all the leading men who turned out to be gay was Rock Hudson. Hudson, one of the top box-office stars from '57-'64, epitomized the masculine ideal of the time -- tall, strapping, handsome, and virile. Back in the '70s, a family friend in the LAPD told my parents they had files on Rock and his gay activities, my parents were both shocked and amused. From that day forward, they would gossip with everyone they knew about Rock being gay. Sad really.

Cesar Romero, David Manners, Nils Asther, Rock Hudson, George Nader, Ross Alexander, Ramon Novarro, George Chakiris, Tab Hunter, Steven Boyd, Montgomery Clift, Edmund Lowe, Anthony Perkins, Charles Laughton

I hear Tab Hunter is gay.

Raymond Navarro. Another sad case of what the Roman Catholic religion and conflicts about being homosexual can do to a man.

Ramon. ^

Quite correct, sorry.

Oh, also "Novarro," IDunno.

Abner Kravitz was gay?

Slappy White

Some of these names are new to me so have been "Googling" to put faces to names.

Kerwin Mathews was totally a hottie! Those eyes!

Happily the guy seems to have had a long, full and happy life.

The jury is still out on George Tobias. It's just speculation, as far as I've heard, because he never married and opened his home to fellow servicemen.

George Tobias:

Seems no one has a mean thing to say about the man and that includes opening his home to US servicemen. Apparently common opinion was the man acted not so much out of vice but that he couldn't do enough for his country.

In an interview when asked about the number of gay men on Bewitched, Dick Sargent commented he didn't "know* anything about which side of the fence his co-star sat, but repeated the information about large numbers of WWII servicemen who stayed at Mr. Tobias's home.

I started a thread on Kerwin Mathews a month or two ago. He's kind of forgotten, but was a major hottie in his time.

Thanks for link, r6. Interesting stuff and some great pictures and videos.

The 2 leads of ROPE, of course. Farley Granger and John Dahl.

Raymond Burr famously brought one of his tricks to the premiere of A Star is Born.

[quote]From that day forward, they would gossip with everyone they knew about Rock being gay. Sad really.

I can understand why people of that generation would get such a kick out of learning that Rock Hudson was gay. They had been subjected to twenty-plus years of beefcake images and "What a man!"-style advertising and PR promoting Rock as the masculine ideal. It is no wonder they laughed at the discrepancy.

Surprised it's not here yet, but babara stanwick amd Agnes Moorhead were a couple, and John Wayne and charro newton were friends with benefits

[quote]Raymond Burr famously brought one of his tricks to the premiere of A Star is Born.

Let's make this easier Raymond Burr and his military "boy" Frank appear at the 6:48 mark.

Escort to the stars - in the original sense of the word - Cesar Romero.

I posted this in another thread r42 but that's actually how they introduced him at the arrivals of the 1980 Academy Awards : "Hollywood's favorite escort." I nearly did a spit take. Were people really that more naive back then?

I think it's still on YouTube.

Gene Raymond. Was married to Jeanette MacDonald forever, but was arrested more than once for homosexual flings in the 30's.

Didn't Stewart Granger and Michael Wilding sue Hedda Hopper when she implied that they were lovers?

Raymond Burr and Tyrone Power were not only gay (or in Power's case, bi) but into the brown paraphilia that dare not speak its name.

[quote]Keenan Wynn???? Really? I never once would have guessed he was gay. I never got any "ping" from him. I would believe you if you said his father, Ed Wynn, was gay.

Well, they never fucked me.

Grady Sutton. comedic character actor known for playing slow-witted, drawling Southerners. Started off in one-reelers, especially The Boyfriends series of shorts but went on to feature in many full-length movies. One of those actors who many don't know by name, but if they saw his photo, would recognize him.

Ramon Novarro was actually best friends with rock guitarist Dave Navarro's grandfather. Which is where Ramon got his new last name.

The story goes, they either came to the US together from Mexico or they became friends when Ramon came to the US. Ramon came from a prominent Mexican family of doctors. (Dave claims to be of Spanish not Mexican descent on his dad's side, which would suggest Ramon met Mr. Navarro in California.)

Ramon's real name was José Ramón Gil Samaniego. He took Dave's grandfather's last name because it had a nice sound to it and was easier to remember than his real last name. I got this info directly from Dave Navarro who I have known for over 20 years.

Other info at Wiki states the Novarro last name was suggested by his "friends, actor and director Rex Ingram and his wife, the actress Alice Terry, began to promote him as a rival to Rudolph Valentino, and Ingram suggested he change his name to "Novarro." " This info is wrong, as is a lot of info posted at Wiki.

How the spelling of Novarro came about, a Hollywood secretary misspelled 'Navarro' as 'Novarro' on some paperwork, then the 'Novarro' spelling stuck.

Will Geer (Grandpa Walton) was blacklisted, very political and involved with gay rights activist Harry Hay.

[There is nothing more tedious than a race baiting troll. Except the people that talk to it.]

Loved Grady Sutton.

Grady Sutton was a very solid character actor. Looking at his filmography, I was surprised at the large number of films he was in.

Remember the show the Canadian troops put on for the Dutch villagers in For A Lost Soldier?

They were fun.

[quote] Bacon said that because Burr wasn't a traditional leading man and that Burr worked in television rather than the movies, no one called out Burr for his sexuality.

Excuse me? Burr had a career in film before and during his TV days.

r48/r52/r53 IIRC, Sutton was in a crowd scene at the big ball near the end of "My Fair Lady." Always liked him. Sweet, unassuming, enjoyed him in many movies. Reminiscient of a young Dom Deluise.

Grady Sutton was a regular on Phyllis Diller's short-lived "Pruitts of Southampton" sitcom.

Great book to learn about the secret sex lives of Hollywood stars back in the day.

'Full Service', by Scotty Bowers

R58, I enjoyed Bowers' book but there are those on DL that question his credibility. Interesting what Scotty writes about the Royal who abdicated the throne and his American wife.

[There is nothing more tedious than a race baiting troll. Except the people that talk to it.]

Was Bob Cummings really gay?

He had a long-time marriage that produced a horde of children so I always doubted he was gay though he did sort of ping playing that sexy playboy cheesecake photographer on Love That Bob.

R60 yeah I've heard that too - on places other then here lol.

I think the last time I ever saw him on anything was on Politically Incorrect. He was a good guest. Would love to hear more stories about him - other then the vintage DL threads on his ass!

Jeffrey Hunter was hot as hell.

Bob Cummings always pinged to high heavens in the same way that Tony Randall did. But never any gay stories with any "teeth" to them or any credibility. I think Cummings was sexy as hell earlier in his career. Hitchcock's Saboteur was his finest hour, I think, other than Kings Row. I am mesmerized by his ass in Saboteur. It is plump and full and he wears a bomber's jacket for much of the film, showing off that ample rear. But he had a bunch of kids and stayed married for a long time so if he was gay or bi, he was very effectively closeted. I DO know that Cummings was a drug addict (methamphetamines) later in his career and it really made a mess of his life. He started taking those "vitamin" injections from some notorious Hollywood doctor (the same one who gave the shots to JFK and Jackie, I think) who serviced much of Hollywood. He became addicted and it wrecked his career.

Stephen Boyd

[all posts by tedious, racist idiot removed.]

