Born On This Day- June 15th... Simon Callow

He is not Simon Cowell or Stephen Fry. Top drawer character actor of stage & screen, writer & director- Simon Callow is in a large percent of my top favorite films: Amadeus (he was the original Mozart in the play’s stage premier), A Room With A View, Maurice, Howard’s End, Shakespeare In Love, Notting Hill, Angels In America, 4 Weddings & a Funeral . Along with Ian McKellen, Callow is an out gay actor who has successfully made the transition from respected theatre actor to film star. Callow is also prolific writer: 2 volumes of memoirs, 3 volumes of the biography of Orson Welles, Charles Laughton, & Oscar Wilde.

Gay films are few, & most films featuring gay people are “important” films like Philadelphia or Brokeback Mountain, sad & stately affairs, with no true specifically gay sensibility. I tend to like the films with less agenda & where gays are part of the world at large. Callow has a role in what I find to be one of the most important gay themed films- 4 Weddings & a Funeral.  Callow plays Gareth, flamboyant but not camp; he doesn’t fit any stereotype; & he dos not die of AIDS, which during that era was ravaging the gay community. Gareth dies of Scottish dancing.

Callow: “When I read the script, it was immediately evident that this was a new kind of a gay character in films: not sensitive, not intuitive, kind & somehow deeply sad, nor hilarious, bitchy & outrageous, but masculine, exuberant, occasionally offensive, generous & passionate. He was also deeply involved with his partner, the handsome, shy, witty, understated Matthew. In the original screenplay, they were glimpsed at the beginning of the film asleep in bed. In the final cut, the film-makers removed this sequence, in order to allow their relationship to creep up on the audience. They were right to do so: before they knew it, viewers had come to know & love them individually, & were hit hard, first by Gareth's death, then by Matthew's oration ('with a little help from another splendid bugger, WH Auden').”

Callow turns 62 years old today. He is single & lives in London. He will always be Mr. Beeb in A Room With A View to me. Callow is certainly an actor who is more than the sum of his parts.

Born On This Day- May 6th... Harvey Fierstein

“If you don't look, you don't know,”

Well, first of all, there is that voice. I always think of my distinctive voice, made possible by decades of pot smoking & whiskey drinking, but Harvey Fierstein brings it all to a whole new level. .. a 300-pound man who sounds like he's been chain-smoking since the age of 3.

Fierstein grew up in Bensonhurst, the son of a handkerchief manufacturer & a school librarian. He attended Pratt & began his career in the mid-1970s performing in drag bars under the name Virginia Hamm. It was Fierstein's collection of interconnected, semi-autobiographical one-act plays in the late '70s- Torch Song Trilogy, that eventually brought him to Broadway. (He also starred in the big screen adaptation.). He has the distinction of winning Tony Awards for both writing & playing the lead role in his long-running play, about a gay drag performer & his quest for true love & family.

Fierstein has since effectively become a celebrity spokesperson & champion for gay civil rights. He describes himself as a "first real, live, out-of-the-closet queer on Broadway". He wrote the book for the musical La Cage aux Folles & he has been nominated for 11 Tony Awards (the Tonys are a high Holy Day at my house & will be broacast live next Sunday). Fierstein has been featured in the films Bullets Over Broadway, Mrs. Doubtfire, Death to Smoochy, & Independence Day.

Fierstein's turn as Edna Turnblatt in Hairspray earned him a Tony award in 2003. Fierstein virtually owned the role, but he was ultimately turned down for movie version of Hairspray. (Closet case-John Travolta was cast instead.). He played Tevye in the revival of Fiddler on the Roof on Broadway & & then toured the country in the iconic role. His brave, unlikely & open portrayal of a straight father of 3 daughters in the Jewish- The Sound Of Music earned him rave reviews all over the country. My first professional role was as Motel the tailor in Fiddler On The Roof in 1971. I have a soft spot for this show & I think it would nifty to play Grandma Tzeitel in Harvey’s production. Harvey, if you are reading this...

I really like & admire Harvey Fierstein. He has been a vocal gay rights activist, speaking out for gay people, queer theater, & AIDS causes. He has been a spokesman for the Services Legal Defense Fund, a group that advocates for the rights of gays & lesbians in the military. Fierstein: "Time will tell us what we did and didn't do. The way that I look at it, the only thing that I will definitely take credit for is that Torch Song & La Cage Aux Folles, 2 of my shows, were the first ever gay themed shows to make money on Broadway. I think that counts more than anything."

Harvey Fierstein Turns 59 years old today. He is currently appearing in the revival of La Cage Aux Folles. The production & his performance received raves. He lives in 7 acres in Connecticut. Harvey... Let's have cocktails & have a chat.

Born On This Day- May 29th... Rupert James Hector Everett

We were already big fans of his good looks & his talent. The Husband waited on Rupert Everett, in town for the Seattle International Film Festival showing of Another Country, at the then famous gay dining spot- The Ritz Café on Capitol Hill is Seattle. The Husband came home with the sordid tale of Everett’s bad behavior, culminating in his passing out, face first into a plate of food. I somehow loved the actor even more.

At 15 years old, Rupert Everett ran away from boarding school & went to London to become an actor. He starred opposite Kenneth Brannagh in the play Another Country when he was 23. He did the film version, based on the life of the  gay spy Guy Burgess, with Colin Firth when he was 25. He came out when he was 29 & the offers dried up. He gave interesting & deft performances in Pret-a-Porter & The Madness of King George, but when he starred opposite Julia Roberts in My Best Friend’s Wedding, the industry was abuzz with the idea of the “gay best friend” as an asset for a story line. It was unique to have a gay character who is happily partnered, not a victim, not dying, or not a sissy. He carried the film with the charm of Cary Grant.

