Actor Dick Sargent appeared on the 1970s game show “Tattle Tales” with comedian Fanny Flagg as his partner. The show quizzed celebrity couples about secrets in their relationship. But both Sargent and Flagg had secrets they wouldn’t have never revealed on the program - they were both gay.
Sargent is best known as “The Second Darrin” in the sitcom “Bewitched”, replacing Dick York at the start of the 6th season (1969). York needed to leave the show due to severe back problems.
Personally I preferred Sargent over York as Darrin. York was too crabby. While I think Sargent and co-Star Elizabeth Montgomery showed more affection to each other.
Oddly enough “Bewitched” echoed the plight of gays and lesbians who had to hide their true selves to better fit into society. And the show was no stranger to gay actors - there was campy Uncle Arthur played by Paul Lynde and even Maurice Evans, who played Samantha’s father, was been rumored to be gay.
Sargent continued to act on television after “Bewitched” ended with 50+ film and TV credits through 1993. He also developed a 5 year relationship with producer Albert Williams.
In 1989, Sargent was diagnosed with Prostate Cancer and initially the prognosis was good. But later his health began to deteriorate. He knew some might think he was suffering from AIDS, so in 1991 he decided to publicly reveal he was gay on National Coming Out Day. He said he was also motivated to help present a positive role model to young gay men who struggle with their sexuality.
The next year he and close friend Elizabeth Montgomery were asked to be Grand Marshals of the Los Angeles Gay Pride parade.
Sargent succumbed to cancer in July 1994, at age 64. He was survived by his partner Williams.
Dusty Springfield was one of few female artists whose musical success was part of “British Invasion” of the 1960s. She charted such hits as:
“You don’t have to say you loved me”
“Mama Said” (1964) a cover of the song by the Shirelles
Burt Bacharach’s “The Look of Love”
Springfield sang in a variety of styles, mostly pop, soul, folk, Latin, and rock'n'roll. With her voice described as “breathy sensuality” and “haunting sexual vulnerability”.
In the 1960s, on several occasions, she performed as the only white singer on all-black bills. Springfield loved the Motown sound and introduced it to a wider UK audience with her covers of their hit. She also was instrument in facilitating the first British TV appearances for the Temptations, the Supremes, the Miracles and Stevie Wonder.
Due to bouts with alcoholism and drug addiction in the 1970s and early 1980s, Springfield took a break from performing and recording.
Throughout her life, Springfield was never married nor linked to a man. She had several relationships with women, including American singer Norma Tanega. The two lived together for 5 years from 1966 to 1970. Due to stresses in their lives, Tanega returned to the US.
Springfield struggled with her sexual identity. In an interview in 1970 she said:
“Many other people say I’m bent, and I’ve heard it so many times that I’ve almost learned to accept it … I know I’m perfectly as capable of being swayed by a girl as by a boy. More and more people feel that way and I don’t see why I shouldn’t.”
Then in 1973 she added:
“I mean, people say that I’m gay, gay, gay. I’m not anything. I’m just … People are people … I basically want to be straight … I go from men to women; I don’t give a shit. The catchphrase is: I can’t love a man. Now, that’s my hang-up. To love, to go to bed, fantastic; but to love a man is my prime ambition … They frighten me.”
Other relations included:
Faye Harris (American photojournalist) - from 1972 to 1978 they had an “off and on” domestic relationship.
Carole Pope (of the rock band Rough Trade) - together six-month.
Teda Bracci (American actress) - they met at an AA meeting in 1982 and exchanged vows in 1983. But the relation was marred by physical violence. They separated two years later.
She had a career revival in 1985 when the Pet Shop Boys invited her to join them on the song “What Have I Done to Deserve This?”
This led to other collaborations including songs with Richard Carpenter and BJ Thomas. And she continued to record new albums in the 1990s.
I had read about Kirk LeMoyne “Lem” Billings earlier but was reminded of him and his friendship with John Kennedy by the post at the link below. Although it is not widely known, Kennedy’s life long friend Lem was gay. Rather than reinvent the wheel, I thought I’d post some interesting points about their friendship (gathered from Wikipedia).
