Gay Actors of Yore

Earl Holliman. BDF

Earl is still around at age 95!

Agree with you about Tom Drake, OP. He had a beautiful profile and a fantastic speaking voice.

I always thought he had the looks to be a star of silent films, when the clean-cut collegiate look was the thing. He never broke through as a star during the war years, and heavy drinking took a toll on his looks quite early. If you ever see him in later TV appearances, he is almost unrecognizable as The Boy Next Door.

Grant Williams (“The Incredible Shrinking Man” and a key appearance in “Written on the Wind”)was another clean cut gay actor under contract to Universal in the ‘50s.

Grant Williams was hot

Bump

Grant Williams died of “blood poisoning”…in 1985?

Hmm.

He was handsome, and I’m sure still had a great ass, etc…

A DLer once claimed to have had an "encounter" with Grant Williams, but it was when he was older, not at the peak of his hotness

Roger C Carmel. Chest hair galore.

George Grizzard. An Oscar short of EGOT.

Love George Grizzard. Great character actor

Grizzard was on The Twilight Zone when he was young. He was kinda cute back then

Gail looks positively possessed.

Joel Crothers.

I didn't run home from school to watch Dark Shadows, I ran home from school to watch Joel.

My gaydar was already finely-tuned at age 6

Joel Crothers was so hot

Larry Kert looked like he could be wild in bed.

David Oliver, gone 32 years now.

R16, David's partner, Terry Houlihan, survived him by 30 years, dying in 2022. Terry lost his brother, Brian, to AIDS in 1988.

Interesting video ... "The Story of David Manners"

Manners is probably best known for playing the Jonathan Harker character in the 1931 film classic, Dracula.

He was born Rauff de Ryther Duan Acklom on April 30, 1900, in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. .. What a name!

I guess Joan Crawford was completely nasty to him at the start of some picture in 1936, so he walked out and took a leave of absence from Hollywood.

His partner was playwright, Frederic William Mercer. They were together 30 years until Mercer's death in 1978. David himself lived to be 98 and died in 1998. He also did theatre work and wrote books.

btw - There's a fairly nice dick print at the 7:00 minute mark.

Tom Neal. Loved him in Detour.

Another vote for Earl Holliman. Love him.

R19 Tom Neal was gay? Didn't he have an affair with Barbara Payton and didn't he kill his wife?

Tom Neal was a straight pig who killed one of his wives.

I've always liked David Manners

[quote]Tom Neal was a straight pig who killed one of his wives.

He also killed his career by putting Franchot Tone in a coma.

Raymond Burr. Often dreamed of sitting on his face.

R18- Oh SHIT !

Manners!

I wonder what cunty thing Joan said to David Manners

All the posts re Tom Neal are correct. He was a heterosexual pig but I always thought he was closeted and a self-hater.

I always thought Michael Whalen was hot. He did a couple movies with Shirley Temple

Dark Shadows had SO MANY to choose from!

Jack Larson was a real cutie when he played Jimmy Olsen on "The Adventures of Superman":

Was Jack a top or bottom?

Sizemeat?

Didn't Larson have an affair with Monty Clift?

Yes

The ever-radiant John Fraser, whom you might remember from El Cid, Repulsion or as Bosie to Peter Finch's Wilde in The Trials of Oscar Wilde.

That David Manners video was interesting

I didn't know he'd considered suicide :-(

Don't forget Hawaiian Eye, r3.

Loved John Fraser in The Trials of Oscar Wilde

Patrick Bedford

I'm not doubting anyone...just wondering how you know these people are gay?

Is it commotion knowledge and I missed it? Just random information that you picked up somewhere along the way? Personal connection?

I hadn't heard of some of these people so it's interesting to learn this and then research them.

TIA

^ Some of these guys (like John Fraser) actually came out in their later years

Others were "glass closeted" and, while they never publicly came out, weren't really living a lie, either

More love for Earl Holliman.

Patrick Bedford?

I know there was a gay British actor named Brian Bedford who loved openly with another actor named Tim MacDonald.

Richard Deacon of "The Dick Van Dyke Show":

William Haines

Let's not forget Ramon Novarro

Jean Marais

Two actors and longtime partners, DIrk Bogarde and Anthony Forwood

^ They were a handsome couple

Jack Larson, best known as Cub Reporter Jimmy Olsen in the Adventures of Superman.

I would have done Jack Larson back in the day!

Jean-Claude Brialy

George Maharis

Jean-Claude Brialy was really cute and a good actor

[R26] Well, since as Bette said, Joan Crawford slept with every MGM actor except Lassie, "Mommie" probably tried to get David into bed and he wasn't interested. That probably pissed her off.

Joan was pretty gay-friendly, though

Rock Hudson

B-movie hunk, George Nader.

I first noticed David Manners in an excellent early talkie called The Last Flight about WW 1 veterans going aimlessly through life still shellshocked by what they had been through during the war. An unusual film for its time and when seen today you're amazed by its contemporary resonance despite featuring still young men drinking their way through life in black tie. Starring the once hugely popular Richard Barthelmess.

I had such a crush on Jack Larson when I was a boy watching Superman. How happy I was to find out many years later he was gay.

There are some very hot men pictured here!

George Nader can act on me, please.

Yore Mama.

Tab Hunter

Jackie Gleason

VICTOR BUONO. Loved him in Whatever Happened to Baby Jane, hot!

Paul Lynn

Paul Lynn? Who the hell is he? Or did you go to Columbia?

R64 Glad to see another big bear admirer. Buono was a sexy guy, especially with the beard.

(John) Edward Penn - probably better known as a stage actor.

Penn was Daniel J. Travanti's partner for decades. They left L.A. in the mid-90s to live a simpler life in the Lake Forest, Illinois area.

Penn died in February 2020 at age 93. .. Travanti just turned 84 in March.

And speaking of "Dan Travanty" the name he went by when he first started out in Hollywood, he was involved with gay James Daly.

Don't mean to be a Debbie Downer but mention of Grant Williams always makes me sad. He had a lot of promise but went downhill personally and professionally and seemed to have had a very lonely end. No proof but certainly all signs are a killing closet.

Geez, that's really sad

GAY APES!

Maurice Evans as Dr. Zaius.

R72 Sorry your post sent me on a tangent.

Maurice Evans was into twinks, I heard

MORE GAY APES!

Roddy McDowall as Cornelius.

STILL MORE GAY APES!

Sal Mineo as Doctor Milo.

Maurice Evans, more recognizable as Maurice, Sam’s father on Bewitched.

psychopath Lawrence Tierney.

We can't forget the boys from Hitchcock's "Rope."

Farley Granger

... and John Dall

And then there's Robert Calhoun, Granger's longtime partner, who was also an actor.

Planet of the Gaypes.

And Clement Brace, who was John Dall's partner at the time of Dall's death.

Who was that beefy hairy-chested 40s noirish hunk, slick black hair, with the first name Steve?

Could he have been gay??

84 responses and no one's mentioned DL fave Richard Chamberlain?

R84 Steve Cochran? Doubtful.

R78, was Tierney gay?!!!

YES. Read about Lawrence Tierney. The dude was not just playing a psycho. He was a violent nut case. He was just about A list when the studios couldn't have anything to do with him. He should have been in jail and never got out. The closet kills. Sometimes it's not the closeted it kills.

Another vote for Joel Crothers, one of my favorite daytime TV actors. Can’t believe he’s been gone nearly 40 years now.

Cary Grant

Randolph Scott

Van Johnson

Keenan Wynn

Charles Laughton

John Gielgud

Tony Perkins

Guy Madison

Rory Calhoun

Troy Donahue

Anyone with a funny first name

Where are you getting that he was gay, r88?

Rob't Reed

Is everybody gay!?

Anthony Perkins and Grover Dale

Ivor Novello

Steve Cochran was a notorious womanizer with a big dick.

Ivor Novello supposedly got around

He was depicted by Jeremy Irvine in the movie Benediction

R97 Receipts?