That charm followed with roles as gay Christopher Marlowe in Shakespeare in Love, An Ideal Husband, Inspector Gadget, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Next Best Thing, The Importance of Being Earnest, & the overlooked- Stage Beauty. He is the voice of Prince Charming in the money making Shrek franchise, disproving his own theory that out actors can’t get work.

Everett has written 2 novels & a memoir, in which he included the fact that for a time he was a rent boy. I very much enjoyed reading Rupert's memoir- Red Carpets & Other Banana Skins.  He names names, something I admire in a memoir. He is honest, hugely funny & deeply wise about human nature, particularly his own. His beautiful face, his lovely manners, all his attractive qualities seemed worth the cash to me.

Rupert Everett has been urging gay stars not to come out & to keep their sexuality a secret as it could end their film career. He came out as gay 25 years ago & admitted that since then, he has been given only supporting roles.

Everett is now suggesting that aspiring actors stay in the closet as it could harm their career: “It's not that advisable to be honest. It's not very easy, &, honestly, I would not advise any actor necessarily, if he was really thinking of his career, to come out... The fact is that you could not be, & still cannot be, a 25 year old homosexual trying to make it in the British film business or the American film business or even the Italian film business. It just doesn't work & you're going to hit a brick wall at some point. You're going to manage to make it roll for a certain amount of time, but at the first sign of failure, they'll cut you right off. I'm sick of saying: ‘Yes, it's probably my own fault.’ Because I've always tried to make it work & when it stops working somewhere, I try to make it work somewhere else. But the fact of the matter is, & I don't care who disagrees, it doesn't work if you're gay.”

Everett added that he does believe he is happier than those other major stars who are keeping their sexuality a secret: “I think, all in all, I'm probably much happier than they are. I may not be as rich or successful, but at least I'm vaguely free to be myself.”

John Schlesinger was a great director, responsible for Midnight Cowboy & Sunday, Bloody Sunday, ground breaking gay themed films. But, I think The Next Best Thing is one of the worst movies I have ever had to sit through. Drek, not Shrek. I stayed with it for Mr. Everett.

Everett turns 52 years old today & is looking his age. I would still do him. but then like Everett, I can be very shallow.

Born On This Day- May 26th... Actor Alec McCowen

Alec McCowen is one of those terrific, highly trained English actors, best known for classical roles including Shakespeare, who dabbles in TV & film, & is always good no matter the quality of the project.

I first took note of him in the a favorite film from teens- Travels With My Aunt, starring Maggie Smith, & directed by George Cukor in 1972.

His many stage successes include: Toulouse-Lautrec in Moulin Rouge (1954), Barnaby Tucker in The Matchmaker (1954), Mercutio in R&J at The Old Vic, Friar Rolfe in Hadrian the 7th, for which he won an Evening Standard Award for the London production & a Tony nomination. I was lucky enough to see him in Molière's The Misanthrope opposite the very talented Diana Rigg in 1973. McCowen originated the role of psychiatrist Martin Dysart in Peter Shaffer's Equus, but his greatest achievement was his one-man performance of the complete text of Saint Mark's Gospel (1978), for which he received worldwide acclaim & a Tony nomination.

Among his many film roles, check out McCowen’s work in my favorite Scorcese flick- The Age Of Innocence.

His partner of 20+ years was actor Geoffrey Burridge, who died in 1987 from an AIDS-related illness. In McCowen was featured on the British version of the celebrity surprise show This Is Your Life.  He was shocked at the slight from the show's complete failure to mention Geoffrey Burridge, who had died 2 years before. Brave for the time, McCowen insisted that his late partner be acknowledged on the program.

Born On This Day- May 25th... Actor/Activist Ian McKellen

"I remember losing only one job because of my coming out. I was supposed to play one of the lead roles in Harold Pinter's 'Betrayal' who eventually were given to Ben Kingsley & Jeremy Irons. The producer Sam Spiegel dropped a sexist comment about wives during a meeting & when I replied I was fortunate to be gay, I was quickly shown the door.”

We both belong to Acting Guilds & we both became passionate about theatre after viewing Peter Pan. We both started acting as a child, did university theatre, moved on to regional theatre & came to work in movies & TV later in life… & we are both big old homos who thought working in the theatre was a good place to meet guys. I guess the similarities end there. Sir Ian McKellen is the greatest actor of last 50 years & I am a dilettante.

Sir Ian McKellen became an actor to meet men. He admits he felt isolated when he was younger, but thought he would meet other gay people if he embarked on a stage career: "I'd heard that a lot of professional actors were gay. Acting seemed like a chance for me to meet like-minded people. You know, at that time same-sex love in Britain got you into prison. Homosexuality was being completely hushed up. Gay teachers, politicians or firemen - that was something unthinkable. When I was young I thought I was the only gay Brit. That's why I was glad to find people like me in the actors guild."

Early in his career he was spotted by Maggie Smith. She recommended McKellen to Laurence Olivier, then building his new National Theatre at the Old Vic.. His first production at the National was Franco Zeffirelli's 1965 production of Much Ado About Nothing, with Maggie Smith, Robert Stephens, Albert Finney, Derrick Jacobi & newcomer Michael York.

Sir Ian worked through the ranks in repertory theatre & tours of the classics. At the Edinburgh Festival in 1969, Ian performed both Richard II & Edward II & blew audiences & critics away. McKellen:"I remember one heady evening in my dressing room at the Piccadilly, when I introduced Noel Coward to Rudolf Nureyev. I thought, I suppose I'd arrived".

McKellen was persuaded to join the Royal Shakespeare Company by its artistic director, Trevor Nunn. His range included Dr Faustus & Romeo. His Macbeth in 1976, with Judi Dench is considered to be the best since Lawrence Olivier. The company took The Three Sisters & Twelfth Night on tour to 26 towns in the UK & then on to the USA. He loved to take theatre to the people: " it truly was the most enjoyable thing I have ever done".