Billings was a prep school roommate of Kennedy, an usher at his wedding and a campaigner for his successful 1960 presidential bid.
Joseph Kennedy Sr. called Lem “my second son”.
Billings, a 16-year-old third-year student, and Kennedy, a 15-year-old second-year student, met at prep school, in the fall of 1933.
They became fast friends, drawn to each other by their mutual distaste for their strict school.
Billings repeated his senior year so that he and Kennedy could graduate together in 1935.
The duo took a summer trip through Europe in the summer of 1937… two and a half months and solidified their friendship.
Billings was an usher at the wedding of Kennedy and Jacqueline Lee Bouvier in 1953, and usher at the wedding of Kennedy’s sister Jean to Stephen Edward Smith in 1956.
He worked on Kennedy’s presidential campaign in 1960.
In 1961, Billings declined Kennedy’s offer to appoint him the first head of the Peace Corps or ambassador to Denmark. He later said: "I realized that I did not want to work for the president — because I felt it would change our relationship.”
Lem visited the White House for most weekends during the Kennedy Administration. When a butler commented on the fact that Billings was leaving his belongings in one of the third-floor guest rooms, the First Lady replied: “He’s been my house guest since I was married.”
When the First Lady was away, Billings organized White House dinner parties for the President and old friends.
And when the President traveled he kept the First Lady company.
Billings’ role as "first friend” was assessed by many observers at the time and since. Ted Sorensen called him “an admirer — almost a fawning admirer — of his friend.”
Billings saw the President for the last time when they dined at the White House with Greta Garbo on November 13, 1963,
Friends from the 1970s confirmed that Billings was gay, but not open to discussing it.
In 2006, looking back to the Kennedy Administration, Ben Bradlee (executive editor for the Washington Post) said: “I suppose it’s known that Lem was gay….It impressed me that Jack had gay friends.
Jack made a big difference in my life,” Billings said. “Because of him, I was never lonely. He may have been the reason I never got married.”
Congratulations to Carl Nassib who publicly announce he was gay during Gay Pride Month 2021. This makes him the first active NFL football player to announce he was a homosexual.
Although other NFL players have revealed they were gay after retiring, such as Dave Kopay and Michael Sam, Nassib is the first to still be playing (a defensive end for alas Vegas’ Raiders).
Reaction has been supportive, from the NFL, the Raiders, and teammates. The public showed it support by buying jerseys with Nassib’s name and number - out selling all other jerseys the day of his announcement.
Nassib plans to donate $100,000 to The Trevor Project, an organization dedicated to providing crisis intervention to LGBTQ youth.
“I don’t like labels but if you have to put a label on it, I’m a gay man.”
Actor Joel Grey’s best known role is that of the Master of Ceromonies in the musical “Cabaret”. He originated the role in 1966 on Broadway and won the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical. He reprised the role in the 1972 film by Bob Fosse, winning the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor. And he appeared in the 1987 revival of the musical on Broadway. His long career spans over 55 years with roles on Broadway, movies, and television.
Grey knew he was gay at an early age, but a boy in the 1950s would think about coming out. Homosexuals were considered sick, and labeled queers, fags, and fagelehs — a Yiddish for little birds.
But Grey was forced to come out to his parents at the age of 16. Still in high school, he had been having an affair with then still in high school, had to reveal to his parents that he had been having an affair with a handsome young cantor (a Jewish clergy member) of their synagogue in Los Angeles. His wife had found out and Grey might be named in the divorce proceeds. While his father was supporting - his mother was not. When he reached out to her, she said, “Don’t ever touch me again, you disgust me.”
A therapist told him that it was a “stage” - something he would get over. And so began the process of concealing his real identity.
When he met his future wife, Jo Wilder, he felt he truly liver her. They had 2 children, including his daughter actress Jennifer Grey. During his marriage, he continued to have sex with men. He rationalize by saying to himself that because it was with men, He wasn’t being unfaithful to his wife.
“But if I had been honest, I would have asked myself what these moments with men truly meant.”
Finally in 1981, Grey opened up and told his wife that he was gay. They divorced a year later. Then in 2015 at the age of 83, he came out publicly in an interview with People Magazine. He followed this up with an autobiography, “Master of Ceromonies: a memoir”.
