Can we do a thread about gay actors from Classic Hollywood? - Part 3

Thanks, OP -- I have nothing to contribute, but I do love reading about Old Hollywood.

What is the truth about Gene Kelly? Fred Astaire?

r2, the Strickling Files guy said the Gene Kelly did indeed have an affair with Minnelli on the set of The Pirate. As for Astaire, who knows? He always seemed asexual to me.

Hermes Pan, Astaire' s frequent choreographer, was gay though. Wouldn't shock me if they had a relationship

Vincente Minnelli was openly gay/bi when he was living in NYC from the late '20s-1939 and allegedly slept with Cary Grant (then still known under his real name Archie Leach), Tallulah Bankhead, Cesar Romero and Jack Carter (light skinned black actor famous for starring in Orson Welles' Voodoo Macbeth he also was rumored to have a relationship with Welles). He also met his frequent Freed Unit collaborators Roger Edens and Kay Thompson during this time as well. A recent biography of Lena Horne said that she and Minnelli had a fling but I have my doubts about that but you never know.

OP, can you pls post a link to the previous thread?

Link to previous thread.

Just watched Laura again. Clifton Webb was so campy!

ryeye

Wow, r7, I didn't know Clifton Webb was a black drag queen!

Any info on James Alexander? He's best known as the Prince in Jack and the Beanstalk with Abbott and Costello and was a regular on the duo's variety show. Started out as a dancer with Katherine Dunham's troupe. He died young, at age 46. Was rumored to be gay. There's scant biographical info on him.

^ Any pics?

WHET The Strickling Files guy? He was amazing.

Come back, Strickling Files guy!

Max Showalter, aka Casey Adams, was in Niagara with Marilyn, did a good bit of TV as well. He always gave off a gay vibe. No mention off his being married. Looks a bit like a youngRobert Osborne. Anyone know if he was family?

Richard Crane, best known for his role of Rocky Jones Space Ranger, pings to me. Just saw him in the movie Happy Land ('43) as Don Ameche' s son. Wikipedia mentions a possible wife and kid but again there's barely any info on him.

Yes, Max Showalter was very gay. He co-wrote a musical in the mid 80s called Harrigan and Hart for Broadway and it bombed.

What about Robert Quarry (Count Yorga, Vampire)?

I remember seeing Showalter in Niagara and thinking "He pings" - I guess I was right

Btw, there is another actor in Niagara who was supposed to have been gay - I'm blanking on his name but he played Marilyn Monroe's lover

R18 I think it was Richard Allen.

^ Yes, that's him!

I wish DL had an archive of THE all-time classic, "Van Johnson, Golden Age Queen." The OP knows what I'm tawkin' 'bout.

Showalter (Show Walter) / Adams had the most annoying laugh in all moviedom. Sounded like a toy car trying to start...

DL fave and meth-addict Kay Thompson loved the ladies. And that includes Andy Williams...

Yeah, the "Golden Age Queen" thread was epic

Truly epic. Not sure why they delete those classics.

Who said they deleted it?

A google search turned this up, but it's not THE thread. That one was definitely full...

R27 You're right, sorry - I didn't even bother to look at the post count.

That's not it Mr. Clever R26. R27 is correct, it was a full 600 post thread with LOTS of juicy, creamy and hilarious stories.

Apology accepted R29.

Kay Thompson a meth addict? What's the basis for that claim?

R17

Don't know if 83 years life long bachelor Quarry was gay, but here's a little anecdote about Quarry and Vincent Price on the set of Dr Phibes Rises again:

Price reportedly did not care for his co-star — once, when Quarry was singing in his dressing room during the making of Dr Phibes Rises Again, he said to Price, "You didn't know I could sing did you?" and Price replied: "Well I knew you couldn't act" — the duo were later also paired in Madhouse (1974).[2] Source is Wiki.

R31: It's well known. She drank Coca-Colas and got those 'vitamin injections' from Dr. Feelgood. An incredibly insecure woman (despite her public persona) who had at least four nose jobs and three face lifts BEFORE 1957's Funny Face.

It's briefly mentioned on this link, but if you google 'Kay Thompson' and 'Dr. Feelgood', you'll turn up quotes from the biography.

Another mention in the NYT's review:

"Thompson would have been better known, Mr. Irvin writes, if not for her “delusions of grandeur” (perhaps linked to her methamphetamine use) and the fact that she slowly became what he calls “a monstrous control freak.”

Jacobsen's most famous client, and one who always seemed like a huge Queen, was actor Robert Cummings.

Those weren't vitamins that made him so youthful...

From imdb's Robert Quarry bio:

In 1982, outside his North Hollywood apartment, he was beaten and robbed. The muggers broke his knees, ribs and cheekbone. He suffered his first heart attack as a result.

Was this a "beaten by a trick" scenario?

Kay was probably referred to Jacobson by Judy Garland, who got her barbiturates/speed from Jacobson (as well as many other Dr. Feelgoods), later on Liza was a Jacobson client

Nah, just someone taking advantage of the situation R36.