On Broadway in 1980, McKellen played Salieri in Amadeus. He created the role for which F. Murray Abraham would later win an Oscar. McKellen was consoled with the Tony Award. Also on Broadway, he played Richard III as a wicked plotter creating a fascist state in future England. He brilliantly recreated the role on film.

Never really in the closet to the theatre community, in 1988, McKellen admitted he was gay while discussing Section 28, Margret Thatcher’s legislation that would make the "public promotion of homosexuality" a crime. He became a one of the foremost campaigners for Gay Rights, co-founding the Stonewall group. John Gielgud would be a contributor in secret.

McKellen originated the role of Max in Bent, about the suffering of gays under the Nazis. The film version featured Clive Owen as Max, McKellen as Uncle Freddie, & with Mick Jagger appearing in drag. He appeared in Tales Of The City, & in And The Band Played On, about the discovery of & early fight against HIV. As activist Bill Kraus, Ian stood out in a cast including Richard Gere, Anjelica Huston, Steve Martin, receiving an Emmy nomination .

Even as a full blown movie star, McKellen returned to ensemble theatre for a season at the West Yorkshire Playhouse, appearing in The Seagull, The Tempest & Noel Coward’s Present Laughter. On screen he would appear in small art house film fare: The Lord Of The Rings Trilogy (another Oscar nom), X-Men, & The Da Vinci Code.

McKellen is responsible for 2 of my favorite performances in 2 of my very favorite films: hilarious & outragous in Cold Comfort Farm & pretty, witty & very gay, & Oscar nominated as director James Whale in Gods & Monsters. I can’t think of a living person that I admire more. Sir Ian McKellen is one of the greatest actors of all time & a relentless activist for equal rights. He remains happily single as he turns 72 years old today.

Born On This Day In 1885- Arthur Wing Pinero

He is rather obscure even for your host, a theatre major & pop culture savant. Sir Arthur Wing Pinero was a late 19^th century & early 20^th century actor, director & playwright. I don’t know all that much about except that he was homosexual & Jewish which couldn’t have been easy in Victorian England.

I have 2 small connections to him. Pinero authored a charming play- The Enchanted Cottage which I was very good in at my high school & I saw a very young Meryl Streep in a nifty production of Trelawny Of The Wells in 1975.

The movie version of The Enchanted Cottage (1945), starring Dorothy McGuire & Robert Young, is an A+ film going experience. I recommend seeing it. The theme of Pinero's The Enchanted Cottage, which was produced as a play directly after WW1 & as a silent film in 1924, concerns the illusion of beauty & the moral courage which are mutually by a homely girl & a maimed war veteran when they viewed each other through the eyes of love. Even in this age of easier plastic surgery, the theme is still quite appealing today just as it was when it was first presented & one which can bear repeating.

In his era, Pinero was prodigious, prolific, & stupendous success, a peer of Shaw & Wilde. Today he is mostly forgotten & his works are seldom revivied.

 
I like that among Pinero’s 60 plays are the titles:
Dandy Dick, Sweet Lavender & The Gay Lord Quex.

Alla Nazimova Was Born On This Day- May 22nd

 

She wasn’t in therapy, didn’t wear a fanny pack, had never sang along with the Indigo Girls & she didn’t play on a softball league, but Alla Nazimova was one luscious lesbian.

Nazimova was born Miriam Edez Adelaida Leventon, in the Ukraine, on this day in 1879. She studied with Stanslavski at the Moscow Arts Theatre. Nazimova was a mjor star in Moscow, Berlin & London by the time she arrived in NYC in 1905. She became an acclaimed actress & the toast of Broadway in the first deacde of the 20^th Century with success performing the works of Chekov, Turgenev & Ibsen. 

In 1918, Nazimova began producing, writing, & starring in films of her stage triumphs. Her film adaptations, her own film making techniques, & her acting style were considered daring at the time. 

In 1920s Hollywood, she counted as her many lovers: Patsy Ruth Miller, Anna Mae Wong, both of Rudolph Valentino's wives- Jean Acker & Natacha Rambova, Eva Le Gallienne, director- Dorothy Azner, & writer- Mercedes de Acosta. She coined the term "sewing circle" as code for her lesbian group of gal pals.  

Her private lifestyle was the topic of widespread rumors of decadent & debauched parties at her mansion on Sunset Boulevard, in West Hollywood known as The Garden of Allah. The Moorish palace was built in 1919. 

In 1927, Nazimova converted her estate into a 3.5 acre semi tropical trysting resort. She retained a private apartment upstairs in her former mansion, with the bottom story converted into a café & bar. The property became a complicated colorful collection of Spanish style bungalows & detached apartments, 25 villas were constructed around the pool, designed with drama & dash; the pool was shaped like the Black Sea.

The Garden Of Allah went bankrupt within a year & was bought by a developer who raised the rent. Nazimova stayed & among those who chose to live there: Gloria Swanson, Greta Garbo, John Barrymore, Clara Bow, Buster Keaton, Ramon Navarro, Harpo Marx, Ava Gardner, Errol Flynn, Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, Ernest Hemingway, Lillian Hellman, Joe E. Lewis, Artie Shaw, Marlene Dietrich, George Kaufman, F Scott Fitzgerald, Robert Benchley & Laurence Olivier.  

 
Sham marriages, fights, feuds, egos, liquor during Prohibition, spoiled celebrities, recreational sex, drugs, drunken rages, loach liaisons, writer’s block, orgies, money problems, sudden changes of plans, the Garden Of Allah was a true Post Apocalyptic Bohemia. 

At the corner of Sunset & Crescent Heights, The Garden Of Allah is now a strip mall. The Joni Michell Song- Big Yellow Taxi is about the destruction of the site. Nazimova died in 1945, at the age of 66. She is buried at Forest Lawn.

