The Hidden Cost of Harry Hamlin's Gay Role in 1982's "Making Love"

Michael Ontkean -- I mean, swoon material back in the early 1980s, and he even looked good in Twin Peaks. How could Harry NOT have been attracted to him? But, yeah, it was a groundbreaking movie with conventionality on the fringes.

I like him. Notice what he said. He was not in some fake bearding relationship. At any given time half of all leading men are gay. This is reality. He basically said just that. So them playing gay would be too dangerous as it really would shine a light on their fake relationships.

Has Harry ever been engaged in the homosex?

Let's talk about the husband.

I remember seeing Making Love when it came out. I thought "these guys will never work in Hollywood again". I wasn't too far off.

Michael Ontkean was incredibly beautiful.

Harry Hamlin was a HOMO playing a HOMO.

R5 Didn’t he star in Melrose Place?

Harry Hamlin is straight, right?

Dear Lisa: Your fish lips would turn any straight man gay. Tsk, tsk on you for hiring a bargain basement plastic surgeon.

The public has a weird relationship with actors. Hollywood loves to give off the vibe that actors actually are the characters they play on screen. In actuality, they are workers like everyone else. the whole point of acting is to be what you are not.

So when the public sees actors in a gay movie, people just assume they are gay. This has gotten even more wild as the gay community demands that gay actors get the gay roles, which conversely often shuts them out of straight roles.

Rinna found one gray pube and fucking lost her mind.

I was taken to see this movie by the first man I had sex with. Two mistakes.

Took a leak next to him at the old Rose Tattoo. His hamlins were hairy.

Interesting how some gay role garner Academy Awards while others get the actors' careers killed.

A gay dying of AIDS is tragic and loved by Hollywood. A gay having gay sex is shunned.

It was no Kramer vs. Kramer.

It seems so tame today. Almost…chaste.

[quote] I like him. Notice what he said. He was not in some fake bearding relationship. At any given time half of all leading men are gay. This is reality.

Shut the fuck up, you meth addict.

R18 you bored and thirsty again.

[quote] So when the public sees actors in a gay movie, people just assume they are gay.

That's not true.

Everyone knows that I'm completely heterosexual.

Interesting that he says the original script he signed on for was much edgier.

That stood out to me too, R21.

And it seems like both Harry and Michael were okay with it.

That would have been so hot!

Harry was the lady right?

The two were very handsome young men.

R18 who are you today?

It was the Heartstopper of its day.

Michael Ontkean was adorable. I love his big, brown cow eyes. He was just my type. I liked him in Twin Peaks as the kind sheriff, even if he wasn’t the strongest actor. Shame he wasn’t in more movies/shows.

I appreciated his striptease in Slap Shot, too!

What about me?

I thought that Sam Melville was the hottest Rookie in the television series with Ontkean.

Again, what about me?

His consistent, accidental and hands-free cumming made for an awkward working environment.

[quote] His consistent, accidental and hands-free cumming made for an awkward working environment.

You're telling me!

Michael Ontkean

Three things I remember about the film.

"Alabaster and lapis lazuli."

Gilber and Sullivan.

And that giant jar of Vaseline sitting on the bed table when she goes to visit the guy on the matchbook.

^Gilbert

there's more to love, I know than making love...

R36 you had one job to do; just one…

I know, I know.....

That Roberta Flack song is devastating. I love it but it is so melancholy I can't listen to it.

They were both so attractive

I guess I am in the minority, but I love the movie. Part of my collection.

Harry always gave me Monkees’ Mickey Dolenz vibes.

Ontkean, meanwhile, really pushed my buttons because I found him so coolly sexy and handsome—starting even way back, yes, to when watching him originally on “The Rookies.”

I wonder who was the bottom, Michael or Harry?

Bumping this thread because I’m curious if other’s believe Hamlin’s dark framed glasses are flattering? I truly believe the poorly aging- formally gorgeous ‘’actor’’ looks worse sporting my grandfather’s eyewear.

Was a 23 year old movie manager in a small neighborhood theater. Opening night was packed. First show the kiss comes and half the audience got up and left. Kinda shocking since I never saw that happen before. My staff all 15 and 16 years old were so offended by the audience and it happened every show, to where they would go to the front doors and open them right before the scene, so the exodus went smoothly . But I have to be honest, it was all done in silence, there were no groans, or boos and absolutely no one asked for a refund which I wouldn't have honored anyway.

Michael Ontkean had a hot ass.

I saw this movie when I was in high school at a suburban multiplex, and I wondered how anyone would buy a ticket not knowing what it was about and expecting to see two men interact intimately. At least in my screening no one got up and left; there were some gasps although the theatre was only about half full and I think the majority of the audience was gay. Sad that it wrecked Hamlin's movie career, but I was thrilled when he got LA Law. Ontkean, on the other hand...

Kate Jackson has said on multiple occasions that the in the script the relationship evolved out of a three-way between Hamlin, Jackson and Ontkean and would have included a scene of Kate awkwardly sitting on the night stand in a peignoir while Ontkean and Hamlin went at each other on the bed oblivous to her presence, after which Jackson would have stood up cleared her throat awkwardly, and said out loud, 'I guess I'm not needed here,' and walked out of the room to fix herself a bowl of cereal in the kitchen. Kate felt that would have made the relationship more organic and her betrayal more poignant.

I respect the movie more than I like it.

It was, despite its flaws, a very important film. The cast was very good and very brave to take on the project.

R48: Not many straight women would want to have a 3 way with 2 men. They seemed like a traditional het couple (not bi, open, poly, swingers etc). I think the way it was portrayed in the movie was more realistic and relatable.

I was an 18yo first year college student in Galway and clearly remember the movie title on the outside of the cinema through the fog one winter evening. Inside the cinema were just 6 or 7 patrons. It was the second media presentation of gay living that helped me understand what I was, the first being The Front Runner which I'd pinched from a guest house the year before. The third influence would be An Early Frost in 1985. Around the time Making Love was released the country was rocked by the beating to deathof a gay man in Dublin, the guilty verdicts and the judge suspending the sentences, saying it could never be described as murde and that the killers did not deserve to be jailed. Strange times.

R5, that was THEN, honey. Back in the day. Some of these behemoth-iches ta-day are quite ruthless. I like a little trad, so if wifey is in the picture... I won't be.

I meant @ r51.

[quote]Kudos to both him and Michael Ontkean.

The plural is "kudoses," of course.

Oh, dear.

It's best not to attempt elegantisms without a grounding in the language, dear.

Pour moi... ML foreshadowed my meeting an old friend from the 80s who- surprisingly- gave up his lovely cherry float in much the same way as Michael Ontkean did for Harry Hamlin (we can assume). @47:00

There I was... suspended by my antigrav boots as the door slowly opened and pápi walked in with those amazingly super-tight Cotler's.

David L. Crowley was the body double for Michael Ontkean/Harry Hamlin in “Making Love,” particularly during intimate scenes requiring nudity or significant physical interaction between characters.