Did William Atherton actually claim to be an ex-gay?

Am pretty sure he once announced gay conversion therapy and / or "Aesthetic Realism" worked for him - around the time of "The Sugarland Express?"

OP, I've always been fascinated by this too. Intrigued about what other DLers can uncover...

OP, do you seriously think an actor who hasn't been famous since the mid 70s has a "PR team"?

Maybe not a PR team R3, but he surely has a PR person—he's still a working actor and I'm sure would have someone hired to keep this out of the public if he so wished.

R4 - an older actor like that would not be represented by a PR person. It’s way too expensive to keep somebody on a monthly retainer.

But if there was a single video or photograph someone wanted to keep off the Internet, there are companies that you can pay on a monthly basis. Some program just scours the Internet and whenever the offending media is posted, it gets repeatedly flagged and the hosting site is slammed with cease and desist orders.

The Susskind episode was called "We Used to Be Gay" and aired May 8, 1983. It featured Atherton and other "former homosexuals" discussing Eli Siegel's "aesthetic realism" philosophy, which claimed homosexuality was a way of seeing the world that could be studied and changed. The video is on this website, but you have to register (and possibly pay) to see the footage). If you are really interested, google "Eli Siegel" and "aesthetic realism". It's all very depressing.

It costs $100 for a year membership to view lo-res videos on Historic Films, R6. I'm wondering if this was actually William Atherton, the actor, or possibly another William Atherton? It can't be a wildly common name, but there are undoubtedly other William Athertons. The thing that makes me wonder is the fact that there are no screencaps, no quotes, no published material referencing the segment in relation to him specifically. It's very strange.

It's him.

I'm curious as to how his supposed conversion has held up all these years later, and whether he even believes it worked anymore. IMDb mentions he married a woman in 1980, but his Wiki doesn't say anything of the sort. It's really too bad if he is that deeply in denial. He was handsome in his youth and could have had some nice boy love before settling down with a gentleman, but alas.

$100 to view videos is exorbitant. I don't think William Atherton is a common name for an actor. You can find many references to his association with Aesthetic Realism through the 70s.

Maybe this place can help.

From "Celluloid Activist: The Life and Times of Vito Russo" (p. 142). Atherton telling people, including a dubious Vito, at the 1976 Theatre World Awards that Aesthetic Realism had cured him of homosexuality.

God, how depressing. I too thought he was boyishly handsome in his youth; despite how revolting his character in Day of the Locust was, he was still adorable in it. Here's a picture of him with his wife in 2010. She appears mentally checked out, and possibly suffering from an eating disorder.

At this point, he's probably just cut his losses when it comes to his sexuality. He's been married so long and has spent a considerable amount of his life in denial, so I doubt he'll ever formally come out. He'll ostensibly live out his days in his house in LA with his frau, occasionally jacking it to gay porn and maybe cruising in public bathrooms. That being said, Ed Smart (Mormon kidnapee Elizabeth's dad) just came out in his sixties, so I suppose there's hope for anyone. To live in denial like that is a sad life.

I don't think he and his wife ever had kids, but when they got married in 1980 Vito Russo said Atherton would name his first child "Living Proof".

I wish I had known this in the early 90s. I could have asked him right after i pulled my dick out of his mouth. (True story).

He was once very close to Liza.

We are going to need more details than that, R9

I meant R16, damnit

R18 Are you old enough to remember or even know about 976 lines? (maybe someone should do a thread on that?). Anyway, 976-HUNG or whatever the fuck it was, he came to me off of that. I opened the door, immediately recognized him as an actor, but thought it was somebody else. We did the usual intro, he was kind of nervous, like he was afraid of being recognized. So I pretended I didn't recognize him and treated him like shit, which was what he wanted. He jacked off while sucking my dick. Not real imaginative. lol

Anyway, I was certain, it was "that guy from Knots Landing", (Kevin Dobson). I confided to a friend who was a knots fanatic and he couldn't believe Kevin Dobson was gay and kept insisting that it couldn't have been him. Some time later, I was watching Die Hard on television, and there he was ! lol It was definitely him. I called my friend, who was relieved, and he then told me he had heard William Atherton stories and claimed he should have figured it out himself.

And to answer the next predictable question, I don't remember anything about his dick.

I remember this so well, as I thought Atherton was cute. I was kind of fascinated with Aesthetic Realism, in it's being a cult and what I thought of (and still do) as a con job. I remember seeing the Susskind program too. I always wondered if Atherton would come around but I guess he never did. Sad.

It’s William Atherton.

Nobody cares.

The Eldergays here all remember this, at least generally. Atherton blew his entire career with this nonsense.

Red haired all smell funny "down there."