If you should find yourself in LA & you desire the expert attention of a true insider, I recommend my blogger friend Felix & his World Class Tour Of Hollywood... take his tour!

& The Curtain Falls... Arthur Laurents

He meant a great deal to me, one of my favorite show biz creatures: cranky, candid, & curt. He was part of the team that created my favorite musical, writing the book of Gypsy, one of the best librettos ever. It has character; it has a flavor of the period of the various theater styles of the time, a feeling of being transported back to the world of second-rate vaudeville & burlesque. It's amazing that the script actually does that. It is a great, great vehicle for a certain kind of actress, who is bigger than the sum of her parts.

He was the screenwriter of my favorite Hollywood Romance- The Way We Were, based on his own novel, which was based on his own life,with his long time partner Tom Hatcher as the Robert Redford character & Barbra Streisand as a stand in for himself.

I made note on this little spot on the Internet of news that Streisand wished to play Rose & direct a new film version of Gypsy. This spring Arthur Laurents’s had conversation with the musical's lyricist, Stephen Sondheim, that convinced him there shouldn't be another Gypsy movie. Laurnets: "He said, 'What is the point of it?' & I said, 'They have this terrible version with Rosalind Russell wearing those black & white shoes.' & then Sondheim told me something that he got from the British… & it's wonderful. He said, 'You want a record because the theater is ephemeral. But it's wrong. The theater's greatest essence is that it is ephemeral. You don't need a record. The fact that it's ephemeral means you can have different productions, different Roses on into infinity. So I don't want it now. I don't want a definitive record. I want it to stay alive."

He was role model to me in so many ways, he planned ahead for his death, giving directions to his agent Jonathan Lomma that when he died that he wanted it noted: "he was predeceased by his partner, Tom Hatcher, with whom he had lived in happiness for more than 50 years.”

In his engaging memoir from 2000- Original Story By, he was straightforward about his liaisons with gentlemen, referring to his partners as “those unremembered hundreds.... I think that people who are healthy have good sex, with a lot of variety to it."

Tom Hatcher, a former actor & real estate developer, would be his partner for 52 years. Hatcher died in 2006.

Laurents: “Writers are ‘the chosen people’ & I have been the happiest when sitting alone & putting my daydreams & fantasies down on paper.”

Laurents: "Gypsy is about the need for recognition. ... a need everyone has in one way or another."

I found him to be attractive, especially in his younger years, a small, compact man, like a cross between a Roman emperor on a coin & a hot gym teacher, difficult, diffident & Jewish… all plusses in my book.

Laurents:" They say I'm mean. They say this for 2 reasons. I I think too fast & I talk as fast as I think, & I'm often acerbic. But I say mean things as a defense. People who get their feelings hurt don't realize I have a very developed set of defenses. But also I will not suffer fools & amateurs. What that has cost me is a ... reputation. So?"

For more about his life, see my post on his birthday here.

He left this existence today at 93 years of age. He was still working up until March 2011.Mr. Laurents, I hope to see you at the big curtain call some day.

Epperson & Gaultier

John Epperson: “Tolerance isn't enough. Acceptance isn't enough. Understanding may be enough. But I don't know if you can understand unless you're inside a person's skin. What could be enough is just to somehow shed the fear & loathing, but the only way that can be done is if all the people who hate homosexuals realize there's a potential homosexual lurking in them. Sexuality is a transitory thing that could shift at any moment. It's bigger than all of us”.

After leaving his native Mississippi, young John Epperson moved to NYC & landed a job as the rehearsal pianist for the American Ballet Theater. He also began doing drag performances at nightspots Club 57 & the Pyramid Club. Epperson quit his job with the American Ballet Theater in 1991 in order to perform full-time as Lypsinka. He has since returned to his position at American Ballet Theater. Last year he had a non-drag role as the rehearsal pianist in the Film- Black Swan. What a stretch. It would have been more thrilling if Lypsinka had played the role, not to disparage Epperson's estimable talents.

Fueled by the early 1980s avant-garde, pop culture art scene in NYC, Epperson let flow his creative pluck into one of the more distinctive personas to emerge in contemporary performing arts: Lypsinka.


For the past 2 decades, Epperson's performances as Lypsinka have met with international acclaim for elevating drag & lip-synching to a beguiling world where Lypsinka speaks only through intricately interlaced bits of dialogue drawn from the considerable catalogue of American entertainment. Epperson turns 55 today.

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Starting out as Pierre Cardin’s assistant in 1970, Jean Paul Gaultier showed his first collection in 1976 at the urging of his boyfriend- Francis Menuge, who was his partner in business & life, until he died of AIDS complications in 1990. Gaultier’s collections have always been influenced by street culture & the media & he’s known for twisting gender roles in his designs, often overshadowing the elaborate design & construction of his work. Gaultier has literally made a career for himself out of nothing but sheer determination & dedication. With no formal training, he has managed to create a self-made empire with no indication of slowing down. He is a magical master of the theatrical in his runway shows, displays & advertising.

An unconventional designer, Gaultier claims to finds inspiration in everyday life, drawing from what he says, “is the truth of an object”. His shows are fabulous events, & he uses every shape & size of model. Fearless & passionate in any endeavor he takes on, whether it is the biggest pop star of all time & her sold out world tour, or blockbuster sci-fi thriller movies, Gaultier is one the best. The bad boy of fashion turns 59 today.

Born On This Day- April 14th... Acting Great, John Gielgud

He is a personal favorite of mine. Most people remember him for his Oscar winning performance as Dudley Moore's butler in 1981's Arthur. He was more romantic than Laurence Olivier, & more sensitive than Ralph Richardson. Sir John Gielgud was the greatest Shakespearean performer of the 20th century. His portrayal, as a very young man, of Hamlet is considered the best of all time. Gielgud is one of the few entertainers who have won an Oscar, Emmy, Grammy, & Tony Award. Known for his beautiful delivery, he was called the "voice that wooed the world". He was still acting on stage at the age of 82 & he now has a West End theatre named after him.