One person I've always wondered about is Jimmy Thompson, best remembered as the "Beautiful Girl" singer in Singin' in the Rain. He also had small parts in Summer Stock, Brigadoon, and Forbidden Planet. The liner notes of the SITR soundtrack CD from Rhino Records says he was Gene Kelly's "protege"... hmm...

Other than that, absolutely nothing on him no birthdate, death date, nothing. Makes you wonder if he was blackballed for something

Robert Cummings is up there with Tony Randall as the gayest straight guy in show biz. I know he was married with children (or I assume), but he has to have been gay--the 1940s/50s version of John Lithgow.

r40 here: Re Robert Cummings--5 marriages, 7 children and a serious meth addict for the last 25 years of his life apparently. Overcompensating?

One that always pinged to me was Joseph Kearns who played Mr. Wilson on Dennis the Menace.

I think Cummings was just a prissy straight guy

Max Showalter was apparently a very nice man, but an awful actor. He is just terrible in Niagara, He was also the original choice to play Ward Cleaver in Leave It To Beaver, and appears in the pilot with a different Wally (the Beaver and June are the same ones as in the long-running show).

Max Showalter was the terrified piano player in the classic "It's a Good Life" episode of The Twilight Zone.

He was married in that.

Jack Carson was mentioned as being bisexual in a recent Doris Day thread. Anybody have the gossip? Carson has always been a favorite of me, he always seemed like a cuddly bear, particularly in his musical comedies with Dennis Morgan.

I always thought Carson was hot in a burly daddy kinda way

The set of Androcles and the Lion must have been a gay old time, with John Hoyt and Maurice Evans....

Here's Cary and Randy in all their domestic glory

They were a gorgeous couple

Were Van Johnson and Keenan Wynn really a couple? The fact that they were "married" to the same woman at some point gives me Gene Kelly-Stanley Donen-Jeannie Coyne vibes

Evie Wynn Johnson definitely gravitated towards "ambiguous" guys - she also dated Ty Power in her younger days

Any dirt on Charles Farrell? He was cute when he was young.

R46 Carson was very cute. He was also a very good dramatic actor. In Roughly Speaking he had a wonderful rapport with Rosalind Russell. Also with Ann Sothern, in April Showers.

I doubt he was gay. Had a fling with Doris Day.

Big gay contingent in. "Advise and Consent," which had a groundbreaking scene in a gay bar:

Charles Laughton

Will Geer

George Grizzard

Walter Pidgeon (according to Scotty Bowers)

Peter Lawford (rumored bi)

I've seen many people on here talk about Peter Lawford being gay with some degree of certainty. Was he just rumored to be gay/bi or was there more to it than that?

R56, he was bi.

r57 How do we know?

Well he never sucked MY cock.

R46 AND R47 , Jack Carson is my big daddy fantasy .Would love a pic of his feets .

There is an actor in "She Done Him Wrong" who is not credited and he is spectacularly handsome. I wonder if he caught La Grant's eye. He is in a few scenes. At 2:15 he is smoking a cigar. The video quality is not sharp but you can get an idea of how modern his attractiveness is.

r61 He's gorgeous. I wonder if it's even possible to find out who he was?

I don't know if this has been discussed here already, but wasn't Tommy Kirk fired by Walt Disney for being arrested in a gay bar raid? It was kept out of the newspapers and gossip columns of course (money probably exchanged hands) but I've read somewhere that Hedda Hopper tipped Walt off on Kirk' s arrest

Not sure. I only know about the time Mickey Mouse was almost jailed for soliciting in Griffith Park.

Re:64

Lmfao!

At the time of Kirk' s arrest he had already been loaned out to AIP for Pajama Party, and he was then almost finished with filming for The Monkey's Uncle. After Disney canned him, AIP signed him.

Was Anthony Newley bisexual? He hinted about it in several interviews later in his life and Shirley Jones said in her memoirs that he had the hots for her then hubby Jack Cassidy and proposed an orgy between the Cassidys, Newley and then wife Joan Collins

From the linked thread devoted to Newley...

[quote]

[quote]Garth Bardsley (sounds like a Harry Schearer character) wrote Newley's biography. Newley was open about having been a kept man in Lindon in between jobs. He (Newley) really didn't think there was anything odd or wrong about it. He considered himself free of sexual hang ups, so it was just matter-if-fact to him.

[quote]But when the bio was published, Newley fans were outraged on his behalf about this "allegation." Newley was advised not to talk about this in public, as it could be very detrimental to any career comeback he attempted.

[quote]Many of his dowdy middle-aged lady fans didn't know he was an exhibitionist.

All they had to do was watch him sing.

Charles 'Buddy' Rogers always pinged to me.

I'll just leave this here

Baron Nicolas de Gunzburg. He was in one movie, Der Traum des Allan Gray. I started a thread on him as I wanted to more about him. He worked as an editor in several magazines including Vogue and threw the most lavish costume parties. He was in a relationship with an artist, and actor Erik Rhodes who was in "Top Hat" and (ironic title) "The Gay Divorcee" amongst other movies.