But Stephen Boyd was married twice! Sure, for less than a year each time. But, twice!

The magazine was called "Confidential" it was sued several times by various celebrities.

[There is nothing more tedious than a race baiting troll. Except the people that talk to it.]

More rumored gay/bi actors of old Hollywood: -George O'Brien -Harry Belafonte -Burt Lancaster* -Errol Flynn* -Fred Astaire (rumored to have been the longtime bf of choreographer Hermes Pan) -Gene Kelly* (rumored bf was Stanley Donen, professional and personal relationship dissolved after Kelly married Donen's ex wife) -Buddy Rogers -Peter Lawford* -David Niven* -James Cagney (rumored to have had several gay flings in his pre stardom days) -Sammy Davis Jr.* -Gary Cooper*

(* - rumored to be bi)

Tony Curtis allegedly had an affair with Burt Lancaster.

Yet no one has mentioned Marjorie Main. Or are we restricting this conversation to "gay males" only?

We've left out the obvious such as Roddy McDowall, Paul Lynde (he did do the film version of Bye, Bye Birdie), Dick Sargent (he did do other work besides Bewitched).

Then there is Jane Russell's "Ain't there anyone here for love?" number from Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. According to gay gossip a majority if not all the "hunks in trunks" were gay.

I never understood why Hitchcock cast Bob Cummings so often--he was a pretty bad actor with virtually no sex appeal. Did he have compromising photos of AH in a diaper or something?

Was watching Alfred Hitchcock Presents-Where Beauty Lies when up comes George Nadar. Had no idea who the man was but my gaydar starting ringing so loudly it almost woke the neighbors. One quick Google and things were sorted.

There was just something about the way he played the character of Collin Hardy that oozed the sort of superior attitude one sadly has come across from way to many good looking white gay males. A cross between entitlement and disdain. You know what I mean; it isn't so much that they are superior but that everyone else is inferior.

R40 you are so wrong - Moorehead and Stanwyck didn't get along at all. Agnes was miffed when Paramount signed Stanwyck for the film version of Sorry, Wrong Number. Moorehead had a big hit with it on the radio and was bitterly disappointed that she didn't get chosen for the film version.

Bob Cummings, like Lucile Ball, Ann Sothern and Eve Arden, found his biggest success in Hollywood as a huge TV sitcom star, after years of plugging away as the star of B films or the co-star of a few A films.

Totally forgot about Danny Kaye and Maurice Evans

I thought OP was asking which old-time Hollywood actor's homosexuality surprised us the most. Liberace, Roddy McDowell, and Paul Lynde's homosexuality should have surprised no one.

Wasn't Farley Granger fired from a soap because of some scandal involving a much younger man?

Lizabeth Scott

Keene Curtis was reportedly gay.

Wasn't there a rumor about Harry Belafonte and Farley Granger?

I've seen Fair Lady a number of times but have only seen Sutton in the Ascot scene. He must have been a good friend of Cukor's. He did appear in some classic films.

Probably had an interesting life during Hollywood's studio era.

Maybe this deserves another thread, but a list should be started of who Farley Granger slept with! *LOL*

I mean it does seem like the man had or was had by every gay man or beautiful straight woman in Hollywood/the entertainment business.

R36

YW!

As one stated previously had just saw Mr. Belvedere Goes to College on late night television and thought to myself, CW has to be gay, no straight actor could play prissy so often that well! *LOL* So got up and did a quick Google and that site was one of the first to come up.

Quite honestly had no idea many of the men mentioned were gay. But since no one has sued and or the names are still listed......

Tab Hunter in one of the roles that made him famous.

He was so prefect in playing all those All American BMOC roles because he looked the part. Just the sort of guy mothers of the 1950's and 1960's wanted to see arriving at the front door to walk out with their daughters.

[R71] Who wouldn't have an affair with Burt Lancaster?!

And though not really "old" Hollywood, George Maharis (The "George Michael" of the '60's).

R41, thanks for narrowing that footage down. Burr did have a cute sailor with him...maybe a lesbian of old also?

Another one is William Hopper, son of infamous gossip columnist Hedda Hopper. A tad before my time, but absolutely gorgeous actor on Perry Mason. Lucille Ball was a close friend of Hedda’s and outed William in an interview, saying that he had been madly in love with a leading Hollywood actor, but she refused to name the actor. Hopper mother and son were both deceased by then. Interviewers asked William’s step-great-grandson about it. He didn’t deny it, just said his non-stop talker of a step-grandmother (William’s daughter) never mentioned it.

I’m hoping that it wasn’t Raymond Burr he was in love with. He was way too hot for Burr.

Tom Drake ,who played "The Boy Next Door" in "Meet Me in St. Louis" is strongly rumored to have been gay and to have been in a torrid,on-again,off-again relationship with the bisexual Peter Lawford.

Keanu Reeves and River Phoenix.

Anthony Hopkins.

Spenser Tracy & Katherine Hepburn

Walter Pidgeon

If you want to read some fabulous stories about early Hollywood and it's sex lives, read FULL SERVICE by Scotty Bowers. He slept with both Tracy and Pidgeon and arranged for women to sleep with Hepburn.

Great read, and Gore Vidal went on record saying all was true.

I used to have an old copy of Confidential. The cover had a picture of Raymond Burr and a blonde woman, and the headline was - RAYMOND BURR - THAT LOVELY BLONDE DISH YOU TOOK HOME WAS A HE!!!

The story featured an interview with a drag queen who said Burr picked him up at a bar and drove him home and had no idea he wasn't a woman, and was "a perfect gentleman."

I assume that was a warning to Burr to pay up, or the next story wouldn't portray him as an innocent who had no idea he was escorting a man home.

Is George Hamilton gay because, I always thought he seemed gay.

I've heard rumors that Sir Anthony Hopkins was gay.

[quote]And though not really "old" Hollywood, George Maharis (The "George Michael" of the '60's).

In addition to having restroom issues in common, they're also both of Greek ethnicity.

r93, I think that was one of those "grain of truth" stories, kind of like the fake story about Rock Hudson marrying Gomer Pyle. You start with a grain of truth - a star being gay - then spin an entire fake story around it.

"I've heard rumors that Sir Anthony Hopkins was gay."

Sadly, this is one well of rumors that has been poisoned by a crazy person. We used to have a nutball here we called the "Anthony Hopkins Troll", who posted over and over and over about Hopkins being gay and that included fake news items.

These nutters tend to paper the whole fucking internet with this shit, and their oft-repeated fantasies get mistaken for real gossip by people who don't realize what the source is. Like, back when the Star Wars sequels came out, quite a lot of people innocently passed on the gossip about Hayden Christiansen having a boyfriend named Trevor Blumas - a rumor started by a known obsessive madman.

r98, I have heard stuff about Hopkins being bi before - I have no idea if he is or isn't but the gossip didn't come from the Anthony Hopkins Stalker

No r99, but I think r98's point is that your source or your source's source probably read the rumors posted on the internet by the Anthony Hopkins Stalker/Troll.

That is how unfounded gossip gets spread.

I don't know if Robert Cummings was gay (five wives - I doubt it, but you never know), but he had soft, girlish features, especially his nose.

r100, he's a British theater actor, is it that hard for you to believe he may have experienced the homosex? Everyone thought the Hopkins stalker was nuts anyway, no one took him (her?) seriously as a source, anyway

Marx and Woolcott would have been a strange pair.