He explained that the people who were close to him have known for years he was gay. His children have been supportive, daughter Jennifer said, “I feel very happy for my dad that he has come to a point in his life where he feels safe and comfortable enough to declare himself in a public way as a gay man.”
As for Grey, after coming out he said:
“I was the same person — but better, for having no secrets.”
Congratulations and happy birthday to actor and comedian Jerrod Carmichael. He said in the HBO Special “Home Videos” (2019) that he had been in relationships with both men and women. He decided to formally come out as gay in “Rothaniel” (2022) his news program on HBO.
Although Marlon Brando had 3 wives and at least 2 more long term female partners rumors have persisted that he was Gay or at the very least Bisexual.
Brando has been linked to fellow Hollywood bad boy James Dean. They met in 1949, while Brando was on Broadway starring in “A Streetcar Named Desire” and Dean studied Actor’s Studio. In the Dean bio (James Dean: Tomorrow Never Comes.) a wide-eyed “puppy dog” Dean worshiped Brando and the two participated in fetish sex.
In 2018, music producer Quincy Jones said that Brando and Richard Pryor were lovers.
Then there’s the story about Marlon Brando and life long friend Wally Cox. They seem like an incongruous pair, but the two knew each other since childhood. They were also roommates while struggling actors in New York City.
Brando once told a journalist:
“If Wally had been a woman, I would have married him and we would have lived happily ever after.”
And when Cox died in 1973, Brando rushed to the funeral to convince Cox’s wife to let him scatter the ashes in the Hollywood Hills. Instead, Brando kept Wally’s ashes for another 29 years. Upon Brando’s own death in 2003 the ashes of both life long friends (and lovers?) were mixed together and scattered in Tahiti and Death Valley. Various wives of both deny either were homosexual but their relationship looks to be beyond heterosexual.
(And of course there’s the infamous photo floating around the internet of Brando supposedly performing oral sex on Cox. It’s easy of find.)
And on the subject of sexual identity, Brando said his own biographer in 1976:
“Homosexuality is so much in fashion, it no longer makes news. Like a large number of men, I, too, have had homosexual experiences, and I am not ashamed. I have never paid much attention to what people think about me. But if there is someone who is convinced that Jack Nicholson and I are lovers, may they continue to do so. I find it amusing.”
Walter Jenkins was a long time political aide to Lyndon Johnson (they worked together for 25 years from Johnson’s years in the Texas legislature, to the presidency). In that time they were friends too, with Jenkins close to Johnson’s wife Lady Bird.
But that ended just a month before the 1964 presidential election. Jenkins and another man were arrested on a disorderly conduct charge (code words for being caught by under cover cops for having sex).
The fine was only $50, which Jenkins quietly paid. But rumors began to circulate and an earlier incident from 1959 was uncovered. The Washington Star contacted the White House for comment. Although the White House attempted to convince the newspaper not to run the story, too many people knew about it.
This was an era when homosexual behavior was illegal and publicly condemned. And why hadn’t the FBI discovered this earlier?
J. Edgar Hoover later reported that security had not been compromised (blackmail has been always used as an excuse to not trust homosexuals with state secrets).
But Jenkins had to resign.
Barry Goldwater, Johnson’s Republican opponent, didn’t use this incident as a major campaign issue. But he occasional referred to it, including releasing bumper stickers and pins saying:
ALL THE WAY WITH LBJ, BUT DON’T GO NEAR THE YMCA
Johnson later said: “I couldn’t have been more shocked about Walter Jenkins if I’d heard that Lady Bird had tried to kill the Pope.”
The scandal was not noticed by the general public, and had no impact on the election.
Johnson’s Press Secretary George Reedy told an interviewer: “A great deal of the president’s difficulties can be traced to the fact that Walter had to leave. … All of history might have been different if it hadn’t been for that episode.”
After resigning, Jenkins and his wife returned to Texas where he became an accountant. He died from a stroke in 1985.
Will Geer, who would become best known as Grandpa in the TV show “The Walton”, was a political activist as a young man.