Gyles Isham, who was an actor and English aristocrat (12th Baronet of Lamport). He was in Anna Karenina with Greta Garbo

Before Turner Classic Movies changed their intro to "Silent Movie Sunday" to their current hipster foolishness the actor at 0:16 (I don't know remember his name) had such a beautiful face and natural talent. I read he was gay and the big wigs in Hollywood wanted him to get into a lavender marriage and je refused. He and his boyfriend were together for decades until he passed. I don't know if it's William Haines because when I researched Haines his Wikipedia was different than the gentleman I read about. People do change Wikipedia though.

R73 Charles Boyer?

R21 - Yes! "Van Johnson, Golden Age Queen" was right up there with the 'Summer Stock Memories" thread -- classic! Speaking of which, Allen Ludden and Betty White were mentioned in the latter several times. Scotty Bowers gave that interview about 'a beloved older star' who's husband was 'gay, gay, gay' who he refused to out. I'd venture it was about either Betty or Julie Andrews and Blake Edwards.

r73, I believe the silent movie actor at 0:16 in the TCM montage is James Murray, in King Vidor's THE CROWD. Murray was a hopeless alcoholic and lost his career as a result. He was briefly married twice and died at age 35, drowned in the Hudson River. Whether he fell or jumped off the pier was never determined. Whether gay or not., he certainly was a mess!

Bump!

Two pings!

Any info on Kenny Baker, who appeared in Mr. Dodd Takes the Air ('37), The Mikado and At the Circus (both '39)? He was also regular on radio's The Jack Benny Show until he was replaced by Dennis Day in the early '40s. He always pinged to me

Kenny Baker was cute

He was also the love interest of Cyd Charisse in Harvey Girls.

His IMDb page says he was married and had 2 children.

There were a lot of gorgeous Irish American men in Hollywood in the Golden Age of Hollywood. Does anyone know if any of them were gay or possibly in the closet?

I've heard many rumors over the years that James Cagney was at least bi, r83. He started in the business as a dancer.

Re 83

Tyrone Power for starters, rumored to be a closet gay for his whole career. There's been several DL threads on him. Had a longtime bf (J. Watson Webb) and had rumored flings with Cesar Romero, Orson Welles and director Charles Walters

Errol Flynn, whose father was Irish, was rumored to be bi. but like Brando, Welles and John Barrymore he was probably a switch hitting nympho

R83 George Brent was rumoured to be gay. When Ann Sheridan divorced him, she was asked what went wrong in the marriage (they were married for just a year) "Brent bent" was her answer.

[quote] Errol Flynn, whose father was Irish, was rumored to be bi. but like Brando, Welles and John Barrymore he was probably a switch hitting nympho

Flynn and Barrymore were also drinking buddies and got into much mischief together. (A family member of mine who worked for the studios, primarily as "security" which sometimes entailed getting actors out of trouble, especially with local law enforcement, told stories of having to go Flynn and Barrymore's estates when neighbors call police complaining about the two running around in the middle of the night/early morning draped in bed sheets while pretending to be togaed Romans.) Both were rumored to be bisexual. Flynn would often to the older Barrymore as "Papa".

Any information about Charles Boyer?

R87 Flynn's portrayal of the declining JB in "Too Much Too Soon" is very poignant and haunting. It was just a year before Flynn died at 50, with, according to the coroner, the organs of a 70-year-old man.

R88 nothing to indicate Boyer was gay. His one son committed suicide at c. 30.

[quote] [R87] Flynn's portrayal of the declining JB in "Too Much Too Soon" is very poignant and haunting. It was just a year before Flynn died at 50, with, according to the coroner, the organs of a 70-year-old man.

Flynn and Barrymore's relationship definitely had its toxic side, with each feeding and encouraging the other's bad behavior. especially their drinking.

Thompson was also in Band Wagon. I guess close to not only Kelly but Minnelli too. Somebody said a long time ago he was retired in FL. Surprised some musical film nut hasn't tracked him down. May be dead at this point. Or at least pushing 90. He was a charmer.

Noel Coward claimed he bedded Cagney. Also in the early 30s Cagney was a good friend of Lincoln Kirstein which made me think hmmm.

And Boyer committed suicide just a few days after his wife died of cancer. Not gay. Just tragic. But a marvelous actor.

Yes, he was. Perhaps underrated. OT, he was in a movie called "The Happy Time," with Louis Jourdan. Both men lost their only son to suicide. Bobby Driscoll was also in the film, as Boyer's son, and he died young of a drug addiction. On the other hand, actress Marsha Hunt, who was in the film, and was a liberal who was black listed, and was gay friendly from way back, is pushing 102.

John Darrow, who became a very successful agent when his acting career wound down

Worth another bump!

I would love it if George O'Brien was a homosexualist. Although it doesn't look like he would have minded putting out for a role.

*****DO COME!*******

When I called up Farley Granger,

I said, "Far, don't be a stranger!

