Rip Taylor! Confetti no more!

He just couldn't imagine a world without Diahann Carroll in it.

I honestly thought he died years ago.

Dang! Rip Torn just died in July of this year. 2019 has not been a good year for Rips.

R.I.P. Rip

Confetti will float in remembrance of his zaniness

R3 Pray for Kelly Ripa and Rodney Allen Rippy!

Was he a Friend of Dorothy?

[quote]Was he a Friend of Dorothy?

He was so gay, I think it's more likely that Dorothy was a friend of his.

[quote] Was he a Friend of Dorothy?

Does confetti fall?

Damn! Olivia de Havilland wins again.

[quote]Does confetti fall?

Not if the air conditioning is on full blast.

Gayer than gay

I thought Rip was fucking hilarious.

His style of comedy was certainly not one we'll see again.

So basically R.I.P Rip

Didn't he deny being gay?

Rip was still alive? Color me surprised that he was amongst the living. No matter he was the very first gay nelly queen that I was ever exposed to on TV. There was no veneer of being straight at all,he was such a queen he was an empress.

Rest in Peace Rip you shall be missed.

He used to go to the French Market in WeHo quite often. I never had a chance to speak with him though.

who gets his wigs?

Liza Minnelli

Put me also on the list of those who thought this icon had already made it to gay heaven. Isn't it strange how that is? Wasn't this poof always on Hollywood Squares or some other game show that featured C or D-list celebs?

An old boyfriend has a hilarious story about Rip Taylor hitting on him after the opening night of a touring production of Peter Pan.

[quote]An old boyfriend has a hilarious story about Rip Taylor hitting on him after the opening night of a touring production of Peter Pan.

But you're obviously not going to tell it to us.

We have to wait for the boyfriend to get on the DL

Tell us the story, R20. Don't play coy.

[quote]Tell us the story, [R20]. Don't play coy.

I bet a caftan and earrings were involved. And that was just Rip's costume as Captain Hook!!!

I'm burning my wig in grief as we speak.

[quote]Was he a Friend of Dorothy?

The man literally traveled with his own cloud of glitter, WTF do you think?

R25, is that you, Charles Nelson Reilly?

R20 here. Sorry. Didn’t mean to be coy. Just busy. Anyway, the former, generous, bf had a habit of sending flowers to the biggest star in tour he planned to see. Often led to an in person thank you. Well, having no interest in Cathy Rigby he sent flowers to RT. Scored a visit to his suite after the show. RT offered him a glass of wine. Ex bf said sure and ran to the restroom. Came back. RT was in place but had stripped naked. Still wearing part of the Captain Hook drag - a beard perhaps? My lost boy retreated as quickly as possible.

On the Joe.My.God post about his death, someone posted about sending him an email after reading an article that he had come out, and received a rude bitchy reply from Rip. I guess he didn't like people thinking he was either gay, or open about.

I saw him as Captain Hook and he was actually very good. He didn’t go too far with the zaniness and he saved the confetti for the curtain call.

For r29,

[quote]The actor and comedian was widely believed to be gay, though he disputed the designation of 'openly gay' after author Brett Hartinger referred to him as such in 2008. ' You don't know me to summarize that I am openly gay,' he wrote in response. 'I don't know that you're not openly a heroin user. You see how that works? Think before you write.'

Bitches are gonna bitch

R31 this is the post I meant:

[quote]He said so in an email response to me. I had heard in the news that he had come out and I sent him an email through his website thanking him for being a role model and he replied with a scathing offended response that I shouldn't assume things about people, I shouldn't believe everything I read in the news, and I shouldn't label people in ways they might find offensive.

Platinum blond wigs; scarves; prodigious jewelry; sequins; a lispy, bitchy, sassy persona...

Gee, I wonder what people thought?

Favorite line: he'd flash a gaudy ring at the audience and say, "Like it? Mother made me promise to get her a nice stone".

When I was a kid I thought it was so funny when he'd put his hanky under his toupee and hold each end and woo- woot buff the top of his head the way you dry your back in a back n forth motion with a towel.

In the Entertainment Hall of Fame, if only for participating in comic gems like this back in the 70s:

"Hollywood Squares or some other game show that featured C or D-list celebs?"

R19 - Hollywood Squares did not feature only C&D list celebrities. Many C&D Listers who started on Hollywood Squares or "came down" to Hollywood Squares became cultural icons such as Charlie Weaver and Paul Lynn.

[quote]Hollywood Squares did not feature only C&D list celebrities.

No, that was Match Game. Brett Somers, Charles Nelson Reilly, Fannie Flagg, who the hell are these people?

I liked it when he'd take his dentures out and say, "It'sth juth like a puthy".

You don't know who Charles Nelson Reilly and Fannie Flagg are?

Charles Nelson Reilly was damn good actor. Loved him in the "Jose Chung's From Outer Space" episode of the X-Files.

FYI: Charles Nelson Reilly was also a semi-regular on Hollywood Squares. Brett Somers was married to Jack Klugman...aka Oscar Madison and Fannie Flagg was a comedic actress (Love American Style and maybe IIRC The Bob Newhart Show) and author wrote the novel "Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe".

[quote]You don't know who Charles Nelson Reilly and Fannie Flagg are?

I *know* who they are. The point was that they were z-list actors. Why do you think they were cooling their asses on a silly game show? It's not like they had Faye Dunaway, Barbra Streisand and Ryan O'Neill up there.

They had better betty

Wait a sec, I thought he died 10 years ago.

Whatever.

"I *know* who they are. The point was that they were z-list actors. Why do you think they were cooling their asses on a silly game show? It's not like they had Faye Dunaway, Barbra Streisand and Ryan O'Neill up there."

Garth Brooks, when not on tour, was a semi-regular on Hollywood Squares. He donated his participation fees to charity. One may not like Garth Brooks but I do not think one could call Garth Brooks a Z-list celebrity. Also Joan Rivers was a semi-regular on Hollywood Squares and Ms. Rivers was definitely NOT on any Z-list.

[quote] Also Joan Rivers was a semi-regular on Hollywood Squares and Ms. Rivers was definitely NOT on any Z-list.

Joan Rivers was the very definition of Z-list. In the 60s and 70s, her entire career was doing stand up routines on Carson. She wasn't a movie star. She didn't have the tv credentials of Lucille Ball or Carol Burnett. It was only in the late 80s with the rise of cable tv that Joan's fame rose.

R46 - I agree with all you say but many contributors at the DL are too young to remember the 1980s let alone the 60s & 70s.

Then why would they even know who rip Taylor was in the first place??

I like that he did the obligatory beard marriage- with a showgirl no less, nice touch!- so he could always say he was "divorced" (in one interview I saw he even mentions a "son", but there's no record of that)

He made a long career out of nothing, and died in Beverly Hills. Not too shabby.

He did club dates, commercials, and talk shows.

He wore earrings

Caftans