Disney actor, Tommy Kirk.

Isn't "notorious womanizer" often code for "bisexual" in Old Hollywood?

I always liked Cesar Romero

Tierney in action. He just oozes creepiness.

Richard Cromwell

I'm not finding anything gay about him, r103.

Well what do you want him to do? Beat someone to death with his murse?

Richard Cromwell was Angela Lansbury's first husband.

Needless to say, it didn't work out

Like the comments at youtube say, if Nedra hadn't been sitting there, I think Lawrence would have beat (gay) Skip E. Lowe up.

Singing in the Dark

Winston Churchill supposedly had sex with Ivor Novello and described the experience as “musical.”’

I didn't know that Ty Power and Cesar Romero had an affair

Ty and Cesar

Handsome couple

At least Ty's sitting like a lady.

Wasn’t Zachary Scott a poofter?

Scott was married multiple times, I believe, but he always pinged for me

Larry Kerr was described as an uninhibited Californian. Sounded fun and it’s a shame that Kert did most of the heavy lifting for “Company” but Dean Jones gets all the glory because he was on the damn cast album.

Well, Dean had the star quality.

Henry Brandon. His longtime partner was one of Judy Garland's husbands, Mark Herron.

Henry Brandon was a good character actor. He had a great voice too

Gay actor of yore Roddy McDowall playing gay and bitchy in the gayest murder mystery ever, Evil Under the Sun.

The gayest Joker ever to grace the screen.

More Sal Mineo.

R117, Larry Kert was just a replacement. Anyone who saw Dean Jones in the role, knows he was excellent.

R112, Cesar speaks of his friendship with Ty.

I wonder what more gay actors of yore thought of one another.

Tragic Dick Kallman

Lon McCallister and William Eythe lived together, much to the consternation of Darryl Zanuck.

R128, Now, you tell me.

Gordon Heath and Lee Payant fell in love, moved to Paris and opened L'Abbaye on the Left Bank, running it and performing together for 27 years until Lee died of cancer in the 70s.

Actor Hayen Rorke and his partner of over 40 years, director Justus Addiss.

Hayden Roarke is a new one to me . . .

HE WAS NOT!

Did he ever hit on Larry?

I would have.

Cute chub James Coco

R135, At one point, he lost a ton of weight. I remember him as a guest on the Mike Douglas Show with his new body, looking like a different person.

“Coco died at St. Vincent's Hospital, Manhattan, on February 25, 1987, at age 56 after suffering a heart attack at his Greenwich Village home.“

Drastic weight loss is tough on the heart if it’s not done properly.

[quote]Actor Hayen Rorke and his partner of over 40 years, director Justus Addiss.

Shit! I was careful to spell "Justus Addiss" correctly, but misspelled "Hayden."

Justus Addiss directed a bunch of episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents and The Twilight Zone that I enjoyed

Did not know he was family!

Actor Earle Hyman, cousin of singer Phyllis Hyman, with his partner of 50 years, Rolf Sirnes.

Earle became fluent in Rolf's native language, Norwegian, and headlined a Norwegian adaptation of "Othello", which was a smash hit throughout Scandinavia. He then regularly toured with a Norwegian theatrical company and picked up Swedish and Danish along the way. In 1986, he was awarded the St Olav Medal, Norway's highest honor, for his contributions to Norwegian theatre.

Denholm Elliott

Dennis Price

Derek Jacobi

John Gielgud

Dick Sargent:

Do you mean Dick York?

I almost didn't recognize Marie Windsor at first in the R125 interview. Must be her Korean wig. Caesar was a charming man. You can see the difference between him and Lawence Tierney though Skip E is still annoying.

John Darrow (aka Johnny Darrow), actor who became an agent, who was lovers with Charles Walters, Broadway dancer/choreographer and later MGM director.

CLIFTON WEBB

[quote]Do you mean Dick York?

Dick York wasn't gay.

147 posts and no mention of Noel Coward.

Monty Woolley

He was much more than an actor, r149.

R144 Dick Sargent announced he was gay on National Coming Out Day, 1991.

R151 True. He was still a gay actor of yore.

John Darrow was in Hell's Angel

There are a lot of hotties in this post. I have some new ideas for that old if you had a time machine question.

Furry blond Terry Lester.

Yeah, obviously I screwed up the Dicks. Sorry, all.

Terry Lester was a hottie

Kerwin Mathews

Ivor Novello

R159 I had no idea Kerwin Mathews was gay. What a lovely man he was.

Kerwin Mathews had a longtime partner who talked about their life together

Stephen Boyd

[quote]Mathews retired from acting in 1978 and moved to San Francisco, where he ran a clothing and antiques shop. Mathews died in his sleep in San Francisco on July 5, 2007, at age 81.

[quote]He was survived by his partner of 46 years, Tom Nicoll, a British display manager at Harvey Nichols, the British luxury department store. The two met in 1961.

Ross Alexander

James Mitchell

James Mitchell's longtime partner was costume designer Albert Wolsky who won Oscars for All That Jazz and Bugsy as well as many Broadway theater credits. He's still with us at 93.

Not sure if they met on The Turning Point but James Mitchell was in it and Albert Wolsky designed the costumes.

James Mitchell and Nora Kaye (Mrs. Herbert Ross) in "Fall River Legend."

Raymond St. Jacques

Probably one of the very first gay Hollywood actor of yore

I was drawn to actor George Nader as a youngster before I knew we were both gay.

I read somewhere (here?) that Charles Bickford was gay, or bi. Could that be true? I only read mention of it in one place… where ever it was.

He seems like the type who’d rip your head off if you so much as enquired.

Did Bickford's family own all those cafeterias? He was a handsome man.

Walter Pidgeon

Everybody in every book ever written by Boze Hadleigh.

Everybody who Scotty Bowers ever met.

There were always rumors about Bickford but why, exactly, I don't know.

I followed the wiki link at r170, and I am perplexed by the saga of Raymond St Jacques’ son, Sterling. Are they insinuating he wasn’t his actual son but a kept boy toy? Any extra information appreciated!

Some dish on Raymond on the AIDS Memorial post about his nephew Sterling on Instagram.

Sorry — "nephew/son"

R179, there's a DM article about Sterling St Jacques that mentions that he and Raymond were actually lovers.

R132 Jeannie knew!

Even as a kid watching the original I Dream of Jeannie I thought Hayden Rorke was femmy.

R171, Huck Finn was gay?

R93 that’s Bradley Cooper you silly gay

Becky Thatcher was a bull dyke.

And let’s not talk about Aunt Polly.

R88 Shelley Winters fucked him.

R187 Only in the Chicago company.

R15, Larry lived across the street from me on Horatio when he died. Partner, Ron, still with us.

Soap Stars - Val Dufour, George Reinholt, Jean LeClerq, Louis Edmonds, Dennis Parker.

Since today women are called Actors, add Connie Ford and Lois Kibbee to the list.

My mom told me she had a big crush on Tom Drake when she was a teenager.

With Judy.

With Deanna.

I think I read that Judy was disappointed Tom rejected her advances, on Meet Me In St. Louis, so she started showing interest in Minnelli

She sure could pick 'em.

R188, Who didn't Shelley Winters fuck?

Might be the OG gay actor...J. Warren Kerrigan, a silent star. He passed his domestic partner off as his "gardener"

When Ron Palillo died in 2012 at 63, he left behind his partner Joseph Gramm. They’d been together since 1971.

Guess Travolta wasn't the only gay Sweathog

Farley Granger was sexy.

Maureen O'Hara wrote that when they were filming Kangaroo in Australia, Richard Boone and Peter Lawford were caught in the raid of a male bordello.

R202, I think it's been established that Peter Lawford swung whichever direction the wind blew. But Richard Boone?

Yes...Richard Boone.

A bit on the male bordello at the Poseidon link.

R190

Tony and Emmy winner Michael Jeter.

Paul Winfield.

Hard to believe that he died two decades ago.

Surprised by Monty’s hairy back at r33!