Leo Lerman spilled some good gossip in his journals, like the one about Steve McQueen giving a blowjob to a very handsome young man behind a tree.

Or Maureen O'Hara and her story of walking in on Western director John Ford kissing a man.

There's a story that Charlie Manson hustled Hollywood parking lots known to homosexuals and he was himself cruised by both Peter Falk and Robert Conrad. Charlie allegedly said that 'James West' was a turn off. He must be crazy.

I'm trying to picture Charles Manson without the deranged Grizzly Adams look....no luck.

Probably without the beard and shorter hair, Manson wasn't hideous when he was young.

If we're including the ladies: Eve Arden, Barbara Stanwyck, Dolores del Rio, Beatrice Lillie, Lizabeth Scott, Mae West, Kay Francis, Agnes Moorehead, Marjorie Main, Ethel Merman, Kay Thompson, Charlotte Greenwood, Jean Arthur, Mary Martin, Claudette Colbert, Hattie McDaniel, Janet Gaynor, Ethel Waters, Hope Emerson, Butterfly McQueen, Clara Bow*, Myrna Loy*, Ava Gardner*, Lana Turner*, Judy Garland*, Lena Horne*, Marilyn Monroe*, Miriam Hopkins*, Kate Hepburn*, Anna May Wong*, Dorothy Dandridge*, Debbie Reynolds*, Lupe Velez*,

*-rumored to be bi

Ladies list (cont.):

Lillian Gish, Beulah Bondi, Billie Burke, Elsa Lanchester, Fifi D'Orsay, Shelley Winters*, Joanne Woodward*,

Manson turned 80 this week.

R108 Everyone who has ever lived is "rumored to be bi," according to Datalounge.

Apparently there were rumors about the closeness of Dorothy and Lillian Gish.

I guess displays like this did not go unnoticed.

R112. I don't know about that. I've got a sis-in-law that likes to greet people (male and female) by kissing them on the mouth. She says that's how her family did it. I'm not kissing anyone on the mouth unless I'm having (or hope to have) sex with them. She ain't got a kiss on the mouth from me yet, and it's been many decades.

Does anyone know if Joseph Schildkraut (who won best supporting actor Oscar in 1937) was gay? He played huge queens in almost every movie he did in the 1930's and 40's (his character in "The Garden of Allah" even describes himself as "the perfect housewife").

Charles Manson admitted he was bisexual just last year, and I remember reading in past books that he slept with some male cult members, basically ordered them to fuck him as part of his power play/reduce inhibitions act (needless to say, he screwed all the women, too). He's spent most of his life in jail, so I'm sure he's had plenty of man on man sex. He also said that he raped a man in prison when he was only 17.

Jim Jones was another megalomaniacal cult leader who had sex with both men and women, using it as punishment against his followers.

I don't think anyone wants to claim these guys as one of their team.

[quote][R8], Erik Rhodes was a gay porn star, so I think that one is not in question.

Oh [R12], honey, I hope you're joking. The title of the thread is "Gay Hollywood Actors of Old", not "Gay Porn Stars Who Have the Same Name as an Actor Who Was in The Gay Divorcee with Fred Astaire".

Wasn't Dan Dailey exposed as a cross dresser by Confidential Magazine? I think Alice Faye confirmed it in an interview after he passed

Speaking of cross-dressing, what about Jeff Chandler? Was he gay or did he just love polka dots?

Even Dan Dailey is said to be a cross-dresser by of all people the circumspect Andre Previn in is not especially dishy memoir of his career in Hollywood.

One straight guy I worked with years ago told me an uncle worked with Holden and he claimed he was gay. He had no reason to lie as he had no interest in homosexuality other than that one comment. He just mentioned it in passing because he was a fan of films like River Kwai and it made no difference to him. Must admit though it was the only time I heard something like this about William Holden.

FYI, R12, Erik Rhodes, mentioned by R8, was an Oklahoma-born film and Broadway actor of the 1930s, best known for playing European gigolo types in such films as THE GAY DIVORCEE and TOP HAT. He married his first and only wife, Emala, at the age of 66. They had no children.

I seem to remember some interview Marge Champion did a while ago where she hinted that her ex husband Gower was bi (even though they had two kids together... but still...)

Joan Crawford outed Nils Asther (one of Garbo's bffs stretching back to her pre-Hollywood days in Stockholm) in an interview which is part of the excellent book 'Conversations with Joan', she also subtly outed Tyrone Power without mentioning his name.

Any rumors about Van Williams, who played Green Hornet on the tv series? He was so fucking hot, right up there with Jon Erik Hexum.

r121, what did she say about Ty Power?

People back then could show a level of affection that is inconceivable to us today.

See The Broadway Melody of '29 and the way the sisters get in bed together and cuddle or Wings of '27 and the male on male kiss.

Audiences today would totally freak at the implication of incest or homosexuality.

R124, people would NOT "totally freak" at those things in 2014. Are you visiting us from 1980?

In Vanity Fair contributing editor Kevin Sessums' new memoir "I Left It on the Mountain," he writes about his encounter with Tony Curtis at a Vanity Fair Oscars afterparty:

[quote]Over against the wall Tony Curtis was checking me out yet again after telling me earlier that he'd once had a crush on Yul Brynner. "I think that's why you're making me feel so odd. You kinda look like him. I haven't slept with a man in decades but the night is young," he'd flirted.

Do you all suppose that Tony got a piece of Yul? And what was the deal with Tony and Burt Lancaster ("Criss-Cross," "Trapeze," "Sweet Smell of Success")? Were they more than just co-stars?

R126, that's interesting. Didn't Curtis make antigay comments about Brokeback?

Why are you slamming these poor people? Let them rest in peace.

R128 Cheryl, go back to your soccer game. The kids need you.

What about Burt Lancaster and Luchino Visconti during the filming of The Leopard? Any action there?

[quote]Kerwin Mathews

He was sooooo handsome.

R130 The story is that Lancaster and Visconti got into catfights over Alain Delon and who can blame them?

Joe Flynn, so funny as Binghamton in McHale's Navy, he's the funny one in the blooper reels while Ernest Borgnine gets pissed off. Funny as hell in the Disney movies, but I've been watching old Ozzie and Harriet eps and he's straight laced on that show.

R116: You mean that Joey Stephano, the porn star, DIDN'T write the screenplay adaptation for the film, Psycho, either?

Speaking of Alain Delon, time is a thief:

(Stefano)

Question to anyone that knows. Who was the TV grandpa that alledgedly had a fling with gay serial killer Andrew Cunanun? Saw it mentioned in a book, but never gave a name.

R137 I read that somewhere too years ago It's spelled: Cunanan - technically 'spree killer' Can think of 3 tv grandpas that perhaps fit, but don't know.

r138, which ones are you thinking of?

Grandpa Walton, Will Geer?

This is the only "TV grandpa" I can think of.

"Question to anyone that knows. Who was the TV grandpa that alledgedly had a fling with gay serial killer Andrew Cunanun? Saw it mentioned in a book, but never gave a name."

Walter Brennan

R142 The Real McCoys grandpa Walter Brennan deceased in 1974. Too long ago for that period. He was very conservative in politics.