On stage, Gielgud knew exactly what he was doing, but for half of his time on this earth, he was a big old mess in private. Gielgud was a revered acting talent, but his career was almost ended by his sexuality in a time when being gay was considered a crime. Today, when homosexual acts between consenting adults have been legal in Britain for more than 40 years, it is difficult to imagine that gays were taking enormous risks to be together. Sex acts between men, even performed in total privacy, were against the law & could lead to ruined careers & several years in jail.


One incident in Gielgud’s life so crippled him, that although he was at the apex of success when it happened, he contemplated suicide. In 1953, after a rehearsal of his starring role in A Day By The Sea, the 49 year old actor, enjoyed drinks with friends, & then went on the hunt for an intimate encounter. He visited one of London's infamous underground public lavatories seeking sex. Gielgud had done this before, but this time he was arrested by one of Scotland Yard's young recruits picked for their looks & assigned to the urinals for the purposes of entrapment.


"A Plague Over England" was the phrase invented by the then-Home Secretary David Maxwell Fyffe, who vowed to wipe out homosexuality before it destroyed the country. As a result, the police were arresting more than 10,000 gay men a year. Against this background that clueless Gielgud was arrested. A former public schoolboy who came from a famous theatrical family, he had never been in any doubt that he preferred men.


One of his first acting jobs in the 1920s was to understudy the very gay Noel Coward. In 1926, during the run of Coward's play The Constant Nymph, Gielgud had his first serious romance, with actor John Perry, who gave up his own stage career to live with his much more successful lover in a flat in Covent Garden.


Gielgud's homosexuality was common knowledge in the theatre world, but audiences only knew of his astonishing talent. After his Hamlet became a box office sensation in 1934, the British public idolized him. Other actors- Alec Guinness, Edith Evans & Richard Burton thought he simply the best there was.


In 1953, the year of the Elizabeth 2’s Coronation, Gielgud was nominated for a knighthood. It was the very height of his remarkable career. He was directing himself in a new production, & he had a new lover- interior designer Paul Anstee. Despite his new knighthood, & being one of the most celebrated actors in the world, there he was, the actor was arrested & charged with "persistently importuning men for immoral purposes".


Despite his high profile, Gielgud was not recognized. He was fined & urged to see a doctor about his perverse sex life, a common recommendation at a time when homosexuality was considered a medical problem. Gielgud's luck did not last, a reporter from London's Evening Standard happened to be in court that morning & recognized the actor's silver voice. When Gielgud was on his way to rehearsal that same afternoon, he saw his name on the front page of the late editions of the newspaper. 


The humiliation was too much for the sensitive Gielgud. A Conservative peer, Lord Winterton, called for him to be horsewhipped in the street after being stripped of his knighthood. His company of players were very supportive, & when the play finally opened, Gielgud's adoring public proved more than understanding & applauded giving him the blessing he longed for. This vindication was not enough for Gielgud, & 5 months into the run, he suffered a breakdown & was forced to leave the play.


Our own USA government denied Gielgud a visa to tour The Tempest around the country. Choreographer Frederick Ashton denounced Gielgud as having "ruined it for us all". Soon after, Gielgud’s acting style would fall out of style, yet he continued to work by moving in the modern theatre, doing the works of Pinter & Beckett. Gielgud continued to work into his 90s. He had roles in 3 films in 1997, including the piano tutor in Shine. 

His career enjoyed a renaissance in his old age. He even achieved respectability in his love life. At a Tate Gallery exhibition in the 1960s, Gielgud met artist Martin Hensler, 30 years his junior, who shared his love of gardening. They remained a couple for 40 years, & died only months apart in 2000.

An Actor's Actor

He was one of those journeyman actors that inspired me when I was first getting in the biz: a strong supporting actor at important stages around the country & not above juicy bits in TV & films.



George Grizzard made more than 40 films & hundreds of TV appearances, but it was in the theatre that he had his greatest triumphs. He created the role of Nick, the young newlywed academic who finds himself subject to an evening of malicious mocking by an older couple, in Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1962). Grizzard would become one of the foremost interrupters of the works of Albee.

Grizzard was praised for his ability to switch moods swiftly & create the emotional climaxes characteristic of Albee's work. He won a Tony award for his work in the 1996 revival of Albee's A Delicate Balance. In 2005 Grizzard starred with Frances Sternhagen in a revival of Albee's Seascape. These are both roles that I also played.


Grizzard had his finest movie role in Otto Preminger's Advise & Consent (1962) , even with such scene-stealers as Henry Fonda & Charles Laughton, as the ruthless, power-seeking senator who blackmails a young politician about his homosexual past. On TV he had a recurring role on Law & Order.


In the 1960s, Grizzard played Hamlet in a modern-dress production directed by Tyrone Guthrie at his new theatre in Minneapolis. Grizzard stayed at the Guthrie Theater for 2 seasons.


He returned to Broadway as Tom in a revival of Tennessee Williams's The Glass Menagerie (1965), he in a revival of Clifford Odets' The Country Girl (1972), repeating the role in a television movie version in 1974.


I saw him give a sparkling performance in one of my favorite theatre experiences, Ellis Rabb's hit revival of George Kaufman & Edna Ferber's satire on the Barrymore Family- The Royal Family (1975), as Tony Cavendish, the heavy-drinking, womanising actor (based on John Barrymore) he was flamboyantly charismatic. He matched the work Eva Le Gallienne & Rosemary Harris & was a joy to see & hear.