Michael Jeter was pals with Burt Reynolds

[quote]Michael Jeter was pals with Burt Reynolds

They did Jazzercise together.

Bav!

r190, I also lived on Horatio Street throughout the 1990s down the block from Larry Kert and Ron Pullen. I'll never forget the sad day an ambulance showed up to take away Larry's body.

As you may remember that was a "star-filled" block with Cherry Jones and her architect gf Mary on one end and DL fave (not!) Mary Testa on the other, as well as Billy Campbell and Jennifer Connelly, who lived there together for almost a year when Billy appeared as Laertes in a Roundabout production of Hamlet. Oh, and Eddie Cibrian lived there briefly for awhile with his first wife and kids when he was shooting Third Watch.

Evocative post, r214.

His first wife has a name. Brandi!

^ She's a fine girl.

Nelson Eddy, here in the 1940 film, "New Moon". William Tannen (on the left) became Eddy's lover when he was cast in a small role in "Rosalie" (1937). Tannen's role was larger by the time of "New Moon" and they remained involved for several years. Eddy also picked-up a young Ross Hunter, when Hunter was an actor, in the 40's. Hunter frequently shared the story including telling one of his closest friend actress Virginia Grey. Grey had made a pass at Eddy during the filming of "Rosalie" (she had a small role) and was rebuffed because, "Eddy only had eyes for Tannen..."

Brandi is a dyke-lite. Does that make her a gay actor of your?

Hegelochus

Aeschylus

R205…great link! Thanks!

It’s total bullshit—but enjoy

Richard Boone looks sexy af in some photos. I especially like his man-in-black western look.

Boone was attractive in a rugged sort of way

I wonder what Richard Boone might have requested at the male bordello.

The veracity of said scenario is even being debated in the comments on a John Wayne fan site.

^ Link.

Boone was jolie-laide

Claire McAloon Boone?

Geoffrey Toone

To be fair, "Geoffrey Toone" is a pretty gay name.

r230...

[quote]For many years he had shared a house with his close friend, the actor Frank Middlemass. "To their general amusement", they were often mistaken to be lovers, but in fact were not.

Rock On, Frank!

Roscoe Lee Brown

Roscoe Lee Browne even got to play gay - a gay sociopathic robot named Box in Logan’s Run.

According to IMDb, Roscoe Lee Browne expected hostility from John Wayne on the set of The Cowboys, but somehow the two ended up friends.

R236. Wayne was famous for gladly excepting blowies from any guy on set.

Rock Hudson got along well with John Wayne but Wayne HATED Monty Clift

[quote]Roscoe Lee Browne even got to play gay - a gay sociopathic robot named Box in Logan’s Run.

He played a gay bookstore owner on "Will & Grace."

Wayne hated Monty Clift for his Method acting, not his gayness.

When I was 10, I named my dog Roscoe. I guess I knew somehow.

Sherman Hemsley:

Paul Winfield 1972

R242, he had a pretty nice body there!

Alan Bates

(No--not the one fighting the Post Office on PBS.)

Alan Bates was soooo hot. Great actor, too

Alan Bates!

❤️

R242, Sherman was 21 years younger than Isabel Sanford.

Alan Bates had a hot furry chest

I love the happy photo at r248!

Richard Haydn

To R167...Loved James Mitchell, he played the "most Evil soap opera male actor" on AMC......Palmer Cortlandt of Cortlandt Manor.

My favorite Evil Character. When he released the Dobermans on Daisy & destroyed Adam Chandler at his own victory party.

Whatever. The age difference between Sherman and Isabel was not at all apparent. They played so well off of each other.

Clift was supposedly repelled by Wayne and his old fashioned macho views, and Wayne thought Clift was an arrogant little prick. However, Wayne was prepared to work with him again in Rio Bravo, which Clift was offered, but turned down.

R253 I recall I was surprised back when Sherman died that he was 20 plus years younger than Isabel. The casting worked on The Jeffersons because she looked 10 years younger than her age and he looked 10 years older than his.

Irving Allen Lee

^ He was a handsome guy.

Seems so strange now to look at some of these actors’ death dates and instantly know it was AIDS - and then suddenly remember the constant grind of death that lasted at least 15 years.

Denholm Elliott, another AIDS victim

Awwww, I went to college with Irving Lee. He lived in my dorm and he was such a sweet guy.

R258 he died of HIV-related TB. No one dies of “AIDS”—are you typing from 40 years ago?

Where does r258 state that, r260?

Where he says “AIDS victim” —that’s where

R262 Um, yeah - Denholm Elliot was an AIDS victim.

Let me help you here - People who die of HIV (aka AIDS)-related complications can be classified as AIDS victims.

No- “aka AIDS” is absolutely meaningless …stop with the bullshit. There are no AIDS victims. They didn’t die of a syndrome, and they weren’t victims. Your entire mindset is mistaken. You type like a 20th century frau. Try typing like a 21st century gay man with a basic understanding of related medical issues.

R264, your ignorance is appalling.

r264 is proudly retarted.

265 please provide a citation to anything, much less any medical source, regarding “aka AIDS.” We can wait.

r264, BREEEATH!

R257 Yeah, sadly most of the actors who died young from 1984 -1996, can be presumed to be AIDS related.

Either that or that damned watermelon diet.

They died from liver cancer!

Move on people; the thread is about gay actors from the past.

Character actor John Hoyt

R264 I don't need a lecture from some social justice warrior.

I lived through the worst of the AIDS era. Yes, AIDS was - and still is - very real. And people did - and still do - die from it.

John Hoyt was outed by his widow!

Has Peter Wyngarde been mentioned?

Peter Wyngarde was busted for "cottaging"

Yes r277 but before that my sisters, aunts, mother, even my Gran were soaking their panties over him. But my fledgling gaydar and sore cock, told me otherwise.

And I was right.

Loved Peter Wyngarde as Klytus in Flash Gordon.

Was he a good fuck?

R79 Farley looks a lot like David Muir in that photo.

R281 David looks like Farley.

How old is she, anyway?

Her REAL AGE?

Alan Bates dated Peter Wyngarde for years

Alan Bates was also involved with the great skater, John Curry. What a beautiful pairing, they both were said to be prickly and reckless.

Does JM J Bullock count as vintage/yore in 2024?

I can't believe Grandpa Kaniski was gay!

More about John Hoyt. He certainly had a colorful life!

A John Hoyt classic...

R285 Bullock is still alive, and because OP wrote "gay actors of the past" I got the idea he was asking for ones who are DEAD TO ME. - jmho

I recall an interview Bullock did not that long ago where he said he's not retired, but he doesn't actively seek roles either. A couple of summers ago, he appeared in the "Kinky Boots" production at the Hollywood Bowl. You can see him in this promo video for the show around the 2:50 mark.

R288, that movie is a camp hoot

I like this woman's description of it, r290...

Peter Wyngarde was mad as fuck.

Actor turned novelist, Tom Tryon.

Still from "I Married A Monster from Outer Space."

R292

"mad as fuck" as in crazy mad, or angry mad? And is there a story with or about that?

Or both, since he looks like he could throw a "mad fuck" either way.

Ancient Live Journal discussing Tom Tryon.

I’d forgotten he was with porn star Casey Donovan for years.

Here’s an ancient livejournal on Tom Tryon. I’d forgotten he was with sexy mess Casey Donovan for years.

R295

“During the 1970s, he was in a romantic relationship with Clive Clerk, one of the original cast members of A Chorus Line and an interior designer who decorated Tryon's apartment on Central Park West in New York City, which was featured in Architectural Digest. From 1973 to 1977, Tryon was in a relationship with porn actor Casey Donovan.“

Casey Donovan is fun in Ramsey Metzger’s softcore smut Score.

Casey Donovan came on to me when I was 15.

