Gay Icons

[trencherman]

Truman Capote

Truman Capote and Jack Dunphy in Rome 1949.

This must be one of the smartest modelling of a grey suit ever.

 

[W!nston]

Paul Winfield

Paul Edward Winfield (May 22, 1939 – March 7, 2004) was an American television, film and stage actor. He was known for his portrayal of a Louisiana sharecropper who struggles to support his family during the Great Depression in the landmark film Sounder, which earned him an Academy Award nomination. He portrayed Martin Luther King, Jr. in the 1978 television miniseries King, for which he was nominated for an Emmy Award. Winfield was also known to science fiction fans for his roles in The Terminator, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, and Star Trek: The Next Generation.

Career

A life member of The Actors Studio, Winfield carved out a diverse career in film, television, theater and voiceovers by taking ground breaking roles at a time when African-American actors were rarely cast. He first appeared in the 1965 Perry Mason episode, "The Case of the Runaway Racer," as Mitch, a race car mechanic. His first major feature film role was in the 1969 film, The Lost Man starring Sidney Poitier. Winfield first became well-known to television audiences when he appeared for several years opposite Diahann Carroll on the groundbreaking television series Julia. Filmed during a high point of racial tensions in the United States, the show was unique in featuring an African-American female as the central character. He also starred as Martin Luther King, Jr. in the 1978 miniseries King.

Winfield also took on roles as gay characters in the films Mike's Murder in 1984 and again in 1998 in the film Relax...It's Just Sex.

Personal life and death

Winfield was gay but remained discreet about it in the public eye. His partner of 30 years, architect Charles Gillan, Jr., died on March 5, 2002 of bone cancer.

Winfield long battled obesity and diabetes. He died of a heart attack in 2004 at age 64, at Queen of Angels – Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center in Los Angeles. Winfield and Gillan are interred at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Los Angeles.

He was also the cousin of actor William Marshall who played the lead role in the classic 1972 Blaxploitation horror film Blacula.

 

[W!nston]

Ramon Novarro

Ramon Novarro in Ben Hur

Wikipedia

Jose Ramón Gil Samaniego, best known as Ramón Novarro (February 6, 1899 – October 30, 1968), was a Mexican film, stage and television actor who began his career as a leading man in silent films in 1917. Novarro was promoted by MGM as a "Latin lover" and became known as sex symbol after the death of Rudolph Valentino.

Early life

Novarro was born José Ramón Gil Samaniego on February 6, 1899 in Durango, Mexico, to Dr. Mariano N. Samaniego, and his wife, Leonor. The family moved to Los Angeles, California, to escape the Mexican Revolution in 1913.

Allan Ellenberger, Novarro's biographer, writes:

[...t]he Samaniegos were an influential and well-respected family in Mexico. Many Samaniegos had prominent positions in the affairs of state and were held in high esteem by the president. Ramon's grandfather, Mariano Samaniego, was a well-known physician in Juarez. Known as a charitable and outgoing man, he was once an interim governor for the State of Chihuahua and was the first city councilman of El Paso, Texas...
Ramon's father, Dr. Mariano N. Samaniego, was born in Juarez and attended high school in Las Cruces, New Mexico. After receiving his degree in dentistry at the University of Pennsylvania, he moved to Durango, Mexico, and began a flourishing dental practice. In 1891 he married Leonor Pérez-Gavilán, the beautiful daughter of a prosperous landowner. The Pérez-Gaviláns were a mixture of Spanish and Aztec blood, and according to local legend, they were descended from Guerrero, a prince of Montezuma.

The family estate was called the "Garden of Eden". Thirteen children were born there: Emilio; Guadalupe; Rosa; Ramón; Leonor; Mariano; Luz; Antonio; José; a stillborn child; Carmen; Ángel and Eduardo. At the time of the revolution in Mexico, the family moved from Durango to Mexico City and then back to Durango. Three of Ramón's sisters, Guadalupe, Rosa, and Leonor, became nuns.[3] He was a second cousin of the Mexican actresses Dolores del Río and Andrea Palma.

Career

Silent films

Novarro with Greta Garbo in Mata Hari (1931)

He entered films in 1917 in bit parts. He supplemented his income by working as a singing waiter. His friends, actor and director Rex Ingram and his wife, the actress Alice Terry, began to promote him as a rival to Rudolph Valentino, and Ingram suggested he change his name to "Novarro." From 1923, he began to play more prominent roles. His role in Scaramouche (1923) brought him his first major success.

In 1925, Novarro achieved his greatest success in Ben-Hur. His revealing costumes caused a sensation. He was elevated into the Hollywood elite. As did many stars, Novarro engaged Sylvia of Hollywood as a therapist (although in her tell-all book, Sylvia erroneously claimed that Novarro slept in a coffin). With Valentino's death in 1926, Novarro became the screen's leading Latin actor, though ranked behind his MGM contemporary, John Gilbert, as a leading man. He was popular as a swashbuckler in action roles and considered one of the great romantic lead actors of his day. Novarro appeared with Norma Shearer in The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg (1927) and with Joan Crawford in Across to Singapore (1928).