I've invited to my soire'e

John Dall in his sheerest moire'.

Clifton Webb will be there smirking

And Maharis' low-down lurking

Makes the place such a chic tearoom.

Now I hope that there will be room

For those bad boys Rand and Cary.

First they're spatting, then they're merry!

So, my dearest, darling Farley,

Won't you join our dishy parley?"

I read somewhere, can't remember where, that Phillips Holmes was involved in the Libby Holman murder scandal and that Holman hired a mobster, probably Bugsy Siegel, to put a hit on her husband because she assumed he was sleeping with Holmes

Holmes was in An American Tragedy in 1935, which was remade as A Place in the Sun, with Monty. They both played the central character and both had the Holman connection. Holmes was in a car accident in 33, in which actress Mae Clarke, of grapefruit fame, suffered facial injuries that required reconstruction. A harbinger of Monty's accident in 1957. Holmes died in 1942 in an airplane training accident. He was 35, about Clift's age in 1957.

Wow.

Any more gossip on Robert Taylor? Was he really gay/bi and in a lavender marriage with Stanwyck? I believe Strickling Files guy had some stuff on him

Re. Robert Taylor - I think someone here claimed he hit on sailors when he joined the Navy during WW2

Any gossip on Nick Adams? He allegedly slept with both Elvis and James Dean, but both of of those supposed flings have been been called into question by family and friends.

I do think he was bi and a hustler, and his death seems suspicious.

I thought Ann was talking about George’s cock when she said “Brent bent”.

R104 Bent means gay.

[quote]Bent

[quote]Bent, meaning gay, homosexual, queer.

[quote]for example; Kurt is bent.

[quote]#gay#bent#queen#homo#homosexual

They even wrote a play (and made a movie) about it.

Any info on Ed Fury? He's still very much alive and he's rumored to be family. I believe he was also a Henry Willson client

Cagney pings, oh yes. He's a scrappy type that you just don't see anymore so he flies under the radar.

But I hate the idea that since he was a dancer he must be though, everyone in that early era sang and danced, you weren't a complete artist if you couldn't, especially if you weren't classically good-looking, which he wasn't.

No, it's not true that everyone sang and danced back then.

Most of the leading role actors and actresses OF THAT ERA could, I mean 20s-early 30s, the training leading to success in that era was still vaudevillian to a certain extent.

R46, R47, one of my favorite guests on the old Tonight Show was Dick Shawn, who was a fairly weird guy. He turned to Johnny and said "Would you like to hear my Jack Carson impression?" It was great, he sounded just like him.

Ed Fury was a favorite of Bob Mizer....

[quote]Ed Fury was a favorite of Bob Mizer....

and Helen Lawson ...

Fghjj

I always got Ed Fury and Steve Reeves mixed up...

Was Steve Reeves gay? Died from lymphoma, age 74.

Steve Reeves in makeup...

William S. Hart, considered to be the first cowboy star of the movies even though he began as a Shakepearan actor, was allegedly gay and very much in the closet. He did marry a woman in the early 1920s but there's no pics of her (that I know of). There's also scant info available on Hart' s personal life.

[quote]Was Steve Reeves gay?

Despite the many movie-house boners his sword-and-sandals epics gave me in my youth, Reeves does not seem to have been a devotee of the peen. He was married three times, the second was a long one, ending only with his wife's death, and he was with his third wife until his own death.

Dear R 86: George Brent was not gay. The “Brent Bent” quote of Ann Sheridan’s was a literal comment about his cock. It had a very severe and dramatic curve. Must has been a challenge.

r118 So is this a cruising area?

[quote]William S. Hart, considered to be the first cowboy star of the movies even though he began as a Shakepearan actor, was allegedly gay and very much in the closet. He did marry a woman in the early 1920s but there's no pics of her (that I know of). There's also scant info available on Hart' s personal life.

IRC. Hart's wife was a young actress who was a couple of decades younger than he was. The two had never been seen dating or even out in public together before the studio announced they were engaged to be married. Shortly after, Hart's new wife already filed for separation but the two remained together for a few more years, allowing for the birth of their only child, when his wife filed for divorce. The divorce paperwork supposedly included such claims as abuse, alienation of affection, fraud and "deviancy" (according to a relative of mine who worked as an attorney in Los Angeles in the 1920s and onward).

^ She claimed fraud?! Shades of Renee Zellweger and Kenny Chesney

[quote]^ She claimed fraud?! Shades of Renee Zellweger and Kenny Chesney

I'm more interested in the claims of deviancy.

Bumping for more classic H'wood gossip

I've heard/read Paul Newman had hooked up with Brandon De Wilde, Marlon Brando (claimed he fucked Newman), Steve McQueen, Robert Redford (Newman supposedly went down on Redford on set of Butch Cassidy), rumored long-term relationship with a member of his racing team. Anyone else?

Any updates from the Strickling Files guy?

Among the frequent rumors about Cagney was his tracking down Audie Murphy and being influential in bringing him to California and into the business.