IIRC Stackpole & Tryon was the name of the spiffy men's clothier owned by Tom Tryon's family, very much still in business in the 1980s when I worked in Hartford, and boosted by the preppie craze and Hartford downtown renaissance of that decade. But I don't think the shop lasted through the 1990s. I have no idea if Tom or his family actually owned it in those final years. Nevertheless, I always I hoped for a sighting of Tom, whenever I went in there. No go, lol.

R299, please tell more.

Roland Wybenga.

Let’s get some true thespians in here.

Tom Tryon was a very handsome man

Rip Taylor

R304, Otto Preminger treated him abysmally during the filming of "The Cardinal" which probably played a part in his turning to writing rather than acting.

Ray Stricklyn

Are we adding James Garner and Robert Mitchum?

What is the gay gossip about Lawrence Tierney and Tom Neal?

[quote]Tom Tryon was a very handsome man

He got his start with Disney, first with "Texas John Slaughter" on television and later with a Disney live-action feature called "Moon Pilot."

R310, He was “Adam” to Marilyn Monroe’s “Eve” in the unfinished “Something’s Got to Give”.

R311 Right. One can see Tryon in this segment of the film, when the husband (Dean Martin) goes looking for him and finds him in playboy mode poolside -- featuring Tryon in a swimsuit.

That scene starts around the 28:15 minute mark.

Even with that clip it's hard to imagine Tom Tryon succeeding in that role in Something's Gotta Give. Handsome though he was, he had no sense of comedy or the dopey bravura to carry it off. Did he ever play sexy in anything? I can see why Chuck Connors replaced him when the film really got going with a mostly different cast.

R313, George Cukor was probably hoping to get into that bathing suit.

I remember when I was a kid, being in a bookstore once and there was a display featuring one or more of Tyron's novels, with a larger poster of the author. Perhaps he was on a book tour and was going to appear at the store. Anyway, his sexy gorgeousness just stopped me in my tracks.

[quote] During the 1970s, he was in a romantic relationship with Clive Clerk, one of the original cast members of A Chorus Line ....

It sounds like Clive Clerk's relationship or at least friendship with Tyron lasted up until he died (1991), because in this lengthy retrospective of Tom's career published by the Hartford Courant newspaper in 1992, one of people they interview is "Clive Wilson," which is the name Clive Clerk went by when he switched careers to become a designer and painter.

In the article, Wilson is described as "a longtime West Coast friend and Tryon’s literary executor" and someone "who worked closely with Tryon on several of his books."

There's also a lot within the article from Tyron's younger brother, Bill, as well as discussion about Tyron's ordeal with Otto Preminger mentioned by R306.

Clive Clerk can also be added to thread. Besides Broadway, appeared in some TV and films, most notably the Rock Hudson/Doris Day rom-com, "Send Me Know Flowers."

In it, Clerk plays the flirty "Vito" the dry cleaning delivery boy. whom Rock's character, "George," doesn't like very much. When "George," begins to worry about who his wife "Judy" might hook up with after he kicks the bucket, he has a dream about it, and the guy in his dream turns out to be young Vito.

That segment leading into the dream starts around the 31:00 minute mark in this link at Dailymotion:

Howard Rollins was a very gifted actor and a very tragic story.

Eric Portman was a wonderfully dark and creepy presence in a host of British noirs from the 1940s. Indeed, he became so identified with the genre that one critic referred to him as "a one-man crime wave."

Corridor of Mirrors is my favorite Portman film but his other noirs like Dear Murderer, Daybreak, and Wanted for Murder are also excellent.

[quote]"Send Me Know Flowers."

Oh, dear.

But seriously -- how gay is that cast? Rock, Paul Lynde, gay-adjacent Tony Randall, and now Clive Clerk too?

Eric Portman was also the original narrator of The World at War tv series before Larry Olivier did the highlights version.

r316, I would love to read the article, especially the parts concerning Tom’s experience with Otto Preminger but I don’t do paywalls honey.

Tom, as a good Catholic gay ;)

Tom talks about horror Otto in the Otto documentary.

Tryon appears shirtless in the movie Three Violent People (where he co-starred with Chuckles Heston). He looked super hot. Great body.

R325, His character was missing an arm in the movie.

R325, Elaine Stritch has a supporting role as someone who is aware of Anne Baxter’s shady call girl past that she has been hiding from husband Chuck Heston.

in vistaVision!

R311, the role was originally offered to Gardner McKay, who was on a weekly series called "Adventures in Paradise," in which he played Adam Troy, the skipper of a schooner called Tiki III that sailed the South Pacific. It would've been a hilarious meta in-joke had he agreed to play "Adam" to Marilyn's "Eve," and had the film been completed and released. But, alas, it just wasn't meant to be.

Wasn’t Otto Preminger a asshole on the set to everyone?

John Mahoney isn’t from the golden age, but he died five years ago, and he’d be as old as some of the other offerings on this thread.

He also played gay a couple times.

R328 co-starring Elaine Stritch!

That trailer is a doozy—the ultimate B picture!

R329 Gardner McKay is one of the most beautiful men I have ever seen. I first saw him in a Vogue spread with Dovima on Pinterest. What a loss that he drifted away from the screen.

R332, Can you not see R327?

Gardner McKay was in The Pleasure Seekers with Ann-Margret

Cheesy movie but he was hot in it

He sought pleasure…and found it.

Gale Gordon? Yay or nay?

nay

Neigh!!!

Gardner McCay is a seriously handsome piece of man. I'm an eldergay so I should know more, but this place, Datalounge, is where I first heard of him.

Thanks DL

Gardner McKay looking spectacularly slutty.

Gardner McKay was gorgeous but was he EVER cast in a sexual role? Like Tom Tryon, he never seemed to be cast as man with any sexual desires.

Gale Gordon was heterosexual, BUTT according to a Reader Blind at Entertainment Lawyer, he enjoyed getting pegged:

[quote] READER BLIND -- OLD HOLLYWOOD: This deceased actor (Gale Gordon) had a long film and TV history but is primarily known for a couple TV shows ("I Love Lucy"/"The Lucy Show"/"Here’s Lucy"/"Life With Lucy") he did with this actress (Lucille Ball) of a certain hair color whose most famous TV show ("I Love Lucy") came first. He played her exasperated foil ("Theodore J. Mooney"). In real life, he was heterosexual and married for many many years but he also enjoyed being pegged and was known among Los Angeles sex workers as someone who would tip generously for a strap-on experience. Gale Gordon/"I Love Lucy"; "The Lucy Show"; "Here’s Lucy"; "Life With Lucy"/Lucille Ball/"I Love Lucy"/"Theodore J. Mooney" -- October 9, 2021

[quote]Actor turned novelist, Tom Tryon. Still from "I Married A Monster from Outer Space."

He was gorgeous.

Gavin Gordon

Ralph Clanton

Bruce Mince

More Jonathan Frid, the centerpiece of Dark Shadows - also upthread in the link at r29 with the other gays from the show.

I wonder what the relationships were between all the gay men in that cast were like.

Dark Shadows and Bewitched were chock full.

Witches and vampires, existing under the radar on the outskirts of polite society.

As a kid, I was devoted to both shows. I didn’t get why, but there was unquestionably a niche appeal to a lonely little gayling.

George Maharis and his nipples.

[quote]George Maharis and his nipples.

He never went anywhere without them.

….according to a Reader Blind at Entertainment Lawyer, he enjoyed getting pegged:,,,

💀👽🤖

Dirk Bogarde’s ultragay look.

Darth Vader was a Dildo-Freak, yea?!

Raymond Burr.

Is there a good biography of him? Or maybe an extensive piece online?

Laurence Harvey.

Who has not seen Walk in the Wild Side?

Laird Cregar

That was a sad story at. R355.

Laird Cregar was a really good character actor who died too young

I'm not sure if Dabbs Greer was gay but I always wondered.

Thomas Gomez

Zelda herself.

Raymond Burd.

R361 ?

Raymond Burd

^That's awesome

R313 Well, Randolph Scott played the part in the original (My Favorite Wife, 1940). He was good in it, and Randy was no comedic genius.