Talking films

Novarro with Joan Crawford in Across to Singapore (1928)

He made his first talking film, starring as a singing French soldier, in Devil-May-Care (1929). He starred with Dorothy Janis in The Pagan (1929), with Greta Garbo in Mata Hari (1931), with Myrna Loy in The Barbarian (1933) and opposite Lupe Vélez in Laughing Boy (1934).

When his contract with MGM Studios expired in 1935 and the studio did not renew it, Novarro continued to act sporadically, appearing in films for Republic Pictures, a Mexican religious drama, and a French comedy. In the 1940s, he had several small roles in American films, including We Were Strangers (1949), directed by John Huston and starring Jennifer Jones and John Garfield. In 1958, he was considered for a role in the television series The Green Peacock, with Howard Duff and Ida Lupino, after their CBS Television sitcom Mr. Adams and Eve (1957–58). The project, however, never materialized. A Broadway tryout was aborted in the 1960s. Novarro kept busy on television, appearing in NBC's The High Chaparral as late as 1968.


Novarro with Lupe Vélez in Laughing Boy (1934)

At the peak of his success in the late 1920s and early 1930s, Ramón Novarro was earning more than US$100,000 per film. He invested some of his income in real estate, and his Hollywood Hills residence is one of the more renowned designs (1927) by Lloyd Wright, the son of Frank Lloyd Wright. When his career ended, he was still able to maintain a comfortable lifestyle.

Personal life

Novarro was troubled all his life by his conflicted feelings toward his Roman Catholic religion and his homosexuality. His life-long struggle with alcoholism is often traced to these issues. MGM mogul Louis B. Mayer reportedly tried to coerce Novarro into a "lavender marriage", which he refused. He was romantically involved with journalist Herbert Howe, who was also his publicist in the late 1920s.

Along with Dolores del Río, Lupe Vélez and James Cagney, Novarro was accused of promoting Communism in California. It happened after they attended a special screening of the film ¡Que viva México! by famed Russian filmmaker Sergei M. Eisenstein.

Death

Novarro was murdered on October 30, 1968, by brothers Paul and Tom Ferguson, aged 22 and 17, whom he had hired from an agency to come to his Laurel Canyon home for sex. According to the prosecution in the murder case, the two young men believed that a large sum of money was hidden in Novarro's house. The prosecution accused the brothers of torturing Novarro for several hours to force him to reveal where the non-existent money was hidden. They left the house with $20 they took from his bathrobe pocket. Novarro died as a result of asphyxiation—having choked to death on his own blood after being beaten. The two perpetrators were caught and sentenced to long prison terms, but released on probation in the mid-1970s. Both were later re-arrested for unrelated crimes for which they served longer prison terms than for the murder of Novarro.

Ramón Novarro is buried in Calvary Cemetery, in Los Angeles. Ramón Novarro's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame is at 6350 Hollywood Boulevard.

In popular culture

Novarro's murder served as the basis for the short story by Charles Bukowski called The Murder of Ramon Vasquez, as well as for the song by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, "Tango," recorded by Peggy Lee on her Mirrors album.

In late 2005, the Wings Theatre in New York City staged the world premiere of Through a Naked Lens by George Barthel. The play combined fact and fiction to depict Ramon Novarro's rise to fame and his relationship with Hollywood journalist Herbert Howe.

Novarro's relationship with Herbert Howe is discussed in two biographies: Allan R. Ellenberger's Ramón Novarro and André Soares's Beyond Paradise: The Life of Ramón Novarro.

Prize-winning Greek playwright Pavlos Matesis wrote a play in two parts titled "The Ghost of Mr. Ramon Novarro", which was first staged at the National Theatre of Greece in 1973.

In the Season 3 episode "Every Dog Has His Day..." of All Creatures Great and Small, Novarro is referred to by the housekeeper, Mrs. Hall.

Novarro's death was referenced in The Sopranos episode "Cold Stones".

In John Guare's play The House of Blue Leaves, the lead character jokes that he is Ramon Novarro when he calls his friend, a film director. (The play deals with the subjects of celebrity and violence.)

SOURCE

Additionally...

Ramon Novarro was once one of the great male sex symbols in American films. The gorgeous Mexico-born movie star caused a sensation in the original silent film Ben Hur as his scantily clad body aroused his female (and closeted gay) fans. Ben Hur was arguably the most famous film of the silent era. Ramon Novarro was a Hollywood superstar when movies began. He was also gay at a time when homosexuality was viewed as a major illness. Few gay men—let alone major movie stars—were willing to risk disclosure. Ramon Novarro was pretty much forgotten in 1968 when his murder by two hustlers was one of the most shocking Hollywood scandals of the era.

Ramon Novarro was born Jose Ramon Gil Samaniego in Mexico in 1899. His family was wealthy and influential, and Novarro was a second cousin of Mexican movie star Dolores del Rio. Arriving in California, Jose changed his name to Ramon Novarro and started getting decent roles in silent pictures. With Rudolph Valentino and the Latin craze sweeping Hollywood, Navarro got better roles and then screen immortality with the starring role in Ben Hur. Playing Judah Ben Hur (later played by Charlton Heston in the Oscar-winning remake), Navarro became a movie idol. The fact that he wore very little clothes for most of the film helped turn him into a sex symbol. With the death of Valentino the following year, Novarro had no equal in the male Latin bombshell department. Navarro starred with Norma Shearer and Joan Crawford in hit films and easily made the transition to talkies—including the classic Mata Hari with screen legend Greta Garbo.