In the 1930s and 1940s Geer was actively involved helping to organize social protest and union organizing in New York and California. During this period he became friends with folk singers Woody Guthrie and Will Seeger (both of whom would later entertain and inspire millions with the American Western Folk music.
In 1934 he met and married Herta Ware, an actress and political activist. There were married for 20 years and had two daughters.
Geer also met actor Harry Hay and the two became lovers. Hay credits Geer for inspiring his own activism - gay right. Gay would go on to help organized Mattachine Society, Gay Liberation Front, and Radical Fairies. Geer was involved with Hay during his marriage with Ware.
Due to his political activism and membership in the Communist Party, Geer was called to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1952. He refused to “name names” of other members and was Blacklisted. Lack of work afterwards as other pressures drove Geer and Ware to divorces by 1954.
Creatively, the 1950s were a drought creatively for Geer, but as the McCarthy era ended, he was cast by director Otto Preminger in the 1962 film “Advise and Consent”. This led to more and more roles, His working drought over, Geer began appearing in more films and television.
(My personal favorite is the thriller “Seconds” from 1966 where Geer plays the mysterious leader of a company that forces men to be “reborn” and discard their original identities. The films starts Rock a Hudson.)
By 1972, Geer was cast in the television series “The Waltons” about an American family struggling during the depression but their love of each other hold them together. The series was enormously popular.
As others have pointed out, Geer was gay, a commie, and America’s Grandpa.
Will Geer fell in 1978 with respiratory issues. He died at home surrounded by family and friends who sang to him - Woody Guthrie’s “This Land is Your Land.”
NOTE: Apparently there is some discussion whether Will Geer was bisexual. The only source supporting this was by Harry Hay 12 years after Geer’s death. Since Hollywood was extremely closeted during Geer’s life, and because I thought Hay’s had many gay rights accomplishments of his own, what would he gain by lying about Geer.
Jonathan Bailey wanted to be an actor after seeing “Oliver” at the age of 5. A year later he auditioned and won his first professional role - Tiny Tim in Royal Shakespeare Company’s production of of “A Christmas Carol”. In 2012 he was cast in the starring role of a BBC production about Leonardo da Vinci as a teen aged.
Back to his stage roots, Bailey worked with Matt Smith in the musical “American Psycho” on the West End (2013) and with Ian McKellen in “King Lear” (2017).
Bailey is gay. He first met McKellen as a teenager at a 2006 Gay Pride event.
Years later, speaking with Ian McKellen, he said:
“I was coming to terms with my own sexuality, I hadn’t necessarily hidden it, but I’ve never been not honest about it. It’s just there had never been a need to talk about it. There’s a sense of shame, I think.”
Bailey won an Olivier Award (Best Actor in a Supporting Role) for the role of Jamie in the musical “Company” (2019). The role of Jamie was original written as Amy, but the character was redefined as a gay man (with permission by author Stephen Sondheim).
In his acceptance speech Bailey addressed a controversy regarding LGBT students in the UK school system:
“At a time where acknowledging the very existence of LGBT+ people in our schools is being questioned, we have been able to, as a company, show a lovely and celebratory snapshot of gay love. LGBT People really aren’t that different; we’re not that different. We’re just as anxious, and we’re just as flawed and desperate to fall in love as everyone else.”
In 2020, he reached international audiences in Netflix’s series “Bridgerton” as the Anthony Bridgerton.
Bailey is reported to be in a relationship but prefer to keep his private life out of the public eye.
Congratulations to Kal Penn who has publicly announced he is Gay.
He may be best known for the “Harold & Kumar” comedy films, and his role on the “House” TV series.
Penn was born in New Jersey; his parents were immigrants from the Gujarat state of India. His birth name is Kalpen Suresh Modi.
When he embarked on an acting career, he was told that casting directors preferred American-ized names. So as an experiment he put “Kal Penn” on his resume. He said the number of audition callbacks he received increased by 50%.
Penn also has his serious side - he spent 2 ½ years as a volunteer member of Barack Obama’s Office of Public Liaison. While working in Washington he met Josh. They’ve been a couple for 11 years and plan to get married.