So if both David Wayne and Keenan Wynn were gay, that means both actors who played Digger Barnes on DALLAS were gay.

r84, in the 70s, Farley Granger was cast on the daytime soap opera ONE LIFE TO LIVE where he played a prominent role. He was allegedly fired for sexually harrassing another male co-star. One of the rumours is that it was a minor, the other rumour is that it was the 20something year old Jameson Parker, who played Granger's son on the show.

Granger went on to become involved with daytime exec Robert Calhoun, who got him a role on AS THE WORLD TURNS in the 80s.

R137, Earle Hyman, Grandpa Huxtable.

r146, good guess!

The grandpa would have to have been on a show that was airing during the mid-1990's.

Entertain me more, peoples. Loving this thread.

Earl Hyman won't even look at a black man. Relentless snow queen.

What about Earl Holliman? First time I ever saw him was on an episode of Alias Smith and Jones back in the 70's. (Pete Deuel and Ben Murphy were so hot)

Then I found that he had quite the Hollywood career. I think I once read that he was gay. Wonder if he ever got any interest from Rock Hudson or Sal Mineo in Giant?

R148, did the book say the show was still on air at the time? "Cosby Show" ended in '92, not too far off.

You never know do you? I mean grew up watching the Cosby Show and loved Mr. Hyman's work but *never* got so much as a twinge or ping on my Gaydar.

Then came across this awhile back:

R151, years ago, i recall someone on DL stating that they saw Earl Holliman at a gay bath house.

Bump!

The documentary "Scotty" on Scotty Bowers, which will soon be out, has apparently been interviewing old Hollywood survivors.

Raymond Burr owes his career to the untimely death of Laird Cregar, a large gay character actor who was very popular for a brief time in the 1940s. Cregar didn't play the game, either, at least at first. He had a boyfriend who was murdered and he actually talked to the press -- didn't tell them they were lovers, but made a statement about the poor dead boyfriend. The studio made him go out on dates with women afterwards to cover it up.

When he did a film with Merle Oberon she apparently told him he could be a famous leading man if he would only lose weight. Cregar was a little off-kilter so he believed her, and went through drastic weight loss and plastic surgery procedures. He even started dating women exclusively. His good friend George Sanders was worried about Cregar's obsession with stardom, and during some crazy 1940s weight loss surgery, Cregar died on the table.

I can't even imagine what kinds of surgery were available back then. A decade later Mario Lanza died during some crazy weight loss scheme, so it must have been even worse back in the 1940s.

Anyway, when Cregar died, Burr quietly floated the idea that he was Cregar's brother, and he started getting parts that Cregar would have gotten had he lived.

[quote]Wasn't Dan Dailey exposed as a cross dresser by Confidential Magazine? I think Alice Faye confirmed it in an interview after he passed.

The lovely Faye Dunaway hosted a special on TCM probably 15 years ago where she told a story about how one of the stars of "It's Always Fair Weather" showed up to the premiere in drag. She meant Dan, who she didn't name -- but I think it was Andre Previn who wrote that he saw Dan in drag on the way to the premiere, so everyone knew who she meant.

R39, But is the screen vs. IRL Hudson really a discrepancy?

Or does it merely expose, the hetero-masculine ideal as a construction? A meticulously fashioned aesthetic? Something not easily attainable for most men, without years of training and conscious practice (by group pressure, social rewards and punishment?) All gendered behavior are coached and PERFORMED. Hudson had the goods. He brought the game, BECAME the game. Nothing of his offscreen life contradicts that, because his image became eternal reference, helping the stories FUNCTION.

(It's probably a bit like, the amazingly chiseled, golden youths in Triumph of the Will. They all became ground meat and murderous machines? How to reconcile that with the onscreen perfection, BEAUTY? They live to tell her visual paean to the Reich's "upward" journey.)

The Bank Dick is one of my mindless favorites. Still is, but now I have to concentrate harder to get over Grady Sutton being A Gay!, every time he comes onscreen (a naive, nebbish suitor.) All because his career didn't allow him to stretch very much, beyond a bland punchline for the lead.

Sort of like a black actor who's typecast, never plays any really complex, in-depth roles. Or a generic bombshell, with or without a tragic offscreen life. Such actors more easily end up being That black guy; That gay guy; rr That woman with the legs, or hairy mole, or huge gums.

Onscreen, as in life, most of the battle is becoming humanized, a complex human being, more than a stereotype. When some types ring louder, stronger, with more reverberation like Gay!, it's all most people can see (and may or may not hold closely to their hearts, depending on who's doing the holding.)

Can't wait.

lmao r1.

r3 interesting, a big studio should do a biopic on him. a standup guy.

Considering it's Hollywood we're talking about, I'd add "ambitious" to the list of "Gay", and "Rumored to be Bi"

Do you prefer snails or oysters?

r65 Rachel Welch dimed Stephen Boyd out when he refused to sleep with with her when she was a young starlet.

Sandor Elès

[R157] Re Laird Cregar you may want to check the commentary track of the film The Black Swan. On it Maureen O'Hara says she had supper with LC a day or so before his surgery. She says that it was a simple hemorrhoid operation but something unexpectedly went wrong.

Charles Gray

Paul Winfield

Melina Mercouri

Do I look gay?

My mom (born in the 1930s) always said Raymond Burr and Laird Cregar were brothers. I could never find one mention of this anywhere, until seeing a comment here. Not surprised Burr implied they were brothers to further his career - after all he fabricated an entire life for himself with a few marriages, a dead child, etc. I'm very surprised the truth eventually came out after his death - I guessed he was gay many years ago but no one believed me.

Interesting R167. She also said Elsa Lanchester had an abortion which is why she never had kids with Laughton (as opposed to the real reason, i.e. Laughton was gay), so Maureen wasn't always right about these things, but it's worth listening to. Thanks.

R169, Melina Mercouri was the wife of Jules Dassin. How come and you think that she was munching the carpet?

Cool thread

Ernest Thesiger(Dr. Pretorious in Bride of Frankenstein and Horace Femm in The Old Dark House)

David Manners(the hero of Dracula, The Mummy and The Black Cat)

Henry Brandon(Barnaby in March of the Wooden Soldiers)

[R169] I think there was a FILMFAX interview with an actress who worked with Melina. The actress said she was uncomfortable working with her because it was the first time she (the actress) had been hit on by a girl (Melina).

Has Gene Raymond (Jeanette MacDonald's husband) been mentioned yet? Judging by photos of him in a bathing suit, he was also very hung.

Going wayyy back to a much earlier thread...this was the first time I ever heard any mention of character actors Andy Devine and Edgar Buchanan being gay or bi....rather surprised about the latter...always wondered about George Tobias...his TV wife Alice Pearce was married to two different gay men, so I wonder about her now?

I watched a bit of "The Last Time I Saw Paris" (never been able to sit all the way through it) and there is zero chemistry between sultry Liz Taylor and Van Johnson (I guess the 16 year age difference didn't help). You can so tell they were "girlfriends" off camera.

It could have been both reasons, R172. Plenty of gay or bisexual actors have married and had children.

Farley Granger ... well what can you say? A gay dreamboat. Just my cup of tea.

Fascinating interview with Cesar Romero about being gay in Hollywood. He talks about Tyrone Power and Desi Arnaz too.

bumping for some old Hollywood gossip

....