Merv Griffin (he acted in one major role - in a Kathryn Grayson film).

Carlton Carpenter.

Carlton Carpenter said Cary Grant asked him out on a date!

And he didn't go, r368???

R369, I think he said he had plans and couldn't go but I'll have to go back and find the quote

r367/r368 CARLETON.

No way Cary Grant asked that out.

Didn't Clifton Webb ask Bob Newhart to dance?

Clifton Webb "befriended" Robert Wagner

Chris Bernau, known mainly for theatre and daytime.

Lots of rumors about Van Johnson and Keenan Wynn.

I think I read that Charles Laughton was tragically, hopelessly in love with the young and very gorgeous Albert Finney.

Albert, alas, did not return the feeling.

Van Johnson was pressured into a beard marriage by MGM

…to marry Keenan’s wife!

R379 they kept it “in the family.”

Burr's longtime partner, Robert Benevides, was also an actor. He then began working as a "Production Executive" for Burr's subsequent "Ironside" series and then had the job title "Production Consultant" for the "Perry Mason Mystery" series.

Burr's partner was attractive. I don't think I've ever seen a picture of him before

R382 I don't know when this article featuring Benevides was written, but he looked quite dapper for an eldergay. IMDb doesn't show that he's died. He was born in 1930, so that would make him 94 now.

Regarding Carleton Carpenter, it's funny that I only know him from one role -- a guest appearance on a season two episode of "The Rifleman" in which he played a very timid man who refused to fight for himself. His primary tormentor was played by Steve Rowland, an actor who went on to become a record producer and who I thought might also have been gay himself.

Steve Rowland:

R127- He looked GAY from outer space.

Harvey Korman was a big queen

ESPECIALLY when he voiced the Big Kazoo on the Flintstones.

[quote]the Big Kazoo on the Flintstones.

Abba-dabba oh dear, r387.

There was a rumor that Van Johnson was busted cruising for sailors during WW2 and MGM covered it up

Albert Finney was never pretty. He was fucking born with cigarette teeth.

R390- Albert Finney was a homo?

[quote] but he looked quite dapper for an eldergay.

R383 Doesn't dapper mean neat and well-dressed? "For an eldergay"? Maybe I should let this go...

R388 Abba-dabba (honeymoon) was Carlton Carpenter. Fred Flintstone was yabba-dabba doo.

Harvey Korman was married twice.

Ben Cooper.

Re R384, R385, Steve Rowland is still with us, at 91 years old, and living in Palm Springs. As a record producer, he is credited with discovering and signing Peter Frampton, The Cure, and The Thompson Twins.

Young Carlton Carpenter was cute, though head shots don't particularly show it.

Carlton with frequent date Joan Evans. (Though he was not particularly interested in being closeted.)

r393 r397, see r371

R398 Why?

R394- Tom Cruise has been married THREE times.

I guess that makes him even more of a PUSSYHOUND than Harvey Korman

Bi isn't gay.

r399 To learn how to spell CARLETON.

R402 Oh, okay, you're one of those.

Thanks.

Ditto.

Me too.

Moi aussi

And me...

Let me play along.

I'll play along.

Why not?

Just because. - Donna Summers

R412 You screwed that up.

It's Sally FIELD. NO S.

R414 is correct.

Somebody give me a cigarette.

Harvey Korman just got a lot laughs out of doing drag.

r414 Bless your heart.

Mama adored Carlton! He wash the besht!

All of these misspellings are a travesty!

Damn right!

r416 - I didn't know you smoked, Betty.

[quote]Bi isn't gay.

It isn't straight, either. What's your point?

Point is Gay Actors of Yore. Duh

[quote]Somebody give me a cigarette.

[quote]—Betty Davis

Somebody's gay card has been revoked for life.

[quote]Point is Gay Actors of Yore. Duh

I love the irony of a stupid person responding with a "Duh."

Paul Keenan

R428 was the slow kid in 8th grade English.

Paul was pretty.

R428 - are you talking about yourself?

I wondered about Ben Cooper because he is in the documentary on Joan Crawford The Ultimate Movie Star and sounds very queeny. Plus he stayed friends with her after Johnny Guitar. Then I noticed on wiki he married.

Tom Fuccello

THanks for that Raymond Burr winery article. I only know of him from the phony wives and dead children stories, so it was nice to see he had a long-term happy relationship. And that his partner was still hanging out with Barbara Hale (she died in 2017, so the interview must be a few years old)

Irish actor Roger Rees who died in 2015 at age 71 from cancer.

Roger Rees was Welsh, not Irish. Great actor.

Damn, all these dead men.

Kinda depressing.

Sebastian Cabot

[quote]Thanks for that Raymond Burr winery article. I only know of him from the phony wives and dead children stories

But not from Perry Mason or Rear Window?

English actor Harry Andrews.

I had seen Harry Andrews in a bunch of things and never knew he has gay until I read about him here

He's gay r440?

R441 Do you have me blocked?

Hal England, who often appeared on "Bewitched":

Yet another "Bewitched" gay!

[quote]Yet another "Bewitched" gay!

This is a spell, this is!

Jack Mullaney, who was one of the two astronauts in the TV series "It's About Time," was in a couple of Elvis movies and the movie of "South Pacific," and did a lot of television, including taking over the lead on "My Living Doll" after Bob Cummings bolted from the sitcom, which starred Julie Newmar as a robot.

Joseph Kearns

I love this thread.

Kathleen Freeman

Ellen Corby, Will Geer.

Eva Gabor, according to niece Francesca Hilton.

^ ^^

Nancy Culp has not been mentioned?

Laurel & Hardy.

[quote]Nancy Culp has not been mentioned?

If she had been, I hope the other poster would've known how to spell her name correctly.

R455 = Robert Kulp

R455 Do you have any friends?

James Milhollin:

James Milhollin always played fussy queens

[quote]James Milhollin always played fussy queens

Tell us about it.

Timothy Patrick Murphy, probably remembered most for his stint on "Dallas."

[quote] Mickey Trotter. Michael "Mickey" Trotter (Timothy Patrick Murphy) was the maternal cousin of Ray Krebbs (Steve Kanaly), the son of his aunt Lil Trotter (Kate Reid). He appeared regularly between season 6 and season 7.

The Dallas Decoder website once asked Charlene Tilton to talk about all the actors the show paired her with, and she said this about Murphy:

[quote] My Timmy Pat. He and I became really great friends. We’d hang out off the set when we weren’t filming, even after “Dallas.” I genuinely adored him. I did not know that he was living a gay lifestyle. I had no idea. It makes me really sad because back in those days, a lot of actors felt like it would hurt their career to be out. When I learned he was dying of AIDS, I called him and we talked but he wouldn’t see me. He wouldn’t let anyone see him that sick. So I think of him with a lot of sadness because to hide a lifestyle, and to hide being sick, that seems like a lot of torture to me. But I loved our storyline, and I loved how the show pushed the envelope with Mickey’s death. The scene where I break down and lash out at Ray is one of my favorites. We did it in one take.

"I did not know that he was living a gay lifestyle. I had no idea."

Charlene, Charlene, Charlene. You really were and you truly remain an idiot.

Timothy Patrick Murphy was such a lovely man.

He was a cutie

TPM with SJP

David Oliver with SJP.

David Oliver was also a handsome man.

Sorry, Sarah. Thanks for playing.

Tom Villard:

Timothy Patrick Murphy is remembered by a friend who posted on Facebook’s AIDS Memorial:

“I met Timothy Patrick Murphy (November 3, 1959 - December 6, 1988) at the start of Summer in 1984. I was in the process of matriculating and had the months of July and August free. We met one Saturday night at the Apache Territory, a popular gay dance club on Ventura Boulevard in Studio City, California.

Tim was so attractive and we were the same age. He had a remarkable smile, a twinkle in his eyes and a personality that matched. We hit it off immediately and over the Summer of 1984 we spent time together, going to the beach, hitting the Apache on Saturday night or just hanging out at my place.