But in 1935, MGM chose not to renew Ramon Novarro's contract. Why??? Were Latin idols fading, or were Louis B. Mayer's frustrated attempts to hide Novarro's gayness the real reason? Probably a bit of both. Ramon Novarro continued to make films and even had featured roles in two 1949 classics—We Were Strangers with Jennifer Jones and The Big Steal with Jane Greer and Robert Mitchum. Ramon Navarro did not have to work, as he was extremely wealthy due to real estate investments. This allowed him plenty of time to entertain a long line of young boys over three decades.

By the time Novarro was 69 years old in 1968 he hadn't changed. He still drank tons of alcohol and paid gay escorts for relief. On Oct. 30, the night before Halloween, Novarro made the unfortunate decision to hire two hustlers (brothers 22 and 17). A dispute over money erupted afterwards and there was a grotesque tableau of torture and death. The murder of Ramon Novarro was a tawdry media circus. Rumors of metal dildos and other specious elaborations followed Ramon Novarro's death for years. The two killers were both trashy and stupid and almost pitiable had it not been for the gruesome murder.

Each of the killers made lurid statements to the police such as, "He died bravely. ... All he wanted out of life was to live and suck a few dicks." and "He kept trying to to put his fingers up my rectum. ... I started hitting him." The defense lawyer put Ramon Novarro on trial, stating, "This man, who set female hearts aflutter, was nothing but a queer," and, "There's no way of calculating how many felonies this man committed over the years for all his piety. ... Would this have happened if Novarro had not been a seducer of young men?"

Both brothers were found guilty of first-degree murder, but because they had killed a gay man, both were paroled after serving only seven years in prison. They were both in and out of prison later for rape and sodomy (women). The youngest of the two brothers committed suicide, and the other is still in prison.

A Latin Adonis, a fine actor and an early superstar, Ramon Novarro is known mostly for his notorious murder. The best study of Ramon Novarro's life and career is the 2002 book by Andre Soares, Beyond Paradise: The Life of Ramon Novarro, available from Amazon. Ramon Novarro was one of the first gay superstars. He deserves to be remembered for his beauty and career and not his ghastly death.

SOURCE

More photos here


A Few More Pics

Paul R. Ferguson

Thomas Ferguson

Newsmen gather outside Ramon Novarro's house, 3110 Laurel Canyon, after he was
found beaten to death, 1968. (Photograph by the Los Angeles Times)

Ramon Novarro takes the reins. Ben-Hur (1925)

Novarro in one of his last guest-starring
roles on the television show "The
Wild Wild West" (1967)

 

[gorgik9]

Beautiful post on Novarro! Thanks a lot Sniffit, I'll read it more carefully sometimes later!

 

[Stonecold]

Sniffit, what a great post I enjoyed very much

 

[trencherman]

For those of us who read poetry, W. H. Auden was an icon. A gnarly looking icon if you ever saw his photographs. I remember Life magazine describing his facial topography as relief map. David Hockney sketched his portrait once and as he kept adding the contours of the furrows and folds of his face wondered that if his face looked that way, what more of his balls.

 

[mosaik]

When I was a kid, I was in absolute list with the comic strip character who was the son of Prince Valiant. Anyone remember his name?

 

[W!nston]

When I was a kid, I was in absolute list with the comic strip character who was the son of Prince Valiant. Anyone remember his name?

Is this who you are looking for?

SOURCE

 

[trencherman]

When I was a kid, I was in absolute list with the comic strip character who was the son of Prince Valiant. Anyone remember his name?

Flash Gordon did it for me.

 

[mosaik]

thanks, Sniffit, for that link

 

[W!nston]

Jack Larson

Wikipedia:

Jack Edward Larson (February 8, 1928 – September 20, 2015) was an American actor, librettist, screenwriter and producer. He is best known for his portrayal of photographer/cub reporter Jimmy Olsen on the television series Adventures of Superman.

Biography

Larson was born in Los Angeles on February 8, 1928 of Swedish and Russian descent, and reared in Pasadena. He graduated from Montebello High School in 1945, aged 17, and at times claimed 1933 as his birth year.

Larson found the role of cub reporter Jimmy Olsen on The Adventures of Superman to be a handicap, because he became typecast as a naive young man. This caused him to do little acting after the show ended in 1958, and instead he focused on behind-the-scenes work, such as writing and production. Larson was always willing to sit for interviews about the Superman series and his connection to it, and in recent years had a number of cameos that paid subtle tribute to his character and the series, including a 1991 episode of the TV series Superboy, alongside Noel Neill, who played Lois Lane in Adventures of Superman, and an episode of Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman as an aged Jimmy Olsen in the episode "Brutal Youth", first telecast on October 20, 1996.

Larson had a cameo in a late-1990s American Express card commercial with Jerry Seinfeld and an animated Superman, directed by David Kellogg. He and Neill provided commentary on several Adventures of Superman episodes for the January 2006 DVD release of the 1953 season, and in 2006, he appeared in Bryan Singer's film Superman Returns in a cameo role as "Bo the Bartender". Larson and Neill appeared together at the premiere of Superman Returns.