Marvin Kaplan didn't marry until he was 46. He divorced three years later.

R182 Are you really going to post Boze Hadleigh as if his interviews were real?

I'm 2 years late to the party but the "Isn't Anyone Here For Love" sequence from Gentlemen Prefer Blondes has got to be the single gayest 3 minutes in cinema history.

^^^^via R72

[quote]I'm 2 years late to the party but the "Isn't Anyone Here For Love" sequence from Gentlemen Prefer Blondes has got to be the single gayest 3 minutes in cinema history.

The hottest one in that sequence was John Weidemann(the one whose biceps pop Janes Russells eyes out of their sockets).

R182 Thanks for the link to Romero reminiscing.

This is one of my favourite pics of any star:

Another Romero

Cesar and Ty Power took a six week tour of Central and South America on Ty's plane. That's a long honeymoon.

He's not conventionally the most handsome man but he dripped with sex for decades.

Ty and Cesar in South America.

Oops, wrong link. Let's try that again.

That's a great website, OP.

Cesar only got hotter as his hair silvered. A true silver daddy fox.

Hold me Gertie I'm scared

Chad Everett

Yes Cesar was an elegant silver fox but that tall cuban american young man with the bedroom eyes and pencil moustache and pulpy mouth.

really r199? NEver heard that one.

I never heard any rumors about Orson Welles being bi.

I never heard any rumors that John Barrymore was bi. Quite the opposite in fact; he was very popular with the ladies. One of his mistresses was a young Mary Astor; he also had a hot affair with the infamous Evelyn Nesbit.

Jack Benny? Now that is really ridiculous. The life of his love was his wife; by all accounts he was devoted to her, and there were NEVER any rumors about him being bi or gay. On a talk show he said he was very in with his wife "and I wouldn't trade her for Elizabeth Taylor OR Richard Burton!" Benny's will arranged for a single long-stemmed red rose, to be delivered to his widow, Mary Livingstone, every day for the rest of her life

Harpo Marx gay or bi? That's pretty hilarious. He and and his brothers were into women, not men. Harpo married actress Susan Fleming in 1936 and they stayed married until his death in 1964. His friendship with Alexander Woollcott was just that: a friendship. The Marx brothers hung around with people like that; writers and critics and playwrights. They enjoyed the Marx brother's company.

I guess we can now add Hugh O'Brian.

Wasn't Guy Madison a big mo?

Guy Madison and Rory Calhoun. What a handsome pair.

Hee Hee!!

I envy anyone who got to fuck Guy Madison

I wonder if Cesar was driven crazy by Burt Ward's beauty on the Batman set.

Guy Madison and his brother Wayne Mallory

Wayne Mallory. Not gay, that I know of, but, like his brother, quite handsome.

This is one of the best threads on Datalounge!

Are Wayne Mallory and Guy Madison both stage names?

It's interesting how after all the macho drama of WWII, suddenly there seemed to be this excess of bland pretty boy stars in Hollywood, many discovered by Henry Willson and lasting well into the 1950s. Though I guess most of them didn't rise above B level, the few that did like Rock and Tony Curtis, were a lovely contrast to the Gables, Coopers, Tracys, Bogarts and Stewarts of the previous generation

R202 Rumors that Jack Benny was gay were rife throughout his life and have only intensified since his death. At least in television and film the rumors were common....maybe not in the flyover states.

He, Rock Hudson and Raymond Burr were the celebs most commonly cited as gay back in the 60s.

Henry Wilson got his hands on some prime ass over the years.

[quote]He, Rock Hudson and Raymond Burr were the celebs most commonly cited as gay back in the 60s

Ahem.

Nancy Culp, Miss Hathaway of the Beverley Hillbillies.

R199 I had also heard rumors about Chad Everette, but no evidence.

Robert Conrad

Vincent Price couldn't possibly have been straight

Vincent Price was cute before he went full camp.

[quote]Has Gene Raymond (Jeanette MacDonald's husband) been mentioned yet? Judging by photos of him in a bathing suit, he was also very hung.

This is interesting....

[quote][Buddy] Rogers and [Mary] Pickford shared adjacent cabins on their honeymoon trip to Hawaii with the recently married Gene Raymond and Jeanette MacDonald. According to Sharon Rich’s biography of MacDonald, Sweethearts, there came a point on this trip when MacDonald caught Raymond and Rogers in bed together. The shock waves of that did not outwardly affect the marriages that had been made, both of which lasted until the deaths of MacDonald and Pickford. But maybe Pickford had other reasons for her heavy drinking as time went on.

[quote]“I prayed fervently…to make Buddy happy, for he deserves it,” Pickford wrote in her memoir. “I don’t believe to this day he has stopped telling everyone I am the only woman he ever loved.” She takes pains in her book to say about her husband that “although his good looks might belie the fact, he is essentially a man’s man.” No doubt Rogers went out of his way to prove that when he served during World War II, and in the many years afterward as Pickford’s consort.

[quote] Nancy Culp, Miss Hathaway of the Beverley Hillbillies.

Kulp, Beverly

[quote][R199] I had also heard rumors about Chad Everette, but no evidence.

Everett

R219 = frustrated lesbian nun schoolmarm

r219 it was Nancy not Beverly.

R221 You're not too bright, are you?

[quote] Meanwhile, Burr's relationship with Robert Benevides, an aspiring actor he met on an early Perry Mason, escaped the scrutiny of the tabloids. Benevides became Burr's business manager and live-in companion; they were still together when Burr died in 1993.

They lived together quietly for many years. The Perry Mason show's schedule was grueling and his costars just overlooked it.

I'm very sorry that the documentary Tab Hunter Confidential never got much attention. It's a very honest portrait of Tab and he still looks sensational. There's wonderful commentaries from so many of his co-stars. Far more satisfying than his autobiography.

Marilyn Monroe was not bi. I've ready many biographies of her; there's no evidence to support that. Just a lot of rumor and false allegations. There's some awful book by some creep named Ted Jordan; he claimed to be a lover of Marilyn's in her early days and remained friends with here thereafter (yeah, right). In his book Marilyn comes across as an ignorant, insatiable, bi-sexual slut. He said she had a passionate affair with a stripper named Lili St. Cyr. and "patterned herself" on St. Cyr, copying her looks and mannerisms and way of speaking. Total bullshit. Another ludicrous claim is one made by some guy named John Miner, somebody involved in the investigation of Monroe's death. He claimed to have listened to tapes made during Marilyn's therapy sessions with her weird psychiatrist Ralph Greenson. He said Greenson wanted him to listen to the tapes to exonerate himself from any blame for Marilyn's death (yeah, right). No tapes were ever produced; there was no evidence that any such tapes existed. But Miner said he listened to them and "took extensive notes (yeah, right)." The Marilyn depicted on the tapes is what most men probably fantasized she was like: a bubble-headed ninny who loved to talk about sex. On the tapes she spoke of a one night stand with Joan Crawford; Marilyn was such an expert cunt eater that Joan screamed in ecstasy. Joan wanted more, but Marilyn didn't, so Joan hated her ever after. Titillatingly, isn't it? But obviously a load of crap. L.A. Times reporter Robert W. Welkos wrote that "to accept Miner's story, one must take a leap of faith — he is the only one still alive who claims to have heard the tapes." On the tapes Marilyn also referred to her "friend Mae West." Only problem with that is that Marilyn Monroe never met Mae West. Miner was full of shit.