It did not occur to me, at the time, who Tim was, despite being an avid fan of Dallas. Perhaps this was because he was working in a tire store in the San Fernando Valley. I even went to that store for new tires, not only because I needed them but to spend time with Tim.

The demands of school (it was a doctorate program) severely limited my free time beginning in September though we would see each other when we could; Tim was always a welcome distraction from the books! We drifted apart as our respective life trajectories pulled us in different directions.

In 1988, I started volunteering at my church, United Spirit in West Hollywood, for the Visitation Team at Sherman Oaks Medical Center. Members would go to the AIDS Ward at the hospital, as many evenings as possible, to check in with every patient, just to sit and talk or help out the nurses by getting drinks or ice or something to read for the patients.

One night, I walked into a room and found Tim in the bed. I immediately recognized him and we sat and talked, and talked, and talked — mostly about the 'old days' but also some really heartfelt conversations.

I doubled my visits and spent a couple nights a week with Tim. It was during these visits that I finally connected him with his Mickey Trotter character from Dallas.

Sometimes, we would just sit quietly, holding hands, nothing needed to be said. I was blessed with good timing; Tim rarely had other visitors when I was there. On the rare occasion when someone would show up, he would always needlessly apologize.

I do remember going on the ward one night and being told his room was off-limits to all but hospital staff. Disheartened, I spoke with the head of nursing (now, as a doctor, it was easy access for me); she told me about the photographer incident and she checked with Tim. I was put on the list and our visits continued.

Even as his health deteriorated, he kept his winning smile and personality (with me anyway) so the increasing seriousness of his condition was not evident. When we talked, it was always about fun times, which made it all the less obvious.

I still remember that Tuesday when I went in to visit Tim like it just happened. December 6th was not a good day for me as it was on that date my own mother had passed away years earlier. I checked the patient roster and asked, “Where's Tim?”

Somehow knowing the answer and wishing with all my heart I had never asked that stupid question. Blinking back the tears (as I'm doing right now) it was only then I noticed the somber mood and red, teary eyes of the nursing staff and heard the muffled — “We're so sorry ...”

How could this be? We just visited a few days ago, though it was a short visit and Tim seemed fine, or at least, I had blinded myself to the truth. It felt like I had been sucker-punched in the gut — and it still does.

I pulled myself together, after all, I was there to visit everyone. And I did, and I cried all the way home on the 134 that night

Tim's loss spurred me on - I focused on HIV care in my practice, took over the running of the Visitation Team, increased membership to cover every day of the week and expanded it to another major hospital in the area. I never will forget Tim and that magical Summer of '84 nor the Fall of 1988.” — by Brian Smith

Ray Young ... He started doing episodic TV work in the late-60s, but is probably best known for playing "Bigfoot" in the Sid & Marty Krofft production, "Bigfoot & Wildboy" (1977-79). He may not be recognizable from that show, however, since he was always in heavy makeup and costume. .. I met him more than once via a boyfriend who lived next door to him in Laurel Canyon. He told me Ray was well known for his one-night stands, but was basically supported by a boyfriend who was a casting director at Paramount. Also, as large as he was (6'6), he couldn't hold his liquor.

You can see Ray in this clip of "Bewitched" playing "The Trumpeter." He's at the 1:48 mark.

From the old days...Eddie Nugent

James Milhollin

Thomas Beck was an actor in the 30s

Character actor Harry Townes

James Milhollin second try. Just saw him in a Twilight Zone episode where Anne Francis is a mannequin come to life.

^ Didn't he play a fussy shop bottom in that?

R477. Yup. He was the floor manager who pranced all over the store. Quite the queen.

Did Ray Young ever get wild with sexy Wildboy Joseph Butcher?

[quote] Roger C Carmel. Chest hair galore.

This is true: I once shared a room in a bath house in LA with Roger C Carmel and some anonymous twink. I wasn’t into Carmel, but I was in love with the twink. The twink fist fucked Carmel. Neither one was particularly interested in me.

^ ew

R480 Roger C Carmel- Harry Mudd himself.

Louis Hayward was in a relationship with Noël Coward (per Coward's diary).

^ Interesting. Wasn't he married to Ida Lupino?

R484 Yes. The affair with Coward apparently happened in the 30s He was married to Lupino from 1938-1945. The link is to Sheila Graham's "Hollywood Today" column discussing the divorce, published February 6,1945.

Coward's longtime partner was an actor named Graham Payn

I wonder if Coward ever said, "You're such a Payn, Graham."?

Some say what's-his-name was gay - the guy who was in My Little Margie.

R488, Charles Farrell

That would be handsome Charles Farrell who was one of the biggest male stars at the end of the Silent Era and eventually became a tennis entrepreneur and the mayor of Palm Springs. Like many others, I don't think there's ever been any substantial truth to the gay rumors. My Little Margie was a big comeback for him.

r446 is Jack Mullavey, not Jack Mullaney. He was all over early 60s TV, often playing the lead's best friend and preppy types which seemed rather gay to little gayling me.

That reminds me of Stephen Franken who played Chatsworth Osborne, Jr. on Dobie Gillis, another preppy type who seemed gay though I don't know if he actually was. He seemed to disappear from show biz after Dobie Gillis folded.

Janet Gaynor, his old acting partner.

(Charlie Farrell's)

Janet Gaynor was a dyke, she married the gay costume designer, Adrian

That would be why I mentioned her.

[quote]That reminds me of Stephen Franken who played Chatsworth Osborne, Jr. on Dobie Gillis, another preppy type who seemed gay though I don't know if he actually was. He seemed to disappear from show biz after Dobie Gillis folded

That's not true at all, R491. Stephen Franken has a long list of credits after "Dobie Gillis" went off the air, mostly television but even some small movie roles, including a drunken waiter in "The Party." Franken played several roles in "Bewitched" over the course of the series. Never a star, but he was the very definition of a working actor.

^Wasn't he in The Missouri Breaks?

I did not know that about Franken and it surprises me. I guess I just didn't watch any of that. But nevertheless, I'm still surprised that his Dobie Gillis performances didn't catapult him into more prominent comic film roles or a sitcom of his own......though perhaps he was nothing like Chatsworth and didn't want tp get typed as that kind of effete character.

He also played one of Rhoda's boyfriends for a couple of episodes on MTM.

Charles Farrell was a dish!

[quote]R446 is Jack Mullavey, not Jack Mullaney. He was all over early 60s TV, often playing the lead's best friend and preppy types which seemed rather gay to little gayling me. That reminds me of Stephen Franken who played Chatsworth Osborne, Jr. on Dobie Gillis, another preppy type who seemed gay though I don't know if he actually was. He seemed to disappear from show biz after Dobie Gillis folded.i

It might be time to get those cataracts checked, R491, or maybe to just try some simple Googling before posting a lot of things that aren't true, and making asinine corrections that aren't true. The "It's About Time" actor was indeed Jack Mullaney, not Jack Mullavey. In another post, you say you're surprised that Stephen Franken didn't have a bigger career, after initially asserting that he had no career at all after "Dobie Gillis" went off the air, which was completely false. DL works better if you don't just make shit up.

R501 R491

Honestly I can forgive someone who never followed the career of an obscure character actor after Dobie Gillis. I don't have a horse in the race but if someone just makes an observation that they didn't think an actor did much after he was on a particular series, is it a crime if that's wrong? Lighten up.

Rumors had John Houseman being in love with Orson Welles.

British actor Michael Staniforth, known to many 40 or 50 somethings as the star of BBC children's comedy Rentaghost. Apparently a crush of many who liked bears and cubs. He died in 1987 aged only 44.

The mesmerizingly handsome Paul Shenar. He and British actor Jeremy Brett (Freddy in the film of My Fair Lady and later Sherlock Holmes on TV) were in a relationship for several years. Shenar died at the age of 53 from an AIDS-related ilness.

Bisexual French actor Lambert Wilson. I always had the hots for him.

Clip of Paul Shenar on Dynasty:

Clip of Paul Keenan (mentioned earlier) on Dynasty.