After 4 nominations, he finally won a Tony Award in 1996, for A Delicate Balance. His last screen role was in Clint Eastwood's Flags of Our Fathers (2006), in which he played an old man haunted by memories of his younger self (played by Ryan Phillippe) fighting in the battle of Iwo Jima.


Grizzard lived in NYC, with his long time partner- William Tynan. His last Broadway play was Paul Rudnick's Regrets Only (2006), in which he played a fashion designer campaigning for gay rights. Grizzard died in autumn of 2007. He was born on this day, 83 years ago.

Betty White & George Grizzard!

The Doctor Is Out

Is it embarrassing that I shared a crush with my mother? 50 years ago, my mother & I would settle in to watch Dr. Kildare. It aired on Thursdays at 8:30pm, a school night. I am not sure how I got away with that, but I enjoyed that thrill of dreamy Richard Chamberlain making my head spin, my heart thump & a pajamas stir… all in black & white on NBC.

Richard Chamberlain has had a 4 decades long career in film, stage, pop music & TV as well. Chamberlain co-founded a Los Angeles-based theatre group, Company of Angels, & in 1961, blue eyed & dreamy Chamberlain gained fame & the attention of 7 year gay boys as young heartthrob intern- Dr. Kildare. The show established the handsome Chamberlain as a romantic leading man, & made him an overnight sensation, & his pin-up status was solidified by his singing ability which led to several hit singles in the early 1960s. I owned his album- Richard Chamberlain Sings & I would listen to him warble The Theme From Dr. Kildare & Love Me Tender, while getting all moony over his cover shot.

Chamberlain appeared in some of the most widely seen projects in TV history: Shogun, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Centennial, & of course- The Thorn Birds. 110 million viewers watched the tale of Father de Bricassart’s doomed love for Meggie, the Australian sheep rancher, making The Thorn Birds among the highest rated mini-series ever.

Chamberlain’s cinema career consisted of an crazy mix of projects: The Madwoman of Chaillot, Ken Russell’s The Music Lovers, The Towering Inferno, The Swarm, The Three Musketeers & my favorite Chamberlain performance in Peter Weir’s The Last Wave (rent this film!).

Deeply closeted for most of his life, Chamberlain was outed by the French magazine Nous Deux in 1989, but it wasn’t until 2003, at the age of, ironically, 69, that he acknowledged his homosexuality in his memoir- Shattered Love (which is oddly a chapter title on my own memoir- Jockstraps & Vicodin: the Early Years).

Chamberlain has continued to work in TV: Will & Grace, Chuck, Nip/Tuck, Desperate Housewives, & as the HIV-positive love interest of Ron Rifkin. He starred on Broadway in a revival of My Fair Lady, in the title role of Ebenezer Scrooge in Scrooge: The Musical, & as King Arthur in Spamalot.

Last year, Chamberlain broke up with his partner of 40 years, hansome actor-writer-producer Martin Rabbett, with whom he shared a fabulous home in Hawaii since mid-1970s.

This year, in an interview in The Advocate, Chamberlain says : “I wouldn’t advise a gay leading man-type actor to come out. There’s still a tremendous amount of homophobia in our culture. For an actor to be working is a kind of miracle… so it’s just silly for a working actor to say, ‘Oh, I don’t care if anybody knows I’m gay’ — especially if you’re a leading man… Look at what happened in California with Proposition 8. Please, don’t pretend that we’re suddenly all wonderfully, blissfully accepted.” In an era when the President of the United States signs a bill repealing a law banning gay soldiers from serving openly in the military, Neil Patrick Harris plays a ladies man on a popular TV series & hosts awards shows, & Ellen is the #1 daytime star, Chamberlain’s words gave me just a little pause. Maybe the key is stay in the closet until you are too old for leading man roles, & hope that the publication of your memoir will give your career a boost.

After that little diatribe, I have to admit that I stood at the stage door after his potent performance as Richard II at The Seattle Repertory Theatre in 1971 & nearly fainted from his handsomeness & talent. I so wanted to show him my special appreciation when I was 17 years old… & I think I might still go for the chance. Maybe we could star together in gay versions The Gin Game & On Golden Pond. Chamberlain turns 77 today.

Who's Afraid Of Edward Albee?

I have never met him or slept with him, but I have performed in 2 Albee pieces, playing Tobias in A Delicate Balance & Leslie in Seascape (where I played a talking lizard... really!). I loved both of these roles & I especially appreciated Albee’s take on relationships & the interactions between members of a couple, his common theme. 3 Pulitzer Prizes, 3 Tony Awards, & numerous other honors are testimony to the importance & influence of playwright Edward Albee.

His 50+ year career took off quickly with The Zoo Story in 1959, & was cemented with the 1962 Broadway success of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, & continued into the 21st century with the Broadway production of The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia?. Albee has scored more great successes than most playwrights. Among his 30+ plays: A Delicate Balance, Seascape, Tiny Alice, Three Tall Women & The Play About the Baby. Openly gay Albee is a stalwart political liberal, longtime member of the Dramatists Guild, & has a 15-year+ affiliation with the University of Houston where he conducts a playwriting workshop each spring.

Albee has unsparingly taken up subjects outside the average theatergoer's comfort zone: the capacity for sadism & violence in American society; the fluidness of human identity; the dangerous irrationality of sexual attraction & the positive presence of death.

Albee was with his partner, sculptor Jonathan Thomas for 35 years, until Thomas’ death in 2005, at 59. Albee:“I was expecting to die way before Jonathan did. He was 18 years younger than I was, & the whole idea was that when I got to be my age, he’d be taking care of me, you know? But life doesn’t always work out the way it’s supposed to. You know, we had such a good, long relationship: 35 years. That’s a long time, a life in itself. Of course that makes it worse, but at the same time you can’t just say, ‘How dare you go away from me?’ — which is an attitude that a lot of people get. ‘How dare you die!’ There’s got to be a lot of ‘Thank you’ too. ‘Thank you for being alive & being with me for so long."  Check out the very readable & fascinating  Edward Albee- A Singular Journey by Mel Gussow.  Albee turns 83 today. He continues to write plays & teach.