There's only one instance in Marilyn Monroe's life that had her involved with another woman. She had a strange acting coach, a skinny, intense woman of Russian extraction name Natasha Lytess. Lytess was in love with Marilyn and possessive of her; Marilyn may have had sex with her just to make her happy. She was very dependent on Lytess for a while but then outgrew her and moved on the Lee and Paula Strasberg, who glommed onto her and took over as her acting gurus.

Marilyn's behavior all throughout her life pointed to one thing: she really liked MEN. There is no evidence to suggest she liked lesbian sex. None at all.

R79, I want to get fired for that.

Nobody mentioned Marlene Dietrich yet?

She had affairs with Gary Cooper, Burt Lancaster, Jimmy Stewart, Claudette Colbert and Edith Piaf.

[quote] I'm very sorry that the documentary Tab Hunter Confidential never got much attention. It's a very honest portrait of Tab and he still looks sensational. There's wonderful commentaries from so many of his co-stars. Far more satisfying than his autobiography.

It got more than it deserved. it's cookie cutter, at best.

Both Tab's biography and documentary were boring because he doesn't want to dish any dirt.

Farley Granger was bi though.

David Manners - very handsome and talented man

Davud Wayne couldnt possibly be straight

Do you mean David Wayne?

Charles Farrell was suposed to be I believe and Richard Cromwell

Hollywood Golden couple: Cary Grant and Randolph Scott.

Cary and Randy lived together during the 1930s.

.....

John Darrow was

There are no homosexual actors in Hollywood and if you suggest as much on Wikipedia, your edits will be reverted!

I recently watched "Romance", a 1930 Garbo film with Gavin Gordon. I looked at the Wikipedia entry for him and learned he and Edward Everett Horton were longtime partners.

[quote]There are no homosexual actors in Hollywood and if you suggest as much on Wikipedia, your edits will be reverted!

Tyrone Power's wiki page doesn't even mention the fact that so many people have said that he was bisexual. It's totally erased. I should think the fact that Marilyn Monroe and Truman Capote have gone on record as saying he was bisexual warrants at least a passing mention, whether it was true or not, especially considering it's repeated again and again by so many other people. Apparently, there isn't enough credible and corroborating evidence.

On the other hand, on Guy Madison's page, it says that he had an affair with Gia Scala and she left her Screen Actors Pension Fund to him when she died. Except when you follow the source cited it turns out she had an affair with and left her pension fund to Guy Williams. Of course, people only go through sources with a fine tooth comb if the source has anything to do with gay sex.

Everybody knew Jack Benny was gay. Nobody cared because he was so talented and such a sweetheart and he played the game. And, yes, he adored Mary Livingstone, as she him. She played the game too. Similar to Cole Porter and his wealthy socialite wife who were also BFFs. Don't get me started about Porter's back alley shenanigans with Yale classmate Monty Woolley (they'd go out together cruising for sailors and rough trade), not to mention his affairs with Harold Lang and Jack Cassidy.

Marlon Brando and Wally Cox weren't a "couple" but they had been friends since elementary school and Brando kept him as a close friend for years from the time they were both young actors in New York in the 1940s. When Brando's career took off, Cox was one of the few people he knew he completely trusted. They messed around and there is a famous and easily googled photo of Brando's mouth Cox's big cock.

Desi Arnaz wasn't gay but he finally let Cesar Romero suck him off so Romero would stop pestering him about wanting it, which Arnaz came to find annoying.

Mary Martin and husband/manager Richard Halliday and Janet Gaynor and her husband, famous costume designer Gilbert Adrian, bought adjoining plantations deep, deep in the forests of Brazil, only accessible by foot trails. Between Martin's shows in the 1950s the two couples would retire to their Brazilian homes but Halliday and Adrian stayed in one house and Martin and Gaynor in the other.

Like Cox and Brando, Tallulah Bankhead and Hattie McDaniel weren't a couple but they had an intermittent physical relationship that went on for years. Tallulah would fuck anyone. "My mother warned me about men and whiskey but she never said a word about women and cocaine."

Maybe more later.

r11

He died in 1986 at the height of AIDS. What do you think killed him? Oh yes, like Prince he OD'd

[quote]They messed around and there is a famous and easily googled photo of Brando's mouth Cox's big cock.

Yes because in the 50s everyone took selfies and sent them to Walgreens to be developed.

How spectacularly the public was fooled by Old Gay Hollywood.

Lizabeth Scott!

There's never been any evidence that Jack Benny was bi or gay.

What evidence would you expect? A sex tape?

I had them all!

Is there a real nude photo of Gary Cooper and the magnificent sizemeat?

r243, are you confusing your references? You're not talking about Keenan Wynn are you?

R248 Any credible account by one of his contemporaries.

[quote][R11]He died in 1986 at the height of AIDS. What do you think killed him? Oh yes, like Prince he OD'd

Oh I dunno, stroke, heart attack, maybe prostate cancer......the man was 70 years old for fuck's sake!

Actor Tom Tryon was in a relationship with gay porn star Casey Donovan.

[quote]Is there a real nude photo of Gary Cooper and the magnificent sizemeat?

Unfortunately no, R250. But I had a great-uncle who worked in Hollywood for several decades and who had collected a lot of photos and memorabilia, including some candid photos of Cooper. After my great-uncle died, a cousin cleaned out his house, throwing practically everything into the trash. I was promised his old mementos and while I'm unsure whether or not my cousin know that, it was still a disgrace the way she treated all of his things.

No one's mentioned James Daly (Tyne's daddy) and his presumed affair with then young actor, "Danny Travanty," as well as the subsequent lawsuit against his estate brought by live-in companion, Randal G. Jones. That case is still used for discussion in law schools.

"Everybody knew Jack Benny was gay."

I've read a lot of good books on gay Hollywood and I can't remember hearing anywhere that Jack Benny was gay. I don't believe he was.

"They messed around and there is a famous and easily googled photo of Brando's mouth Cox's big cock."

There's a photo of Brando with his mouth near what looks like a cock, but could also easily be a rubber dick or dildo. You think it's Wally's? Why would you think that?

That photo of Brando is the reverse of a carrot in his mouth, from a film where he feeds it to a horse.

jack Benny was gay?

The next thing we'll hear is his BFF George Burns was gay, Ronnie Burns was adopted, after all. Was Gracie Allen secretly the love slave of Mary Livingstone?

[quote]No one's mentioned James Daly (Tyne's daddy) and his presumed affair with then young actor, "Danny Travanty,

Daniel J. Travanti used to be a fucking hot DILF...has he ever come out definitively?

R34 : Gladys would turn ANY man gay!

R242, yes, please provide more!

There is endless dispute over John Wayne. His conservative fans adamantly insist that it is impossible that he liked cock and partook of it. No way, hell no, he was a MAN through and through. Besides he was married twice and had 7 kids. So that proves it. And how could you even think of such a thing.

Others, though, say he attended gay Hollywood pool parties, had "private conferences" at the Sportsmen's Club in North Hollywood, behind locked doors with men only, liked to invite hot youg studs to go out on his boat with him, and maintained a house in the state of Washington which was a private getaway for him and his "buddies."