Noel Neill, Jack Larson, Brandon Routh

Larson most recently appeared in an episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, which aired on the NBC network on January 6, 2010. In this episode, titled "Quickie", Larson portrayed "Dewey Butler", grandfather to a young suspect who was allegedly having unprotected sexual relations with women.

Among his other work, Larson wrote the libretto to the opera Lord Byron to music by Virgil Thomson.

Jack Larson & Leonard Nimoy (1952)

Personal life

Jack Larson, James Bridges & Max

Larson was the life partner of director James Bridges from 1958 until Bridges' death on June 6, 1993. Prior to that, he was the companion of actor Montgomery Clift. He died on September 20, 2015 at the age of 87.

Larson owned and resided in the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed George Sturges House in the Brentwood section of Los Angeles, California until his death.

Death

He died on September 20, 2015 at age eighty-seven. His interment was at Rose Hills Memorial Park in Whittier, California.

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The Hollywood Life of Jack Larson, America’s First Teen Heart-Throb
09.26.1512:01 AM ET

One of Jack Larson’s lovers was Montgomery Clift, and when this author visited the Adventures of Superman star, he talked about his long friendship with Gore Vidal.
Jack Larson still kept some of the ephemera from when—as America’s first teen heart-throb—he played cub reporter Jimmy Olsen in The Adventures of Superman, from 1952 to 1958, opposite George Reeves in the title role.

He had magazines and photographs in boxes, and when I met Larson on December 12, 2012, at his home in Brentwood, Los Angeles, we talked from late afternoon into inky night.

He showed me the pictures of himself from back then: yes, he was handsome, boyishly, peppily sexy. I told him, truthfully, that—at 84—he still was. He was charismatic, erudite, witty, and a generous host. It was jolting to read that he had died on Sunday, aged 87.

I could have talked for longer than the three hours I was with Jack. I could have talked for days with him, honestly. He was that rare thing, a truly bewitching interviewee, and our encounter delightful from its greeting to its farewell.

I was there to speak to him about his friendship with Gore Vidal for my book In Bed With Gore Vidal, which focuses on Vidal’s sexuality and private life, but my attention—maybe like other visitors—was immediately taken by Larson’s home, the George Sturges House, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in 1939.

This is where Larson lived with James Bridges, his partner of 35 years, until Bridges died in 1993.

The house really is incredible, made of both brick and wood. Inside was a riot of papers, books, paintings, pictures, and artistic objects—Larson told me that they had to check with the Lloyd Wright estate before making any kind of changes. The balcony that wrapped around the property felt bigger somehow than the inside.

Before Bridges, Larson had been in a relationship with Montgomery Clift. He told the New York Times it had been Clift that had advised him to quit acting, after the producer Mervyn LeRoy told Larson in 1961 that he couldn’t have Larson appear in his picture—he was too known as Jimmy Olsen.

Larson’s fears of typecasting were proven true—ironic, as he was pretty freaked out by the fame that was suddenly his when he played Jimmy. Later in life, he became a playwright and librettist, and talked to me excitedly about the opening night in 1972 of Virgil Thomson’s opera Lord Byron, which Larson wrote the libretto for.

However, the Superman franchise wasn’t done for him: his early fame led to appearances in nineties TV shows like Superboy, Lois and Clark (as an aged Jimmy Olsen), and a cameo in Bryan Singer’s 2006 movie, Superman Returns.

A new generation of Superman fans hailed Larson, and he was also called to comment on Reeves’ mysterious death in 1959.

Larson recalled going to Reeves’ house, with Reeves’ ex-girlfriend Toni Mannix, after he was found shot dead. It was a suspected suicide, but the mystery of Reeves’ death remains an eternal Hollywood mystery.

Larson recalled seeing Reeves’ bloody bed-sheets massed in the bath. Mannix knew the location of two bullet marks: why was there more than one bullet mark if it was a suicide? How did Mannix know about the bullet marks?

As they left Reeves’ house, Mannix said dramatically: “I never would have believed that my love affair would have turned into tragedy.”

Larson told me had met Vidal in 1954, as the popularity of The Adventures of Superman was in the ascendant.

“We were at a party, and he had a sailor friend with him,” Larson told me. “Luckily he was a slim sailor, as I had an MG. I said to Gore, ‘I’m happy to drive you home, but this is a two-seat, so I don’t know how we’ll all fit.’ ‘Well, he’ll sit on my lap,’ Gore said.”

Larson drove Vidal and his companion back from the party in Santa Monica to the Bel Air Hotel, and during the trip Vidal spoke about his mother Nina, who he had a vituperative, complicated relationship with.

“He said a lot of bad things about his mother. He obviously detested her. I was very surprised to hear this.”

The two men became friends, and Vidal was even there the first night of Lord Byron at Lincoln Center.

“He was the first person to run out of the john at the intermission between the first and second act,” Larson recalled. “’So far, so good,’ he said.”

The failed Senate race campaign Vidal ran against Jerry Brown for the Californian Democratic nomination in 1982 Larson recalled as “ruthless.”