Born To Dance

I saw her on Broadway several times, at least 3 time in the musical- Chicago alone, & she is a long time favorite of mine. Gwenyth Evelyn Verdon was one of Broadway's biggest stars of the Golden Era & beyond. She was an actress & dancer who won 4 Tony awards. With flaming red hair & an endearing quaver in her voice, Gwen Verdon was a critically acclaimed dancer & occasionally an actor in films in the 1950s,1960s & 1970s... & into the 1980s with terrific work in the films Cocoon & Marvin's Room.




Verdon is strongly associated with the work of her husband, director/choreographer Bob Fosse. She was his primary dancer/collaborator & muse for whom he choreographed much of his work. She was the guardian of his legacy after his death. Because of his extramarital affairs, in 1971 Verdon filed a legal separation from Fosse, but never divorced him. She held him in her arms as he suffered a fatal heart attack on the sidewalk outside the theatre where  his musical- Sweet Charity was being revived.

Verdon & her daughter with Fosse- Nicole collaborated to create the Broadway show- Fosse. She continued to teach dance & musical theatre until 1999. Best known for her verve, vim & vivacity. On the day she died in 2000, the lights on Broadway were dimmed in honor of the passing of one of its brightest stars. Gwen Verdon would have been 84 years old today.

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I caught Matthew Bourne's Swan Lake on PBS a few years ago & I was blown away. His production turned tradition upside down & took both the theater & dance worlds by storm when it arrived on Broadway in 1998. Swan Lake to the unlikely step of playing Broadway, instead of a concert hall or opera house. It went on to win 3 Tony Awards. Acclaimed as a landmark achievement on the international stage, it has become the longest running ballet in London’s West End & on Broadway. I was revived this season on Broadway, & has had hugely successful tours in Britain.



Bourne was the Artistic Director of his first company- Adventures in Motion Pictures (1987-2002). His new company is named- New Adventures.

His best know productions include Nutcracker!, Swan Lake, The Car Man ( A modern dance version of the opera- Carmen) & Play Without Words. Bourne is a Resident Artist at Sadlers Wells Theatre & has created the choreography & direction for several major revivals of classic musicals: Oliver!, My Fair Lady, South Pacific & the hit West End & Broadway musical Mary Poppins for which he won an Olivier Award & A Tony. His production of Swan Lake is featured in Stephen Daldry’s film- Billy Elliot.

Bourne started training to be a dancer at the rather late age of 22 .He's grateful he came to it late: "If I hadn't had my experience of all those things, I don't think my work now would connect with a much wider audience than the dance world. If I'd started young as a choreographer, as a dancer, the subject of my work would be movement, much more choreography as such, because I wouldn't have all those other influences".

He danced professionally for 14 years creating many roles in his own work. In 1999 he gave his final performance playing The Private Secretary in the Broadway production of Swan Lake. His other ballets include Edward Scissorhands & Dorian Gray. I am a bit smitten. I had a lover who was a professional dancer. He was very flexable. Bourne turns 51 today.

Born On This Day- September 17th... Star & Friend To The Stars- Roddy McDowall

I ran into him 2 times. The 1st time was at the 50th Anniversary of MGM Ball at the Beverley Wilshire Hotel in 1973 (which I crashed). He was there as Elizabeth Taylor’s date. He could not have been more gracious & friendly. He was better looking in person than I had ever found him to be in films. The 2nd time was at a coke fueled all boy party at the home of a famous producer in the Hollywood Hills. He couldn’t have been more gracious & friendly. He was profoundly better endowed than I would have ever thought from his films.


Roddy McDowall was thought to be one of the nicest people in show biz ever, & an especially good friend who was known to be able to keep a confidence.

After winning an acting prize in a school play, he was able to secure film work in Britain, beginning at age 10 with 1938's Scruffy. He appeared in 16 roles before his family were evacuated to the U.S. during the 1940 Battle of Britain. McDowall’s arrival in Hollywood coincided with the desire of 20th Century-Fox’s Darryl F. Zanuck to create a "new Freddie Bartholomew." He tested for the juvenile lead in Fox's How Green Was My Valley (1941), winning both the role, great reviews & a long contract. Roddy McDowall was cast with the then unknown Elizabeth Taylor, in her screen debut, in 1943's Lassie Come Home. Elizabeth & Roddy became life long close friends. Elizabeth's selection for this movie was an absolute fluke. The director wanted a young girl with an English accent.

McDowall's 1st adult role was as Malcolm in Orson Welles' 1948 film version of Macbeth. Basically, McDowall left films in the 1950s, preferring TV & stage work; among his Broadway credits were No Time for Sergeants, Compulsion, (working with fellow former child star Dean Stockwell) & Lerner & Loewe's Camelot (as Mordred, a role I played in summer stock a decade later). McDowall won a 1960 Tony Award for his work in the short run of the play- The Fighting Cock (by coincidence a chapter title in my memoir- Jockstraps & Vicodin: The Early Years). he spent the early 1960s playing Octavius in the mammoth production Cleopatra, with longtime friend Elizabeth Taylor.

An accomplished & original photographer, McDowall’s photos of Taylor & other celebrities were frequently published in the leading magazines of the era. He was briefly an advising photographic editor of Harper's Bazaar, & in 1966 published the first of several collections of his camerawork- Double Exposure.

McDowall went ape shit for his acting gigs between 1968 & 1975, in elaborate simian makeup as Cornelius in the Planet of the Apes films & TV series. He did an occasional film role & play into the 1990s. McDowall served on the executive boards of the Screen Actors Guild & the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences.