Although there's no definitive proof the John Wayne was gay, he sure did like to surround himself with handsome young co-stars: Monty Clift and John Ireland, Jeffrey Hunter, Ricky Nelson, etc.

In his newly published autobiography, "Once A Saint", former actor Ian Ogilvy talks about filming with Vincent Price. ("Witchfinder General" 1968) Vincent seems to have been one of the old school gays who called men by women's names and used the female gender pronoun "she" Ogilvy says he heard Vincent say when watching Ogilvy ride a horse "She's so pretty and she can ride a horse. I hate her!" and when an actor sat down at a table wearing a bracelet (this was the 60s!) Vincent took a look at the jewellery and said "Watch it, Alice!" and went upstairs to put on more of his own turquoise and silver jewellery.

Oh thank goodness, R77! I was trawling through to see if anyone had made mention of The Court Jester. I still cannot wrap my mind around the rumours regarding Mr Kaye, and Sir Laurence. What a bizarre man sandwich!

Miss Price sounds FABULOUS!

I worked as a screen (and sometimes TV) writer in LA in the 1980's. I met a lot of old timers (mostly writers who had seen it all). The joke about Jack Benny, told often with glee, was "I'm going to see Mary Benny." Answer: "which one?" They all accepted that Jack's effeminacy was not merely a part of his act but that he was discreetly active with men. I have no idea. However, they all said Jack was famous for being one of the nicest people in the business, especially kind to comedy writers who could and did have roller coaster careers and often slid into money trouble and middle age at the same time.

John Wayne was also said to be privately "nelly" and into "trade". A few who had written he-man stuff but who were gay referred to Wayne's "drag act" (meaning cowboy and army gear), They said he'd been discovered moving furniture on a back lot at a studio. A casting queen had taken notice and the rest is history. Again, I never met him but Ed Asner referred to him once as "butch trade" as an actor, and "legs up" in bed. I was young so didn't think I could ask if he knew this from personal experience, or if was just gossip. But for what it's worth some guys who knew the "scene" accepted that he was (carefully) gay although obviously able to function with women.

What's this about End Asner outing John Wayne?!

Going all the way back up to R6, thanks for the link. That's a fascinating site.

Wait, how would Ed Asner know about the private lives of the closeted?

Was he gay, too? If so, color me shocked!

I'm still alive, so why don't you ask me?

Did Ed Asner ever work with John Wayne?

R274 They were in Howard Hawks' "El Dorado" which Asner talks about in this interview.

Wow, finally some interesting dirt

Is Earl Holliman the only gay actor left who worked with other closeted gays like Rock Hudson, James Dean and Burt Lancaster.

When I was in college in the 80s, my boyfriend and I were waiting in line at the cineplex in the Galleria (yes, the one in Sherman Oaks from "Valley Girl"), and Earl Holliman was in front of us with his two twinks. It was so obvious.

I always pictured Holliman to be into older guys.

Daniel J. Travanti is definitely "out." I don't know when he first did that but he's been openly gay for a long, long time. After his career tanked after Hill Street Blues I guess he figured it didn't matter anymore.

Tab Hunter is still very much with us and he worked with, slept with or knew all of the closeted A-lists gays.

Love this kind of goss. This is what I love about Datalounge. The politics is starting to do my head in.

There were rumors that, during the run of Hill Street Blues, Veronica Hamel asked The Powers That Be not to have any more kissing scenes with DJT because she was afraid she'd get AIDS

Plus, there was the car accident that Travanti's long-term partner, John Penn, had a couple of years ago while he was driving Travanti's car, with the public documentation from Cook County showing that they share the same residence.

Busted!

When is the Roddy McDowall auto bio going to be leaked? I think his trust arranged for it to be published something like 50 years after his death, but come on we want the dish now. The contents is supposed to be fantastic which would make sense because he knew everybody and they trusted him with their secrets.

David E. (WEHT him?) posted here that Walter Pidgeon popped Roddy MacDowall's cherry!

Is that Elizabeth Taylor chasing afer Roddy once she heard about the size of his cock?

Fat lot of good chasing him would do her, R288.

He's not old but Zac Efron

Veteran actor Henry Brandon was gay. His longtime partner was Mark Herron - one of Judy Garland's husbands!

John Wayne was gay as a goose

Silent era cowboy star William S. Hart. Forced by the studios to marry a much younger, pretty starlet who filed for separation after a couple of months of marriage with a divorce years later. Hart never remarried.

We knew (but not in the Biblical sense) Mark Herron in LA for a long time. When we went to Mark's house in WeHo we would see Henry, who also lived in the house. Naturally the main subject of our conversatia with Mark was about you know who.

William S. Hart? A.K.A "Uncle Sam"?

Really, Hart was the first model for the personification of Uncle Sam during WW1. I bet he kept his ass in the closet, with a macho image like that.

What about Lena Horne?

That's interesting about William S. Hart

Patsy Kelly

Ellen Corby (Grandpa and Grandma Walton, both bi- or gay ... the all-American family)

Carole Landis (1940s starlet who had affairs with Rex Harrison and Jacqueline Susann)

Rumor has it that Gene Kelly slept with Larry Hart to get the lead in PAL JOEY, just as Jack Cassidy slept with Cole Porter to get into show business

Burt Reynolds?

I had no idea Daniel J. Travanti was family. I always thought he was one of those secret studs. Not someone marketed as a sex symbol, but, still, someone incredibly sexy.

I mean...

Oh, honayyy!

The true Cole Porter - Harold Lang story is even more interesting than the more famous and much more salacious Cole Porter - Jack Cassidy story. It involves Bianca, the turd in the string of pearls that is the score of Kiss Me, Kate.

Does anyone reading know either?

It's getting too late and I'm getting too inebriated to type out either one.

r304 so many disgusting things being said on dl

What's disgusting about the truth?

Ramon Novarro's Catholicism didn't kill him, a couple of hustlers killed him thinking that he had $5,000 (in 1968-69 dollars) in cash in his house.

Was Novarro conflicted between his sexual orientation and his religion? Most definitely in all likelihood. Did his religion send two rough trade hustlers to his house? I don't think so.

Novarro's family fled Mexico in the second decade of the 20th century. The Mexican government and the Catholic Church never had a good relationship. By the 1910's, the conflict was civil war and devout Catholics like Novarro's family fled to the USA.

Did the conflict between Novarro's religion and sexuality drive him to seek out rough trade, it is quite possible

Novarro sealed his own fate when he gave the hustlers a tour of his house and showed off one of the renovated rooms by saying "there's $5,000 in his room. " Novarro was saying that he spent $5,000 to renovate the room; the hustlers thought he meant that there was literally $5,000 somewhere in the room. They killed him for the money that wasn't there

R307 has the story correct. The killer hustlers were brothers Paul and Tom Ferguson, ages 22 and 17. Paul had frequently posed nude for AMG, Kris Studios and others.

Paul Ferguson at AMG:

Paul Newman, for god's sake!

By the way, despite the golden dildo from Valentino urban legend, the brothers Ferguson did spend hours torturing Navarro to death trying to get him to reveal the location of the non-existent cash. They left with $20.

David Manners was very attractive and it appears that he was packin'

Bump

Were the brothers Ferguson punished?

They were both sentenced to long prison terms but released early. They spent the rest of their lives in and out of prison for a variety of crimes.