Gary Bond was another actor Jeremy Brett dated. He was very good in the horror movie Wake in Fright

Robert Drivas (1935 -1986). He did a lot of episodic television work in the 60s and 70s and appeared in the film, "Cool Hand Luke."

For several years, Drivas was playwright Terrence McNally's lover, Excerpt from the GLBTQ Encyclopedia (archived):

[quote] After McNally and Albee's relationship had waned, McNally entered into a long-term relationship with handsome, talented actor Robert Drivas. McNally credits Drivas with reigniting his passion for writing after his first professionally produced play, And Things That Go Bump in the Night, was savaged by critics.

[quote] McNally would subsequently write Witness (1968), Sweet Eros (1968), and, most importantly, Where Has Tommy Flowers Gone? (1971) for Drivas. In 1973 Drivas joined McNally at Yale University on a fellowship during the course of which McNally wrote a farce titled The Tubs about a straight man who inadvertently takes refuge on a stormy night in a Mafia-owned gay bathhouse.

{quote] When the play premiered on Broadway, retitled The Ritz and directed by Drivas, it was the surprise hit of the 1974 season. Drivas also directed McNally's Obie Award-winning Bad Habits (1974). Although McNally and Drivas broke up as a couple in 1976, they remained close friends until Drivas died of AIDS-related complications ten years later.

Press photo pf Drivas from 1959:

R510 Gary Bond was such a lovely man.

So what I'm getting here is that Jeremy Brett was a bit of a slut.

Lambert Wilson

NICE!

R509 I never knew he was gay. I've always thought he was sexy.

Jeremy Brett was hot when he was young

Was the Robert Taylor-Barbara Stanwyck marriage really a lavender one? Taylor doesn't strike me as gay but Missy sure does, now that I'm older. With her bass voice.

R516, when I was in 7th grade, my English teacher screened for us "My Fair Lady" for two straight days. I was immediately smitten with Jeremy Brett as Freddy Eynsford-Hill. He was so dashingly handsome and had a lovely singing voice, which I didn't know at the time wasn't his.

R512, I got to know Gary a bit before he sadly died from an AIDS-related illness. He really was a lovely guy. Until his death he was in a very happy, settled relationship with an American named EJ Alexander (he designed masks which were used in the original Broadway production of Pacific Overtures). I visited them a few times at their home in West Ealing. I would bring VHS tapes of current US episodes of Frasier with me and Gary adored them. He was a beautiful man inside and out. He sure did have his fun back in the day. He was not only gorgeous, he was talented, too. Just so sad.

R207, thanks for posting Michael Jeter. He was such a good actor, and from what I've heard and read, a really good guy.

He has one of those faces I just love to watch.

Jesus, R508. Gorgeous.

R519, thanks for sharing! Glad to know he was a decent guy

[quote]R518 when I was in 7th grade, my English teacher screened for us "My Fair Lady" for two straight days.

I thought this said, “[bold]screeched[/bold] for us ‘My Fair Lady’”

R475 - Harry Townes never married and retired from acting to become an Episcopalian minister.

[quote]my English teacher screened for us "My Fair Lady" for two straight days

I question the straightness of those two days.

R518, Was your English teacher dressed accordingly?

R518, Jeremy Brett is lovely and dashing and appropriately awkward around Eliza in My Fair Lady... however, that singing voice is not his... for some reason he was dubbed.

My Fair Lady was a Best Picture winner, not a gay niche movie.

I was just watching the 1973 movie Shampoo last night and both Stephen Franken and Doris Packer (who played Chatsworth's mother, Mrs. Osborne) were in it. I guess Warren Beatty looked out for his former Dobie Gillis co-stars.

[quote][R518], Was your English teacher dressed accordingly?

He didn't have the figure for it.

Looking back, I don't think I appreciated that teacher as I should've. But all these years later, I still remember the movies he introduced us kids to that we otherwise would've never watched on our own: MFL, Singin' in the Rain, West Side Story, Oliver! (my least favorite of the bunch).

R530 He only showed musicals? What class was it?

R530 was meant for R526.

Correct me if I'm wrong (I know you will!) but wasn't Warren Beatty long gone from Dobie Gillis before Chatsworth and Mrs. Osborne ever made an appearance on the series? Stephen Franken actually kind of replaced Warren as a romantic foil. I don't think Warren and Tuesday Weld did more than the first season; they were both on to major film careers.

Which is not to say Warren couldn't have been watching Dobie Gillis in his trailer between takes of All Fall Down and The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone.

Doris Packer’s finest moment.

R533 You're partly wrong. Doris Packer played Milton Armitage's mother on the series, before she played Chatsworth's mother. Milton was played by Warren Beatty. I don't know if Warren and Stephen were ever in an episode together.

Doris Packer was also wonderful in "Leave it To Beaver" as Beaver's principal, and on "The Beverly HIllbillies" as the Widow Fenwick.

[quote]R518, Jeremy Brett is lovely and dashing and appropriately awkward around Eliza in My Fair Lady... however, that singing voice is not his... for some reason he was dubbed.

Which R518 himself mentioned in his post.

R533 (Continued) But I'd venture to say Warren knew Steve, also - since they were both Dobie Gillis alums and had played variations on the same part.

[quote]You're partly wrong. Doris Packer played Milton Armitage's mother on the series, before she played Chatsworth's mother. Milton was played by Warren Beatty. I don't know if Warren and Stephen were ever in an episode together.

Chatsworth was the replacement character for Milton Armitage, so Beatty and Franken were never in an episode together. I don't think it was ever explained why Milton and Chatsworth had the same mother, but Doris Packer was absolutely wonderful in both roles. I guess that's the explanation.

ack! My bad...

Is Yore a city in England?

Yes, R541/Rose, there was even a skit on SNL called Theodoric of Yore.

R535. Doris Packer?

I bow to you.

Who the fuck are you, Robert Osborne’s ghost?

I posted about the movie, Shampoo, and the casting, but just realized I actually got mixed up and I had seen the guy who played Chatsworth in an earlier movie that day. So that was wrong. Oops. But Doris Packer was definitely in Shampoo.

This is Yore life

They don't make character actresses like Doris Packer any more, that's for sure. Or Elvia Allman (was that her name?)

Is John Michael Higgins out yet?

JMH always asserts he’s straight, while also acknowledging he gets cast as a gay man all the time. I’m inclined to take his word for it.

John Hillerman

Hurd Hatfield, who played the title character in the 1945 film, "The Picture of Dorian Gray."

"The Picture of Dorian Gray" was Angela Lansbury's second movie, after "Gaslight," and she received her second best supporting actress Oscar nomination for it. Years later, Hurd Hatfield appeared on an episode of "Murder, She Wrote."

Academy Award nominee, Sir Nigel Hawthorne

Outed by some tabloid right before the Oscars were to take place in 1995.

Actor Tucker Smith, who's p[robably best known for his performance as "Ice" singing "Cool" in West Side Story.

From The Advocate's article on the DVD release in 2003 entitled, "Still pretty and witty and gay: a new double-disc DVD release of West Side Story recalls the four gay geniuses who made it happen":

[quote] One player in the saga is deserving of special note--Tucker Smith. Onscreen Smith played Ice, the lead singer and dancer in the pivotal "Cool" number. In addition to his own work, Smith dubbed Russ Tamblyn's singing voice for the film. Great things were predicted for Smith. But as he wasn't inclined to be closeted, he drifted out of Hollywood and back to Broadway as a dancer, not a lead, until his death from AIDS complications in 1988. That's something to think about while watching him in this film, snapping his fingers and laying down the rules of "Cool."

Smith died from cancer in 1988, and in her autobiography, "It's Always Something," written shortly before her own death from cancer, comedian Gilda Radner expressed her excitement at having Tucker Smith in her cancer support group because she was a fan of his from his performance in West Side Story

[quote]They don't make character actresses like Doris Packer any more, that's for sure. Or Elvia Allman (was that her name?)