A lifelong movie collector, in 1974 (around the time I met him briefly) the FBI raided the home of McDowall & seized his collection of films & television series during an investigation of movie piracy & copyright infringement. His collection consisted of 160 16 mm prints & more than 1,000 video cassettes. McDowall had purchased Errol Flynn's home movies & the prints of his own directorial debut Tam-Lin (1970) starring Ava Gardner, and transferred them all to tape for archival storage. McDowall was forthcoming about those who dealt with him: Rock Hudson, Dick Martin & Mel Tormé were just a few of the celebrities interested in his film reproductions. No charges were brought against McDowall. McDowall has also worked diligently with the National Film Preservation Board. In August, 1998, he was elected president of the Academy Foundation.

McDowall was one of the Hollywood golden age’s much loved stars, famed for his kindness, generosity & loyalty. McDowall's announcement that he was suffering from terminal cancer a few weeks before he died rocked the film community, & many of his friends visited the ailing actor in his Studio City home. Shortly before he was diagnosed with cancer, McDowall had provided the voiceover for Disney/Pixar's animated feature- A Bug's Life. A few days prior to McDowall's passing, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences named its photo archive after him.

Roddy McDowall graduated from University High School in Santa Monica. Christopher Isherwood wrote in a volume of his memoir that Tom Maddox told him, that he was having an affair with the Roddy, then 17 years old.

Tab Hunter mentions Roddy in his autobiography Tab Hunter Confidential : The Making of a Movie Star : "While making shakes at the Rexall drugstore at Hollywood & Highland, I met my first bona fide movie star. It was the night of the big 1948 Christmas parade...Dick Clayton brought along Roddy McDowall. Roddy was only 20, but he'd been in pictures his whole life.... We hit it off, gabbing and laughing....". Several years later, Tab & Roddy posed shirtless for a fan magazine spread entitled "Calling All Girls".

Farley Granger talks of Roddy in his autobiography Include Me Out: My Life from Goldwyn to Broadway. He knew Roddy prior to Farley's enlistment in the Navy at age 18. Granger: "It was 1953. I found an apartment on the Upper East Side in Manhattan... My old pal Roddy McDowall & Monty Clift lived on the same block" Roddy & Montgomery were very close. During this period he also had an affair with Marlon Brando.

Eddie Fisher, in his autobiography Been There, Done That mentions Roddy McDowall & the years of hatred he had for Roddy. Eddie had first met Elizabeth at a party that Merv Griffin & Roddy threw in an apartment they were then sharing in one of my favorite NY structures- The Dakota. Fisher: "She spent most of the evening in a corner with her close friend Montgomery Clift... She was recently divorced from her first husband Nicky Hilton...."

Lauren Bacall in her memoir By Myself & Then Some: "He was someone I looked forward to being with, loved seeing, loved hearing from."

Roddy was with Bette Davis during the last part of her life. When Julie Andrews asked Roddy why he didn't write a book about his life, he said, "I have too many friends, I know too much, I couldn't."

Roddy McDowall has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6632 Hollywood Blvd, & there is an honorary rose garden at the Woodland Hills grounds of the Motion Picture & Television Fund with a statue of him in costume from the Planet of the Apes. I think that I would have really liked to have been friends with him. Really good friends are to be treasured.

Born On This Day- August 12th... Alfred Lunt

I have always been absorbed by these types, the theatre & film personalities of the 1920s- 1960s. “The Lunts” ruled the American theater scene during that era, with their dazzling partnership. Their careers flourished at a time when even the biggest stars would do national tours & successful actors worked exclusively year-round on the stage. Their friends included other glamorous theater people: Noel Coward, Gertrude Lawrence, Helen Hayes, Mary Martin, Ethel Merman & Laurence Olivier.


 There was never a question of their devotion, but the offstage union of Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne was a marriage between a gay man & a Lesbian. Their presentation of themselves as the ideal couple may have been their most skillful performance.


When prodded by best buddy- Noel Coward, the couple would sometimes teasingly hint about their private lives. Their scandalous 1933 hit- Design for Living allowed the Coward & his co-stars to romp through a 3 way implying that there was sex between the 2 male characters. Design for Living remains one of my favorite plays. I remain fascinated by the ups, downs & pitfalls of a 3 way relationship.The production showcased the flawless comic gifts for which the Lunts were most admired, but they also excelled at dramatic pieces too, but the Lunts will always be known for the light comedy & the amazing chemistry.

When relaxing, they retreated in high style to their country manor in Lunt's home state, Wisconsin, where he could cook & redecorate while she sewed her chic clothing. The Lunts were my kind of couple; they ate off an orange crate, siting on Biedermeier chairs. The Lunts were Post Apocalyptic Bohemians. The theater was life for them, & their life was a piece of theater. Their dwellings were theatrical sets, their parties were stage shows, everyone who socialized with them was turned into audience. It was remarked that they knew next to nothing about what was going on in the world, had largely theatrical friends, usually acted together & rehearsed their parts in taxis, even in bed.

There are all sorts of marriages, I should know. Unlike in other show biz marriages, the spouses were equal stars; equally glamorous to the world & to each other, not much reason for jealousy. Passion was what they enacted on the stage. Fontanne : ''We were friends right away. . . . I loved him utterly. We were in the same profession. We were like twins. When we were acting, I always thought of him as another person. . . . I had a new lover every night, and so had he.'' '' Hmmm… sexual passion?


The Lunts had design for living to suit them both: There would be deep devotion. . . . There would be close friendships, particularly the triangle kind that Lynn preferred: Lynn, Alfred & a gay male, kindness, courtesy, loyalty & generosity. There would be passionate, total commitment to their work.''


After Lunt's death, Fontanne toasted him with a glass of champagne, saying simply, "To Alfred." We will not see their like again.