And that Cagney had a young Jack Palance put out for him.

But who knows?

Probably the worst (and more believable, because Sal Mineo was one of the pick-ups) was how Charlton Heston would troll the streets, sometimes with one of his body doubles driving, for hustlers and impressionable young (and I mean young) guys. They'd take them to a remote spot, some friend's house, and fuck his brains out. Sometimes it got rough and sometimes they'd just toss the kid out of the car afterwards.

And then there's Heston's thing with James Franciscus. Heston chased him around and they became tennis partners for cover. I had a friend who observed this routine. Not the sex but the evident trysting dates and self-conscious and secretive looks as they headed into private quarters. Presumably to stretch and cool down.

Where did you hear that about Cagney and Heston?

reyey

[quote]Any updates from the Strickling Files guy?

I think the Strickling Files guy is long gone, which is is shame because of the good dirt he had.

Didn’t the Strickling guy say he was working on a book based on the files? Probably saving the juice for that.

Newman was bisexual and had many male partners. Although married to his wife Joanne Woodward for many years, they seemed to have an agreement which allowed each of them to have sexual partners outside of the marriage. Beyond that, I don't understand why some people in online gossip groups insist that Newman couldn't possibly be gay/bisexual, usually with the excuse "But he was married!" Because people with same-sex attractions NEVER get married?

R128 would have been hot to see Heston and Franciscus hooking up. Could definitely see Chuck as the bottom.

George Nader was so hot

Heston and Franciscus def had chemistry in Beneath the Planet of the Apes

Heston was supposedly one of the many young actors who took advantage of the casting couch with gay studio execs.

^ Details, please!

R141 No specific details, just that Heston used the attention of gay execs to advance his career, much like many other young actors.

Does anyone know anything about actor John Miles? I saw him in a film noir on TCM called The Tattooed Stranger and thought he was really cute. There's basically no info about him on the internet - The Tattooed Stranger was his only starring role in movies (he did movies before, but only had small featured roles). He never did another film after 1950. Don't know whether he just walked away, was blackballed, who knows.....

ry5y35

I wonder how many actors posed for "physique" magazines back in the day. I know Glenn Corbett did.

[quote]I wonder how many actors posed for "physique" magazines back in the day. I know Glenn Corbett did.

Burt Lancaster, John Wayne (then Marion Morrison) and Gary Cooper were among those who supposedly had physique photos done very early, before their movie careers.

Didn't Chuck Connors (sp?) do a full on gay porn loop?

Yes, Chuck Connors too. Silent film star George O'Brien, who did a lot of artistic photos, also did nudes. Not quite in the same category as physique photos, but John Dominis who shot the famous photos of Steve McQueen around his house, including some revealing photos by his pool, also took a few naked photos of McQueen at the actor's request.

Richard Harrison was a 1950s pretty boy who appeared in sword and sandal epics, westerns and martial arts films through the 1990s.

Entertainment Weekly recently did an article about the murder of closeted gay actor David Bacon

More about David Bacon

R146, Gary Cooper? Really? That would be something to see.

Odd that the EW article @ R150 has no hint of the homosexual angle, as the link at R151 does...

[quote]In Hollywood Bacon got a screen test and a contract with aviation magnate Howard Hughes, who was also a movie producer. Hughes saw the name Gaspar as a non-starter and gave the young actor the stage name David Bacon. But Bacon had another problem. He was gay. For Bacon, the solution was to find a gay woman that he could marry: singer Gretta Keller. The two married in 1942, and Greta was soon pregnant. Greta was a singer and actress whose career would span nearly 50 years. She revealed later in life that the marriage was merely one of convenience so that both could pursue their careers.

[quote]Greta later told people she believed Howard Hughes was involved in the murder, that it was tied to a homosexual affair between Hughes and Bacon. Others speculated it was the offshoot of a blackmail attempt gone wrong. David was found with a camera in his car. A roll of film inside contained just one photo, a picture of David standing nude at the beach.

Yhjkkgh

Burt Lancaster nude

That looks like a composite. There are in focus/out of focus parts.

The Burt Lancaster nude has been around for many years. Before the internet and photoshop.

It's been possible to manipulate photographs since photography began. The Yul Brynner nudes look real. That Lancaster does not. (Which isn't to say he never posed nude...)

Here's a different one...

Weren't there nudes of a young George Maharis?

R150 R151

Someone should make a movie about him.

Hurd Hatfield was quite a beauty, and played Dorian Gray in the 1945 movie version. He was close to his co-star Angela Lansbury, and followed her to Ireland when she moved there.

R160 George Maharis nudes herein...

Why would a gay actor move to Ireland in the 1970s?

R164 I don't know...cost of living, maybe? He was never super-wealthy. After he died, his estate was auctioned off and the auction website showed his home and all of his furniture and memorabilia. He had some interesting stuff.

The one thing he didn't have was the "young Dorian" portrait from the film, which was recently auctioned and sold for around $200,000 I think.