Larson, like Vidal, knew literary luminaries like Christopher Isherwood and Paul Bowles, and Larson recalled one dinner for Bowles at Isherwood’s house in Santa Monica Canyon, in the middle of a presidential campaign—Vidal was on TV prominently.

Vidal was irritated that he had been speaking at university campuses, where the students were more into Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac (who Vidal had had sex with), and the Beatniks rather than him.

“He was on his high horse about it, attacking these people—Ginsberg, Kerouac—as being near-illiterate, but young people were stupid they worshipped these people.

“He was very embittered and, as Gore was wont to do, got very, very drunk. After dinner he sat in the living room, and carried on being bitter and sardonic.”

Bowles, Larson said, had had enough with Vidal’s performative pity party.

“Gore, when there’s an election you’re all over national television,” Bowles told him. “On TV, you’re the Pontiff about elections. When you write a novel it becomes a bestseller, or a movie it becomes a great success, or a play and it becomes a Broadway hit. You’re as famous as can be. What can you possibly want that’s making you so unhappy?”

Vidal, Larson said, was definitely very drunk, and for quite a while—about two minutes—the group sat in silence, until Vidal replied to Bowles’ question.

“Well, I’ll tell you,” Vidal said. “I want crowds to follow me wherever I go. For instance, at this very moment there would be a crowd on top of the Palisades, a throng, waiting for me to make my exit from this house tonight and they would applaud my exit as I went.”

That night, Larson drove Bowles back to his hotel, and Bowles explained Vidal’s behavior thus: “He wants to be President of the United States like John F. Kennedy, and when John Kennedy was here there were famous pictures of the crowds watching JFK on the Palisades.”

Vidal had been a Kennedy intimate himself, but Bobby Kennedy had had him excommunicated from the White House. Vidal was bitterly upset about this, and his blunted political ambition. He never achieved office of any kind.

Vidal was also offended by the sometimes derogatory mentions he and partner Howard Austen received in Isherwood’s diaries—Vidal and Isherwood had a long, ranging, and mainly affectionate, association.

“When Isherwood was dying,” Larson told me, “he died in his own house. He had cancer of the prostate, which spread to his spine. He didn’t want to be in the hospital. It was a long death, and very painful, but that’s the way Christopher wanted it, without morphine.”

Larson recalled, “Sometimes Chris was awake, sometimes he was in a coma. Howard and Gore came to visit, and found him in this state. It was not a good sight. On seeing Chris like this, Gore said to him: ‘Everything good and fine is disappearing from the earth, and leaving the planet to the lizards.’

“And it turned out Chris could hear, and he woke and opened his eyes and said: ‘What’s the matter with the lizards?’"

Vidal admired Isherwood very much, Larson added, and I discovered that there was a lovely moment later in life, when, seeing a crowd waiting for Isherwood to sign copies of Christopher and His Kind at a gay bookstore, Vidal was moved by the devotion Isherwood commanded by being so open about his sexuality—in a way Vidal himself never was.

Larson and I talked about how unique and puzzling Vidal’s relationship was with Howard Austen, his partner of over 50 years.

“He was always so offhand about Howard,” Larson told me. But Vidal was considerate too, he said, and the relationship “comradely”—Larson took Vidal at his word that he and Austen’s relationship had endured because they’d ceased having sex early on in the relationship.

Vidal said his true love had been his schoolmate Jimmie Trimble: some of his friends believe this; some felt Vidal had enshrined Trimble as a romantic ideal.

Both Vidal and Austen certainly enjoyed the services of hustlers—although in my research I found that the couple had a very close, intimate relationship. Vidal’s decline accelerated appallingly after Austen’s death in 2003.

“I said to Paul,” Larson recalled of talking to Bowles, “’I’m very mystified by Gore and he said to me that Gore has only ever been only interested in ‘prep school sex’—mutual masturbation.”

Vidal, of course, said he was bisexual. There is not much evidence of sustained relationships with women, but Larson believed one rumor that Vidal had slept with actress Elaine Dundy, who went on to marry the critic Kenneth Tynan. “She obviously liked sardonic men,” laughed Larson.

Near the end of his own life (he died in July 2012), Vidal invited Larson to little musical nights he had at this home in the Hollywood Hills.

The last memory Larson had of Vidal was the great author fast asleep in his chair in the living room, then set up as a mini-hospital room.

So many stories told so engagingly: by now evening was cloaking Larson’s house, and the living room was lit by only one or two lamps. A game of shadows was playing over the walls, and all these famous people we had been discussing felt very present.

Larson was tired, and I knew it was time to go, even though no fiber of mine wanted to leave. I thanked Jack Larson, gave him a long, emotional hug, and left. However he died, I hope this wonderful man wasn’t alone.