Yes. And Amzie Strickland, Eleanor Audley, the aforementioned Madge Blake, Lee Patrick, Marys Wickes and Treen, Kathleen Freeman, Kathryn Card, et al.

Did anyone mention Charles Nelson Riley?

Angela Lansbury and Hurd Hatfield were good friends

Tucker Smith was/is always my favorite guy in West Side Story. He was very cute!

[quote]Did anyone mention Charles Nelson Riley?

Who?

[quote]Yes. And Amzie Strickland, Eleanor Audley, the aforementioned Madge Blake, Lee Patrick, Marys Wickes and Treen, Kathleen Freeman, Kathryn Card, et al.

Did you forget about me? I might be getting a sick headache.

To R557, no, Tucker Smith was " Sexy, Smoking Hot"!! You put a suit on him, he looked like he went to an Ivy League school& was a stockbroker down on Wall Street. he has the "preppie look".

r554, how dare you forget NORMA VARDEN?

James Binger 'Bing' Davidson ... who fell eight stories to his death from a window at the St. Francis hotel while he and Paul Lynde were drunk.

Paul Lynde's dead bf was hot!

William Desmond Taylor, who was murdered at his home in the Westlake area of Los Angeles in 1922 when he was 49.

You can read about the murder at his Wikipedia page. It became a cold case.

One of the things that's not discussed there is that Taylor was gay. The Los Angeles Times reported in 1986:

[quote] Taylor was homosexual. Paramount executives, already skittish because of Fatty Arbuckle’s rape scandal, sought to cover up Taylor’s sexual orientation by feeding false information to the press about closets full of lingerie and dirty pictures. Police reports contained none of that information, yet detectives supposedly never sought to set the record straight. The reason they didn’t, according to (King) Vidor’s research: The real killer paid off officials.

Also, some related trivia is that the character of Norma Desmond in "Sunset Boulevard" takes her name from Taylor's middle name and that of one of the suspects in his murder, actress Mable Normand. Apparently, it was seen as a way for the film to use a much-publicized Hollywood scandal from the past that would resonate with viewers.

R565 and others, if you haven't read it, I highly recommend the true crime work, "Tinsletown" by William C Mann. It covers a lot of territory, but Desmond Tylor's murder is at its center.

J.E. Freeman

Read his bio, you'll probably remember some of his roles.

btw - He was really tall, about 6'4.

Besides Ivor Novello (l) mentioned above, there was also his longtime lover, Robert Tobias "Bobbie" Andrews (r) (1895 – 1976) who was also an actor.

The sources at Wiki say:

[quote] Andrews first met Ivor Novello in 1916, while Novello was attending the opera with his friend Edward Marsh. Andrews and Novello eventually became lovers. Andrews was also responsible for introducing Novello to Noël Coward in 1916, at Coward's request. Andrews and Novello both had relations with other men over the course of their long-term relationship, but Andrews remained Novello's primary companion until Novello's death in 1951.

R567 - he was also a former marine!

Didn't know JE Freeman was gay

Keith Prentice

Logan Carter

Some of these named are hardly “yore”.

Keith Prentice was one of the original stars of "The Boys in the Band" (stage and screen) to die of complications from AIDS.

Did Keith Prentice ever do another play or film after Boys in the Band?

Keith Prentice was on Dark Shadows, too

That’s a damned shame…his death, I mean.

Basil Hoskins.

Go to this short obituary at Find a Grave and there's also a link to his lover, actor, Harry Andrews' entry.

They're also buried in the same cemetery, and their headstones match.

Franklin Pangborn and Edward Everett Horton were wonderful gay character actors in the Golden Age. Edward's long time partner Gavin Gordon played Lord Byron in the opening scene of "The Bride of Frankenstein". Not sure who Franklin lived with but it couldn't have been any secret that he was gay.

Hollywood happiest marriage, William Haines and Jimmy Shields.

French actor, Jean Marais, one of Jean Cocteau's lovers.

We'll be needing a new thread soon.

Jean Marais was beautiful. I wonder if Alain Delon allowed him to suck his cock.

Max Adrian (1903-1973)

From the LGBT Archive UK:

[quote] In 1940 Adrian was arrested for importuning at Victoria Station and sentenced to three months imprisonment. Few gay friends visited him inside, such was the climate of the time. However one who stood by him was Michael Redgrave, whose son, Corin, Max had stood godfather to. Redgrave visited him frequently in prison and tried unsuccessfully to find a way to have the sentence reduced. When Adrian was released from prison he found it hard to get work, until Redgrave used his influence to get him a part in his movie of the HG Wells novel, Kipps, in which Adrian plays Chester Coote, Kipps’ guide to high society after he has come into money. Redgrave also got him a small part in his next movie, Jeannie, and he was fully rehabilitated when Laurence Olivier cast him as The Dauphin in Henry V. ... In the words of director Frith Banbury, himself gay: "Redgrave was wonderful in this crisis, visiting in prison and helping him financially on his release. For a man who was himself vulnerable… his actions must be seen as courageous."

^^^ And Adrian's lifelong companion was Laurier Lister who also did some acting, but I believe is primarily known as a writer and director.

[quote] Lister had a long personal relationship with the actor Max Adrian, with whom he lived in a cottage in Shamley Green in Surrey. Adrian died in 1973; Lister outlived him by thirteen years, dying on 30 September 1986 at the age of 79

This sounds silly, but as I read about these men, I feel badly that I didn't know of them before they died.

And, that I lost out, not knowing of them and their lives.

Not silly at all—very touching in fact

Eugene O'Brien (1880-1966) was considered a leading matinee screen idol of the silent film era, but it's been said his being gay was one of the most open secrets in Hollywood, with some reporters shading this in their articles.

Queerplace reports:

[quote] O'Brien lived in hotels: in New York at the Royalton, "a great midtown apartment house for men only." In Hollywood he took up residence at the Athletic Club, a legendary gay sexual cruising site. In the Photoplay interview, Ten Eyck asked him enigmatically if he'd "been to any enjoyable places lately." O'Brien answered that he had: "The shower-rooom in the gymnasium I frequent. After an hour's work with the gloves, or on the floor, if there's anything in the world more enjoyable than a long leisurely shower that soaks you until you think you have deep-sea ancestry, I'd like to know what it is!"

O'Brien retired from acting in 1928 when the talkies arrived. He was 47-years-old at the time and lived in comfortable obscurity with his lover in Hollywood until his death in 1966.

Another gay, silent film star was J. Warren Kerrigan. He was sometimes referred to as "The Gibson Man," because he was considered "as handsome as the Gibson Girl was beautiful."

His popularity plummeted, however, after a quote he gave about serving in the military when the United States entered World War I. While he eventually secured other roles, his career never recovered fully. You can read about that controversy at the Wiki article (at link).

His longtime lover was a lesser-known actor named James Carroll Vincent. Vincent would sometimes be referred to as Kerrigan's "secretary" or "gardener." After Kerrigan's death in 1947, Vincent married a women, but committed suicide in 1948.

R584 mentioned Michael Redgrave, who was a big 'mo as well. He was quite attractive when he was young

I'll start a new thread and link to it here

Link to the new thread

I remember Max Adrian fondly from Ken Russell's THE BOYFRIEND.

Speaking of which, has anybody mentioned Murray Melvin or Christopher Gable? Loved them all but I don't think Helen Keller could have missed their gayness onscreen.

Christopher Gable was briefly Richard Chamberlain's lover, off-screen, when they worked together for Ken Russell in "The Music Lovers". Several years later they worked together again in "The Slipper and the Rose"

Chamberlain and Gable in 1970's, "The Music Lovers"

Didn’t Laurence Olivier have a relationship with Noel Coward (or was it Alfred Lunt?) early on? Maybe during DESIGN FOR LIVING - anyway, some early breakthrough show.

Didn't know that Gable and Chamberlain were an item

Bajour, Bajour, toujour to youre!

Bajour tristesse

Close it out