[quote]Were Van Johnson and Keenan Wynn really a couple? The fact that they were "married" to the same woman at some point

They were also next door neighbors the whole time I believe!

[quote][R73], I believe the silent movie actor at 0:16 in the TCM montage is James Murray, in King Vidor's THE CROWD. Murray was a hopeless alcoholic and lost his career as a result.

Apparently Vidor passed Murray, now a disheveled bum, panhandling on the street. Vidor offered him a role in a new film "Our Daily Bread" (more or less a sequel to their hit "The Crowd") thinking he could help Murray out. Instead Murray angrily denounced him and told him he wasn't looking to be reformed, just a buck. Murray was found dead floating in the Hudson River less than two years later which haunted Vidor for the rest of his life.

^ Wow, I didn't know that

Sorry, R129. I heard about Cagney and Heston both from an actor who worked in movies in the 40s and 50s and in TV from the 60s to the 80s. The Cagney stories were from his friends and connections. He seemed to know everyone. And he saw Heston and Franciscus together because Franciscus lived in his building and Heston and he would head up to shower after their tennis games. A lot of people didn't like Heston because he was so hypocritical, but obviously no one turned him in for the teen trolling, but the street hustlers talked about it.

This friend also woke up on a USO tour to find Raymond Burr giving him a blowjob. Burr murmured, "Say nothing. Say nothing." and kept at his work. I've posted this before.

r169, thanks for the dish!!!! Was the actor who told you about Cagney and Heston famous at all or just a working actor?

The Ray Burr story makes him sound like a Spacey-esque creep

Wasn't Burr the actor who not only made up stories of serving in WW2 but also invented an imaginary wife and family.

I think Burr invented two imaginary wives, both of whom died tragically. The poor thing.

Also an imaginary son, who, not surprisingly, died tragically.

British astrologist Patrick Moore used to speak of a fiance who died "in the war". One time he was asked her name during a live radio interview. "Can't remember" was his response.

Battle of Britain flying ace Ian Gleed wrote an autobiography during the war called Arise to Conquer - his publishers told him to make up an imaginary girlfriend named "Pam" to help sell the book

Sad that gay guys have had to do this for decades.......

Didn't they essentially do that to Alan Turing by making Kiera Knightley co-lead of the Benedict Cumberbatch starrer?

I've also heard the Queen biopic gives more focus to someone called Mary rather than any of Mercury's male lovers.

r176, they did take the focus off Turing's love life, but they didn't pretend that he and the Knightley character were head over heels in love

Chocks away! R175

Bump for more dirt

Laurence Olivier and Danny Kaye. I can see the attraction to Olivier who was a real looker in younger days, but was the attraction to Kaye?

[quote]I can see the attraction to Olivier who was a real looker in younger days, but was the attraction to Kaye?

Olivier loved nothing more than a good Sylvia Fine patter song.

[quote]I can see the attraction to Olivier who was a real looker in younger days

Yes, he was.

Heston, Cagney and the other Rethugligun hypocrites...

Ugh, he was a Republican?

Fiojhjojyuy

R170, the actor was in a lot of movies, some very famous, but he never got "up there." He went from MGM and also John Ford movies to lower-end studios, finally finding himself with the budget studios. Great stories about Yvonne de Carlo and Vera Hruba Ralston. Then he went to NY and became the boyfriend of a big director and did a lot of stage and theater management work, while also doing small parts on TV, including "I Love Lucy." Then he decided he'd had enough and headed into university theater work, with some TV along the way.

Anyway, he had stories and good friends in the business all along. From Yvonne de Carlo's general availability and being used by the brass a lot to Shelley Winters defending any attack on gay people and talking about Marilyn Monroe when they were roommates and how Monroe's seeing how she was being used and assaulted left her a withdrawn and untrusting person.

He had a studio date with Joan Crawford and the tale of her behavior, her carpet ("Take off your shoes!"), her flask of vodka and having to have the driver stop for a fresh bottle to fill it, and her on-and-off switch and cold meanness when the switch was off was great.

He didn't out many people, but he thought Chuck Heston was a creepy hypocrite, loathed Robert Taylor for the same reason, and admired Marlon Brando for not being cagey about having sex with a lot of men. And how Brando loving being fucked by Burt Lancaster for an entire weekend. He saw Forrest Tucker's big dick and said considering what it was attached to you wouldn't want to go near it. The masochistic side of James Dean, who was known for prick teasing and would play hard to get unless someone punched him or put him down, and then he'd let the guy do anything. A cigarette-put-out-on-his-hand kind of guy. But complicated, because he also like women, it seemed. Loved Angela Lansbury. Wasn't fooled by Julie Andrews and her marriage.

I digress, but that generation is just about gone now and even a small glimpse of the old studios, even at the end, is interesting to me.

[quote]And how Brando loving being fucked by Burt Lancaster for an entire weekend.

R187 Thanks for the dish!

I concur with r188 - thanks for the dish!