******************************​

iMDB - Jack Larson

Biography

Overview

Date of Birth 8 February 1928, Los Angeles, California, USA

Date of Death 20 September 2015, Brentwood, California, USA

Birth Name Jack Edward Larson

Nickname Junior

Height 5' 7" (1.7 m)

Salary Adventures of Superman (1952) $350 /episode

Mini Bio

Jack Edward Larson was born in Los Angeles, California, to Anita (Calicoff) and George E. Larson. He was raised in Pasadena, and attended Pasadena Junior College (by coincidence, exactly like his Adventures of Superman (1952) co-star George Reeves). He was a contract player at Warner Bros. Typecast as Jimmy Olsen, Larson found it virtually impossible to get other acting roles after the series went off the air and retired from acting a few years later, concentrating on writing. His plays have been highly acclaimed and he has had works performed in theaters and opera houses around the world. He was the longtime companion of late director James Bridges, with whom he co-produced a number of popular films of the 1970s and 1980s. Larson is an erudite and charming man who seems to have been close friends with many of the more prominent figures of the arts in the latter half of the 20th century, including Virgil Thomson, John Houseman, Leslie Caron, Libby Holman, Montgomery Clift, Salka Viertel, Christopher Isherwood and James Dean.

Trivia

Famed as Jimmy Olsen on TV's Adventures of Superman (1952), he is also a well-respected playwright and opera librettist whose collaborators include Virgil Thomson.

His home was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.

Participates in a UCLA scholarship program established in the name of his life partner, the late writer/director James Bridges, for young directors.

Was the life-partner of writer/director James Bridges of Urban Cowboy (1980) and The China Syndrome (1979) fame. Their relationship lasted over thirty years until Bridges' death in 1993.

He had small roles in Superboy (1988) and in Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman (1993). He has yet to have a role in Smallville (2001), but considering it's not about Superman or Superboy, but instead about Clark Kent, an exception can be made. He had a small role in Superman Returns (2006).

Like George Reeves, Larson claimed that he did not want to do the role of Jimmy Olsen in the Adventures of Superman (1952) television series. His agent told him to do the role, take the money and that it would probably never be seen.

He was a contract player at Warner Brothers.

In 2006, he told The New York Times that he quit acting in 1961 on the advice of his then-boyfriend Montgomery Clift. Larson had gone to an audition for producer Mervyn LeRoy, who had rejected Larson right away because he had played Jimmy Olsen. Clift counseled Larson not to put himself in that situation any longer, so Larson concentrated instead on producing and writing, becoming the first playwright to win a Rockefeller Foundation grant.

Is portrayed by Joseph Adam in Hollywoodland (2006)

Longtime friend of Allene Roberts.

Cousin of producer Bob Larson.

He played Jimmy Olsen in both Adventures of Superman (1952) and Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman (1993). Along with Phyllis Coates and Jack Kruschen, he is one of only three actors to appear in both series.
His father was born in Colorado, of Swedish and English descent. His mother was born in Ohio, to a Russian Jewish father, Nathan Calicoff, and a German Jewish mother, Theresa Allenberg.

Larson had a dog named Max.

He is buried at Rose Hills Memorial Park in Whittier, California.

Personal Quotes

[Why he hasn't gone to fan events since a 1988 Cleveland celebration of the 50th anniversary of Adventures of Superman (1952)] . . . thousands of people [were] coming at us with pictures to autograph and Sharpie pens. And I had this beautiful white linen suit from Venice, made at the Piazza San Marco. The best cleaners in Brentwood couldn't get the ink stains out of that suit.

[on being best known for playing Jimmy Olsen in Adventures of Superman (1952)] I feel completely at peace with that. You are blessed in life if you can give people pleasure and happiness. That's all I've ever tried to do with my work. If I've learned anything from my career, it's that you don't really know the value of what you're doing. So, you had better do your best with whatever is at hand. You never know what will outlive you.

******************************​

Jack Larson, who played Jimmy Olsen on first 'Superman' TV series, dead at 87

Jack Larson, who played eager cub reporter Jimmy Olsen on the first Superman TV show, died at his Brentwood home on Sunday. He was 87.

Larson was an accomplished librettist and playwright — but for a generation of baby boomers he'll best be remembered for his turn in the “Adventures of Superman.”

Larson didn’t enjoy school, eventually dropping out. But he did like to bowl and by the age of 14, he’d become the California state champion for his age group. Larson flirted with the idea of turning professional but in the fall of 1945, he enrolled in Pasadena Junior College.

"My instructors discovered that I had a gift for writing and motivated me to write plays, and to be in plays as well,” he told the Superman homepage. This encouragement would lead to a fruitful second career.

When Larson was offered the role of Olsen, an enthusiastic reporter and photographer who idolizes his colleague Clark Kent in 1951, he was leery of taking the role lest he be typecast. An agent assured him the show would probably not be seen as it had no sponsor. The show ran from 1952 to 1958.

Plans to revive the series were scuttled when George Reeves who played Superman died under mysterious cirstances in 1959.

The Los Angeles native’s fears of being typecast proved prescient, so taking the advice of actor Montgomery Clift, whom he was seeing romantically, he decided to stop auditioning and embarked on a new career.

He penned the libretto for Virgil Thomson’s opera “Lord Byron” for the Metropolitan Opera in New York, which premiered in 1972 at the Julliard Theater. Larson also wrote several plays and was the first playwright to be awarded a grant by the Rockefeller Foundation.

While filming “Johnny Trouble” (1957), Larson met another actor on set, James Bridges. The pair became a couple and were together for 35 years, until Bridges passed away in 1993.

Bridges became an Oscar-nominated director and writer on films like “Perfect” and “Bright Lights, Big City” and Larson was his producing partner.

