Gay western actors
Westerns Were Queer Way Before ‘Brokeback Mountain’
The Wild West, according to Hollywood, is a sun-scorched place of isolation and passion. Cowboys wander on horseback, some faster than others when sending bullets out from their guns. Strange Way of Life, a brand-new short by director Pedro Almodóvar, brings Ethan Hawke and Pedro Pascal together as cowboys and ex-lovers who confront their past and their present. The premise can make audiences think back to Brokeback Mountain, which forces two men apart, allowing them to escape and accept in limited retreats. However, not even this film introduced queerness with cowboys. Westerns indulge in homosocial environments where women are hardly allowed into the close bonds the men have with each other. While the Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal titanic romance made subtext finally text, there is a history of queerness in the movies about the Wild West, from black-and-white oldies to erotic tales of free love, and everything in between.
What Were the Queer Undertones in Montgomery Clift & James Stewart's Classic Westerns?
In The Birdcage, flamboyant club owner Armand (Robin Williams) tries to instruct his love
We take a look at some movies that reveal how the western is also a place for &#;queer&#; stories.
&#;In no other western film have we seen two men making a bed,&#; said Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar when talking about Strange Way of Life, his fresh short film and the first western in his filmography. The work had its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival. “That scene makes my film stand out from other westerns,&#; noted the director.
At Cannes audiences finally got to see his take on the homosexual cowboy movie: a minute movie about a sheriff named Jake (Ethan Hawke) and a cowboy named Silva (Pedro Pascal) who, 25 years after a love affair, reunite in the desert under mysterious circumstances. Director Almodóvar takes the language of this exceptionally virile genre and uses it to compose an absolutely rapturous gender non-conforming drama along the lines of what Nicholas Ray did in Johnny Guitar ().
The film sells itself as a &#;queer western&#; that wants to revere the classics of the genre but subvert its conventions.
We know that lgbtq+ sexuality existed back in the American frontier era, though it wasn’t something folks often drew attention to. People were still homophobic, som
FIVE GAY ACTORS IN MID-CENTURY HOLLYWOOD
by David Ehrenstein
Now that gay actors like Nathan Lane, Jim Parsons, Victor Garber, Jonathan Groff, and Neil Patrick Harris are &#;out of the closet&#; and on the rise, it&#;s difficult to imagine just how different things were in the relatively recent past. Not only was the notion of being openly gay and having a viable career unimaginable, but gayness itself was also a concept polite culture couldn&#;t countenance. &#;Homosexuals&#; subsisted on society’s margins, mentioned only in whispered gossip, fearsome psychiatric studies, and Conservative diatribes decrying perversion.
Hiding In Plain Sight
Still, in spite of it all, gay men managed to make their way to very top of the acting profession in the gilded closets of Hollywood. In this covert context, bigtime careers and personal lives proceeded with a calculated risk that can fascinate us today. Here are five of the most noteworthy examples of gay actors in mid-Century Hollywood.
LIBERACE
Liberace was an utterly unique entertainer. A pianist whose act consisted of an abbreviated arrangement of select &#;classical&#; tunes (Chopin, Tchaikovsky) freely mixed with popular &#;favorit
Gay Hollywood Actors of Old
There were apparently rags in the s that would out actors if the studios did not cough up enough money for them not to. And, some of the now elderly partners of Hollywood stars have told all. I've been surprised at some of the actors who were gay.
The one that surprised me most was Raymond Burr. Any others that have been surprising?
| by Anonymous | reply | May 1, PM |
I've heard rumors about Liberace.
| by Anonymous | reply 1 | November 9, AM |
Van Johnson, Golden Age Hollywood Queen.
| by Anonymous | reply 2 | November 9, AM |
Billy Haines. Who, when told "play along or don't play", told the studio to shove it and became the most sought after interior decorated in Hollywood/Beverly Hills. He and his partner, Jimmie Shields, were together until Haines death from cancer at Soon afterward Shields committed suicide.
Joan Crawford, a friend, called them "the happiest married couple in Hollywood".
| by Anonymous | reply 3 | November 9, AM |
After telling Hollywood to go pound salt Mr. Haines went on to become one of the most acclaimed interior decorators of the 20th Century
| by Anonymous | reply 4 | November . |