In the previous thread, there was a discussion about John Hoyt, who was ubiquitous on TV in the 1950s and '60s. For example, he made five appearances on Perry Mason, usually playing stern, patriarchal types. Born in 1905 - or so he claimed; you can never be sure with actors, especially in those days - Hoyt was quite a handsome man well into his 50s. He had great presence on camera.

Although not a large man, Hoyt had a nice, trim physique, as seen in the Jules Dassin film Brute Force (1947), starring Burt Lancaster. He was 42 at the time.

Another shot of (almost) shirtless Hoyt.

... and an interesting bio with some creepy but dishy details.

Hoyt was among the ill-fated actors in The Conqueror, probably the biggest flop and worst miscastings that John Wayne and Susan Hayward ever had to endure. What they didn't endure was their exposure to the radioactivity on the set:

The film is sometimes called "An RKO Radioactive Picture". It was filmed near an active nuclear test site in Utah, where eleven tests had reportedly been carried out in the year before the production landed there. Not surprisingly, the set was contaminated by nuclear fallout, but producer Howard Hughes and the local population had been reassured by the Atomic Energy Commission that the area was completely safe. Photographs exist of John Wayne holding a Geiger counter that reportedly made so much noise that he simply thought it was broken. After location shooting, Hughes had tons of contaminated soil transported back to Hollywood in order to match interior shooting done there. Over the next thirty years, 91 of the 220 cast and crew members had developed a form of cancer. Forty-six had died, including John Wayne, Susan Hayward, Pedro Armendáriz (who shot himself soon after learning he had terminal cancer), Agnes Moorehead, John Hoyt and director Dick Powell. Lee Van Cleef had throat cancer, but died of a heart attack. The count did not include several hundred local Native Americans who played extras, or relatives of the cast and crew who visited the set, including John Wayne's son Michael Wayne. A "People" article quoted the reaction of a scientist from the Pentagon's Defense Nuclear Agency to the news, "Please, God, don't let us have killed John Wayne".

Love this thread, so much good gossip

Raymond Burr (not old Hollywood but....) was notorious for pulling his tricks into "Perry Mason" episodes. He also would "date" military guys, have them attend big events with him as a show of his support for our heroes in uniform, and make it all seem fine as he stood there with a butch doll.

He loved the soldiers.

Burr also was fiercely loyal and a true friend. He supported keeping a lot of old-time actors and actresses working during his TV career.

He made up the most ridiculous stories about being married three times and widowed three times and having a son who was dying as a child who he took all over the world. A complete fabulist, while living his great gay old life and settling in with his partner, Robert Benevides in plain view.

R195, do you have names of the tricks? I'm a big PM fan, and I've wondered if some of the handsome young guest stars were "friends" of Burr.

What about Karl Held? I know his character, David Gideon, was meant to draw a younger audience, but he was so handsome one has to wonder about the nature of his relationship with RB.

I don't think the Gideon character worked, because the audience felt he was taking away from the character of Paul Drake.

I too would love to know of any gay actors who appeared on Perry Mason.

Here’s Burr at the premiere of "A Star Is Born" in 1954, with his date who’s "just back from Korea." (Starts at 6:45)

[quote]I too would love to know of any gay actors who appeared on Perry Mason.

John Dall was on several episodes.

Burr was just supporting the troops!

John Hoyt was a chickenhawk who went after underage boys. He was arrested for molesting boys but the arrest was quashed

R187, I'm going to take a wild stab at the identity of your actor friend...Alberto Morin?

R196, I never heard that Karl Held was one of the boys. Although in some ways he looked the type, particularly in that he was heterosexual.

Mr. Burr was fond of the butch, healthy and straight-looking. At least in terms of priorities.

When he was doing the new Perry Mason TV movies in Denver, I knew his massage therapist (he already was ill at the time) and the happy ending - or its attempt - was part of the arrangement. But he was very respectful and decent. He treated the sex act as a normal, healthy thing in his slightly predatory manner.

I'll go back and see about episodes and names. But pretty much they stand out in the old PM episodes like they have a whiff of lavender spray and slight confusion around them.

Oh, by the way, Raymond Burr's longtime partner, Bob Benevides, did confirm that he met Burr through Scotty Bowers in 1959 as a one-time trick. He said Bowers never charged for introductions, but that Bowers just liked to see people happy.

Burr and the younger Benevides hit it off and traced their relationship to 1960, presumably when they moved in together. (Meaning when Benevides moved in with Burr.)

More on Benevides spilling tea and backing up Scotty Bowers...

[quote]In fact, Benevides confirmed three of the most controversial claims in Full Service: that Bowers, now 88, was the go-to procurer for many Hollywood stars — gay and straight — in the pre-sexual revolution, pre-AIDS, pre-Craigslist, postwar era; that he gladly shared his sex partners of both genders; and that he was not a “pimp” in the traditional sense because he collected money only when he personally serviced the customer.