“I discovered my own sexuality relatively late in life compared to many other people. There’s no timeline on this stuff. People figure their shit out at different times in their lives, so I’m glad I did when I did.”
Penn explained that he’s been out to family and friends for some time. But he decided this was the right time to announce it to the world.
Was James Buchanan, 15th President of the United States, gay?
Elected to the Presidency as a bachelor in 1865, there has been speculation about his sexual identity for years. The jury is still out and opposing sides continue to argue the issue. But if true, it makes for a sensational history lesson.
At the age of 27 he was engaged to Anne Coleman, the daughter of the wealthy iron monger. But because of his busy law practice, they spent little time with each other. He came from more modest means, and rumors spread that he was marrying her for her money. And there is evidence she was aware of the rumors. Coleman broke off the engagement and inexplicable died a short time later.
Buchanan never “courted” another woman.
Buchanan was close friends with William Rufus King (Senator from Alabama). In the 1830s & 1940s they lived together in a boarding house while working as Senators. King himself described their relationship as a “communion”.
Their friendship didn’t go unnoticed. Andrew Jackson (an opponent) called King “Miss Nancy”
Aaron Burr referred to King as Buchanan’s “better half” or “Aunt Fancy”.
Catherine Thompson, the wife of cabinet member, wrote “there was something unhealthy in the president’s attitude”.
Buchanan later in life wrote a letter saying that he might marry if the woman who could accept his "lack of ardent or romantic affection”.
Buchanan and King continued to be roommates during King’s brief tenure as Vice-President under Franklin Pierce. King died of tuberculosis six weeks after taking his oath.
James Buchanan became president 4 years later. He served during tenuous times with growing secession sentiment between the North and South.
Buchanan was succeeded as president in 1861 by Abraham Lincoln. The Civil War that soon followed was often called “Buchanan’s War” and he spend the rest of his life trying to defend his legacy. He died in 1868 of Respiratory failure.
So was Buchanan gay? We may never know for sure because his family burned most of the letters between him and King. Historian Thomas Balcerski doesn’t think do (Balcerski is gay himself). Biographer Jean Baker argued that Buchanan was asexual.
But historians Jim Loewen, John Howard, Robert Watson and Shelley Ross think so. As does Larry Flynt (publisher of Penthouse) who cowrote “One Nation Under Sex” with history professor David Eisenbach in 2011. (But Flynt has an agenda of his own).
George Takei, actor best know for his role as Sulu on “Star Trek”, publicly came out in October 2005 after then Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoes legislation that would have allowed same-sex. At the time Takei had been in an 18 year relationship with his partner Brad Altman. Takei’s sexuality had been an open secret since the 1970s with Star Trek fans. He never hid his active memberships in LGBT organizations.
Takei was born in 1937 in Los Angeles, California. At the start of WWII, he and his family were moved against their to an internment in Arkansas. His experiences there became the basis for his legacy project, “Allegiance” - a musical about Japanese American internment during World War II. It premiered in 2015.
After earning a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1960, Takei appeared in various TV shows, small roles in movies, and stunts on Broadway. He break thru roles was when he was cast in the second pilot of “Star Trek” (1966).
After Trek, Takei appeared in various TV roles, attended Fan conventions, and returned to Trek in six of the movies.
After coming out, Takei became a vocal defender of gay rights and human rights throughout the USA. Takei’s work on “Allegiance” provides him a platform to speak out against the Trump administration’s rhetoric about immigrants and immigration policies.
Takei and his partner Brad Altman got married in 2008 with Walter Koenig serving as best man, and Nichelle Nichol as best woman.
![HAPPY BIRTHDAY, FRANCELIA BILLINGTON! [12/01/1895 - 11/24/1934]Photo of Francelia Billington | 1910s](https://64.media.tumblr.com/297c73f76e6c75824e98ad5decd20864/23d77fd919202e2b-5f/s1280x1920/b6eeecf4324bed2ac926874cf7590d494ca03bef.jpg "HAPPY BIRTHDAY, FRANCELIA BILLINGTON! [12/01/1895 - 11/24/1934]Photo of Francelia Billington | 1910s")