Larson lived in a Frank Lloyd Wright-designed home in Brentwood, called the George Sturges House.

Sam Huntington (l.) as Jimmy Olsen and Brandon Routh as Clark Kent greet Bo the bartender (Jack Larson) in “Superman Returns.”

His later on-screen roles tended to revolve around “Superman.” He was featured in a 1991 episode of “The Adventures of Superboy,” and a 1996 episode of “Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman.” He also had a cameo as a bartender in the 2006 film “Superman Returns.”

 

[trencherman]

THANK YOU for the excellent read. A propitious promise perhaps for the year just starting?

 

[Shelter]

Hi Sniff this is a very impressive post which I've read full of interest. Thank you so much.

 

[W!nston]

Charles Nelson Reilly

Charles Nelson Reilly: The wacky comedian with a gift for double entendres.

Charles Nelson Reilly (January 13, 1931 – May 25, 2007) was an American actor, comedian, director, and drama teacher known for his comedic roles in stages, films, children's television, and cartoons, and as a game show panelist.

Reilly did not publicly affirm his homosexuality until his one-man show, Save It for the Stage. However, much like fellow game-show regular Paul Lynde of the same era, Reilly played up a campy on-screen persona. In many episodes of Match Game, he would lampoon himself by briefly affecting a deep voice and the nickname "Chuck," and self-consciously describing how "butch" he was. He mentioned in a 2002 interview with Entertainment Tonight that he felt no need to note this and that he never purposely hid being gay from anyone. Patrick Hughes III, a set decorator and dresser, was Reilly's domestic partner; the two met backstage while Reilly appeared on the game show Battlestars. They lived in Beverly Hills.

Despite sporting what appeared to be a full head of hair for most of the prime of his career, Reilly was in fact bald, wearing a toupée throughout most of his appearances in the 1970s and 1980s. During the taping of Match Game 74 his toupee became the joke of the filming when Reilly had to go to NYC to have his toupee adjusted. During the taping of several episodes Reilly is seen wearing different hats because his toupée is back in NY waiting for him to be fitted. This was the start of the long-running jokes on Match Game about his hair. He abandoned the toupée in the late 1990s and appeared bald in public for the rest of his life. He dramatized the experience in his stage show, The Life of Reilly.

I was looking through old threads in the General Discussions section and I found an interesting Youtube post, by trencherman, of a video by Charles Nelson Reilly about his life called appropriately 'The Life of Reilly'.

I thought it was worthy of sharing with the forum again so here is the link for it:

The Life of Reilly



Thanks to trencherman!

 

[trencherman]

I was looking through old threads in the General Discussions section and I found an interesting Youtube post, by trencherman, of a video by Charles Nelson Reilly about his life called appropriately 'The Life of Reilly'.

I thought it was worthy of sharing with the forum again so here is the link for it:

The Life of Reilly



Thanks to trencherman!

I’m sorry, that link is extinct. I can’t find a complete one-piece clip but here’s an interview he did that he developed into a staged monologue:



and the show itself in 28 continues sections:

 

[gorgik9]

As far as I can remember the biggest hit for the Tom Robinson Band was this catchy 1977 pop song, 2-4-6-8 Motorway



Ah, I was 17 and ever so horny always...

 

[cban]

RIP Bowie, one of my icons.

 

[W!nston]

Tyrone Power (1914 - 1958)

Tyrone Power - Hunk du Jour

Tyrone Power

Of all the hunks who ended up as matinee idol of the Golden Age, probably no one was more beautiful or had a more "Hollywood Story" than Tyrone Power. Born into a theatrical family, Tyrone Power Sr. had been a huge star on the stage and was just entering pictures when his teenage son came to visit him. Prior to this, the boy had been raised by his very protective mother, Patia and seldom saw his father once his parents divorced. His father and he bonded and senior Power taught his son the rudiments of acting, having him concentrate on studying the classics and training the beautiful speaking voice, which along with his spectacular looks would become his trademark.

Tyrone Power in The Rains Came (1939)

Not long after Ty had arrived in Hollywood, his father suffered a major heart attack on the set and essentially died in his son's arms. Devastated by the loss of the father he'd just gotten to know and yet determined to carry on the family tradition, Tyrone pursued his acting career. Eventually he landed a screen test at 20th Century Fox for Darryl F. Zanuck, who had known and admired Ty's father and had a hunch about the young actor. He asked his wife Virginia to look at the test. Her comment was; "Shave a space between his eyebrows and you'll have your next big romantic star."

Tyrone Power in The Rains Came

Virginia saw what would eventually become evident to everyone, that Power had an immense sex appeal and an amazing effect on his female audience. Darkly handsome, with deep brown eyes, long lashes, a perfect nose and ears, Tyrone photographed spectacularly. In addition, he was also an expert fencer, athlete and dancer. He looked great in costume pictures as well as modern dress. He spoke beautifully with impeccable diction and was the personification on the screen of what he was off, the perfect gentleman who was also the nicest guy in the world.