[quote]Burr was not a star on the elite level of Spencer Tracy or Tyrone Power, both of whom Bowers writes about in graphic detail. But thanks to the enduring fame of Perry Mason, Burr was on the next level down. He also had prominent roles in several classic films: the relentless DA in 1951's A Place in the Sun and the wife murderer in Alfred Hitchcock's 1954 masterpiece Rear Window.

[quote]Bowers claims he turned tricks with Burr for years before setting him up with the much younger Benevides. “I arranged a quick trick for Ray,” he writes. Benevides then became Burr's life partner for the next 33 years, until the actor died in 1993.

Robert Arthur, who was in a bunch of movies including Billy Wilder's Ace in the Hole, was openly gay

bump for more stories

Kerwin Mathews and his partner were together for 46 years

I figured out I was gay at quite a young age the first time I saw a Kerwin Mathews movie.

[quote]One person I've always wondered about is Jimmy Thompson, best remembered as the "Beautiful Girl" singer in Singin' in the Rain. He also had small parts in Summer Stock, Brigadoon, and Forbidden Planet. The liner notes of the SITR soundtrack CD from Rhino Records says he was Gene Kelly's "protege"... hmm...

I've always wondered about him too. Thompson was a late replacement for the role of Charlie Dalrymple in BRIGADOON. I don't know the details, but presumably Kelly had a lot to do with it....

Kerwin Mathews was gorgeous

Jimmy Thompson was one of the trio of singer-dancers in Kay Thompson's early '50s nightclub act. She recommended him to Kelly for the "Beautiful Girl" number in Singin' in the Rain. Kay later told Liza Minnelli that the difference between her previous backup singers the Williams Brothers (with Andy Williams), and their replacements was that after a show the Williamses would ask her to grab a bite with them, while the Jimmy Thompson trio would wash their underwear, and ask if Kay wanted them to rinse out her panties.

Richard Haydn?

Richard Haydn was known for playing fussy, effete characters. He never married or had children.

This needs a bump

In honor of National Coming Out Day, here's an article about Van Johnson being forced into a sham marriage by Louis B Mayer

Does anyone have any information on actor Dick Hogan (1917-1995). He played the murder victim in Hitchcock’s movie Rope, 1948. New to datalounge, haven’t figured out how to post links yet.

Here..

"Rope" was Dick Hogan's final movie. He quit acting and became an insurance agent in Little Rock, where he was from.

Douglas Dick from Rope was gay

[quote]Douglas Dick from Rope was gay

As were John Dall and Farley Granger, and the characters they played. And gay Arthur Laurents (who was in a relationship for a while with Granger) co-wrote the screenplay with Ben Hecht.

Certainly not the only Hitchcock film with gay elements, of course.

I wondered if Dick Douglas was gay but also wondered about Dick Hogan. There’s not a great deal of information about him online. I saw somewhere that Hogan and Farley Granger dated briefly.

Was Jimmy Stewart the only straight guy in Rope?

Dick Hogan was married to a woman when he returned to Little Rock and became an insurance agent, for what it's worth.

[quote]Was Jimmy Stewart the only straight guy in Rope?

Sir Cedric Hardwicke was straight, presumably.

Yeah the Wikipedia article mentions an unnamed wife for Hogan.

r63 r65 Tommy Kirk was a chicken hawk who was fucking a 15-year-old boy while he was working for Disney. Disney continued to cast him in spite of his behavior because his movies were successful. Kirk was arrested for drug possession, not for being caught in a gay bar raid. Kirk's career ended because he was a substance abuser, not because he was gay.

^ Well, being gay back then certainly wouldn't have helped his career

^^And certainly not his career with Disney, which pretty much was his whole career, except for a couple of "Beach Party" movies.

Walt Disney fired Tommy Kirk after the boy's mother complained to him.

👬👫👬👫👬👫👬👫

Bumping

Does anyone know anything about Ralph Clanton? He tended to play queeny, supercilious type roles and I don't think he ever married

[QUOTE]Mr. Burr was fond of the butch, healthy and straight-looking. At least in terms of priorities.

As are most gay men

[quote]Does anyone know anything about Ralph Clanton? He tended to play queeny, supercilious type roles and I don't think he ever married

He was a direct descendant of members of the Clanton Gang, of "Gunfight at the O.K. Corral" fame.

That's interesting

ytyyyyyyyyyyyyyy

According to Scotty Bowers, John Dall liked to be tied upside down to trees in Laurel Canyon in the middle of the night.

“He liked to hang upside down naked until morning. Once a week he wanted this.”

R238 That just sounds ridiculous (like most of the Bowers stories)

I found that tidbit on Dall’s Wiki page

[quote]He liked to hang upside down naked until morning.

Who wouldn't enjoy that?

Any Tom Drake gossip? I have a crush on him. Love his voice.

Like so many of Judy Garland's love interests, Tom Drake was apparently gay, but I'm not aware of any specific gossip.

Tom Drake got it on with Van Johnson

[quote]Tom Drake got it on with Van Johnson

I'm guessing that a lot of guys at MGM were members of the "got it on with Van Johnson" club.

^ true dat

Any more dirt about Van?