Bob Conrad had an affair with a friend of mine. He also was rumored to have had one with Nick Adams, who in turn was supposedly murdered because of his affair with Elvis.

Daniel Travanti was known as Miss Hoo-hoo on the set because the moment the cameras were off, he was out.

There are entire episodes of Magnum where you only see one side of Tom Selleck's face because he really liked brought trade and sometimes had too many bruises for a full-on shot.

Dennis Cole, Lee Majors, and Andrew Stevens were not only husbands of Charlie's Angels, but also bi in two cases and totally gay in the other (Majors).

Ramona Navarro also had a serious boozette problem which probably was the real reason for her 'mishap' that night.

BTW, thanks for the photo of nice uncut hillbilly sizemeat!

R315, was your friend male or female? Bob Conrad was hot!

E315, did he have a battery on his shoulder during sex?

My friend was a young blond twink, R317.

And no battery, R318 -- just a tight little mesh bathing suit when he first approached my friend. They ended up having a rendezvous at a motel -- Conrad would arrive a half an hour later so no one would see the two together.

James Shigeta - handsome Japanese-American actor of the '60s. He died a few years back at age 85, and none of the obits mentioned any marriages, survived only by siblings. Was he gay?

Good dish.

Best thread on datalounge! Not a big star, but Roy Stuart, who played Corporal Boyle (Sgt. Carter's right-hand man) on Gomer Pyle, was gay. THAT surprised me.

^ Never heard that one before

Many women would have married Raymond Burr, he worked a lot. Most woman find a healthy bank account much more interesting than a perfect body.

LeBeau !!

Sometimes I wonder how young people are or are they just uninformed. I'm not trying to be rude, just seriously curious. Liberace, Rock Hudson, and Monty Clift were fully out in their crowd, so there is no guessing or supposing. But the world then wasn't the world now. There was no Advocate or Gawker. People didn't just come out the way they do now. Those guys relied on their sex appeal for income. I think it is funner to guess about the rumors of Marlon Brando and James Dean. The sources aren't that reliable. But damn is it fun.

Ok, he's not THAT old, but I always got a vibe from Eric Roberts. I don't even know if there are rumors, and I'm not trying to start one, but my DAR goes way up when I see this guy. What say you, crowd?

I know somebody who worked on two different shows with Lee Majors, got to know him quite well. Including the period when he was married to Farrah. My friend, (now deceased), was gay. He worked in costuming. On of his earlier experiences with Majors, they were in the wardrobe room and he was on his knees measuring waist, etc. for a pants fitting. I know it sounds like a typical gay film set up, but my friend, (as he described), was acting completely professional. He was also closeted at the time and terrified people would find out so he was very careful. Majors started to get hard. My buddy was getting nervous as hell. He let Majors make all the moves. Of course, it ended with my friend sucking Majors off. Nary a word was spoken. It happened a few more times, but eventually fazed out and they became work buddies. He was pretty certain Majors was straight, just really horny at times. Majors had various girlfriends and treated them the way a typical spoiled good-looking actor would treat them. This was told to me many years after the fact. Anyway, my friend would definitely dispute the notion of Majors being completely gay and Fawcett just a beard.

My theory on the subject is why does this ever surprise anyone? All of the guys in high school and college drama are gay, then they move to Hollywood and they are all of the sudden straight! I don't think so. I think most of them are at the very least bi. I am never surprised when someone comes out, and when my dar goes up, I'm almost always correct. For your amusement.

At some point, there was a long thread on John Wayne, (maybe somewhere in this one). I had never heard that, but the stories sounded credible.

My boyfriend's grandma always said Rock Hudson was gay. She was saying it for decades, long before Rock's AIDS finally outed him. She was just a housewife from Long Island with no Hollywood ties that I know of, and everyone thought she was crazy. But of course she turned out to be right.

She also said John Wayne was gay. So yeah, I do give credence to the John Wayne rumors. That is definitely the one that surprised me the most. And I bet he was the actor Maureen O'Hara caught John Ford with.

I think Curtis admitted at one point he was bi, or at least that he'd been with men. He's in a documentary I saw about gays in Hollywood. I can't remember the name, but it starts off with old film of two men dancing, shot in the 1800s. Susan Sarandon is in it talking about Thelma and Louise, and Tony Curtis talks about Spartacus or whatever scene that was with the bath. He's also in the rest of the movie a great deal, talking about gayness in movies in general. It was like there was something I was supposed to understand about why he was participating, but they never spelled it out. I figure he was sexually fluid, that he liked women, but had no problem admitting an attraction to men. That made him different from a lot of men of his generation who felt they had to act aggressively macho and repulsed at the idea of gay men, like the stories of how Monty Clift was treated differently when some actors learned he was gay.

Silent film queen Vilma Banky and dashing Rod La Rocque (his real name) were married for 42 years, but it was supposedly a lavender marriage. In talkes, Rod pinged off the charts

Looking for some information on Bogart and John Huston. They were the two straightest men in movie history one imagines. Or were they?

Didn't the way the studio contracts worked at the time often have some of the hotter young actors sleeping with male producers and directors to get ahead?

R334 Bogart was straight.

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Henry Wilcoxon (called "Henry Wilson" somewhere above)--who was in many Cecil B. DeMille films....

Did anyone mention Robert Taylor? Too pretty to be true, ended up--like so many stars--as a rotten old Republican....

Lee Majors -- definitely gay. He used to troll Boystown (LA) in his sports car with the passenger door open, any cute guy could jump in. My ex had an affair with him that lasted about three months, which in Lee Majors time was the equivalent of many years.

^ Details, please! Was Lee good in bed?

R336 - I don't believe that - Bogart was a pussy hound.

More about Lee Majors!

No one cares if the ugly are gay

R315 I know this post is 5 years old but does anyone have any stories of Andrew Stevens being Bi

Andrew Stevens is greedy and bankrupted the Kate Jackstone.

R48, Grady Sutton was a friend of George Cukor and always found him work.

Steve Sandor ?

I'm still trying to wrap my head around the FIFTY YEAR MARRIAGE of Alexis Smith & Craig Stevens being lavender. Until very recently, I had no idea.

I'm relatively young, so I didn't originally discover Craig Stevens through the "Peter Gunn" series like most. I first saw him in an obscure Constance Bennett "B" movie called "Law Of The Tropics". Although Craig had a bit part, he was SO HANDSOME that I never forget his name. I eventually saw him in other movies, which led me to his excellent turn on TV as "Peter Gunn".

I always wondered why Mr. Stevens wasn't more successful in movies & across the board. If the truth about his sexuality was common knowledge in Hollywood, then it all makes sense.

Was watching "Singin' in the Rain" for the umpteenth time on TCM recently and realized that William Haines made an appearance again in an MGM film. In a way. Perhaps by Stanley Donen as a fuck-you to Louis B. Mayer who was fired in 1950, 2 years earlier. Mayer had infamously fired Haines in the 1930s before Haines, who had been a big star from silents into talkies, was fired by Mayer for not giving up his boyfriend and pretending to be straight. Anyway, William Haines is on a poster of a movie he starred in "Singin' in the Rain" in the scene after the big flop of "The Dueling Cavalier" in the lobby to the right of the principals. I think that's really rather cool!