Tyrone Power

Despite being so "pretty", straight males weren't threatened by him and took to him as well. Following his initial success in the costume drama Lloyds of London (1935), he became Fox's answer to the swashbuckling hero typified by Errol Flynn over at Warner Brothers. Although he never made the list of those "serious" actors nominated for Oscars, his pictures always made a good showing at the awards. Huge adventure dramas such as In Old Chicago (1938), The Rains Came (1939), Suez (1938), The Mark Of Zorro (1940), Son Of Fury (1942) and Blood and Sand (1942), cemented his reputation as one of the top box-office draws.

Tyrone Power with Linda Darnell in Blood and Sand

When not defending his family honor, or fighting duels of one sort or another, he was paired in light comedies with the most beautiful actresses on the lot. Alice Faye, Loretta Young, Linda Darnell, Gene Tierney, Betty Grable and ice skating star Sonia Henie all benefitted from being in the arms of the romantic Tyrone. His private life was another matter.

Tyrone Power

By the late thirties, Tyrone was still single and although seen and photographed with a number of eligible actresses, he had failed to marry. A practicing bi-sexual, he had a huge gay following and was involved with several men over the years, among them composer Lorenz Hart and actor Cesar Romero. Ty was not the only gay actor at the studio and had a affairs with many of the handsome hunks on the lot, most of whom were more than willing to bed the "Studio's Star Attraction". He was often seen in public with men who were "known" homosexuals, but he was so universally loved by the community, that they turned a blind eye. His group of gay friends included, directors George Cukor and Edmund Goulding as well as actors Clifton Webb, Lon McCallister and his lover, William Eythe, Cary Grant, Reginald Gardner, Van Johnson and bi-sexual billionaire Howard Hughes. However, with doomed character actor Laird Cregar, he drew the line. Cregar's flamboyant nature and obvious effeminate tendencies attracted too much attention in public and made Ty uncomfortable. The great gay love of Power's life was said to be a technician at Fox, with whom he had a relationship for decades.

Although Zanuck liked Ty immensely, but was afraid of losing his studio's resident hunk and biggest moneymaker, should the rumors of his gay lifestyle become public. He began putting pressure on Power to tie the knot and keep the rumormongers at bay. On the set of Suez, Ty co-starred with French import, a lovely starlet named Annabella. She was different than any actress he'd met before. She was older, self-assured and possessed a frankness, down to earth attitude and a healthy skepticism about the movie business. Power liked her immediately and much to the Hollywood's and his mother's surprise, they were wed. However, even though he was now married, he was also addicted to romance and couldn't control his weakness for other sexual partners, continuing to have dalliances with both men and women alike. For a while in the early forties, he carried on a passionate affair with the young Judy Garland, which some felt led to the first of her many breakdowns.

Tyrone Power

With the advent of World War II, Power enlisted and fought in the South Pacific. Being away and finally free from his wife, his possessive mother and Zanuck's watchful eye made a new man of him. This, combined with the drama of the war and being surrounded by so many men, helped to build his confidence and changed his life. The service matured him considerably and he returned in peacetime determined to pursue more serious roles and develop a reputation and career as a legitimate actor like his father. He negotiated a new contract with Fox and agreed to star in their hugely expensive film version of W. Somerset Maugham's The Razor's Edge (1946) on the condition that he could also star in a seedy film noir called Nightmare Alley (1947). Unfortunately, the former proved to be a huge success, while the latter did not and it was back to the swashbucklers for Tyrone.

By this time, he and Annabella had grown apart and their marriage was finished. He took a long trip by plane for six weeks into South America with his on again off again lover, Cesar Romero and for the first time since the war, he was once again free to be who he was and do what he wanted without the prying eyes of everyone around him. Upon his return, he entered into a tempestuous relationship with Lana Turner, who was then the queen of MGM and between husbands. They made a beautiful couple, but Tyrone could see that life with Lana would be no picnic and instead, married Latin starlet Linda Christian with whom he fathered two daughters before the marriage ended in the mid-fifties.

Although Tyrone was only in his early forties, he was beginning to look ten years older. The busy Hollywood social life, the smoking, drinking, all night parties, and other excesses, were beginning to take their toll. He ignored the signs that he might have a weak heart like his father and continued to live as he always had.

Tyrone Power

While playing in Solomon and Sheba (1957), he was forced to do all his own stunts and work outside in the grueling sun, often in heavy armor. One afternoon, during a dueling scene with George Sanders involving heavy swords, Ty suddenly collapsed. He'd suffered a massive heart attack and died before anything could be done. History had repeated itself and the son had died, just as his father had, on the set and barely forty. Sadly, Ty had recently married his third wife, who was expecting their child, a son, born six months later and also named after his father.

Today, Power's contribution to films is much more appreciated than it was at the time. A keener knowledge by film buffs and historians of what it took to pull off the genre of pictures he starred in has made his spectacular career all the more impressive. Not every actor could have made the characters he played believable or carried off the often-ludicrous plots of his films. Tyrone, always the professional and committed to his work, made whatever the picture he was in, work in the end. This was quite an achievement and a solid epitaph for any actor. Not only was Tyrone Power the actor he always wanted to be, he was more of an actor than anyone ever gave him credit for. What a hunk!

Source

 

[wardell]

if it does not have to be men, then no list of gay icons would be complete without mentioning the Mistress of the Dark, Elvira this is me with her back in 2007.