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.
I first heard about Yotam Ottolenghi in a program detailing the Metropolitan Museum of Arts’s gala for their Versailles Exhibition. He was asked to organized food for the event. He invited five innovative pastry chefs to help him create deserts “fit for a king” (and anyone who bought a ticket).
I loved his passion for his art - pastries - and I was interested in learning more about him.
Ottolenghi was born in Israel. As an adult he moved to Amsterdam, then to London where he learned French Pastry techniques at the London Le Cordon Bleu. There he met his future business partner Sami Tamimi, a Palestinian born chef. They bonded over their shared love of Jerusalem’s and a joint “incomprehension of traditional English food”.
Together they started a deli - Tamimi was put in charge of the savories dishes and Ottolenghi was in charge of the pastries. The two now co-own six delis and restaurants across London. Both are acclaimed cookbook authors.
Ottolenghi describes his cooking philosophy:
“I want drama in the mouth.“
Ottolenghi met his romantic partner Karl Allen in 2000 and they got married in 2012. The two decided to have a children via surrogacy (sons born in 2013 and 2015).
He described coming out:
“… everything was smooth, relatively easy and painless for us. The only obstacle was coming out to our families, which we both did in our twenties. But actually we were not completely liberated gays, we still had a few serious chips on our shoulders… about keeping certain aspects of our lives “private”. It always took me quite a while before a new person earned my trust trust and I could reveal the sex of my allusive partner.”
Ottolenghi had his “second” coming out as a Gay Father in an essay published in 2013. It describe the long process of having their first son conceived via surrogacy. Although it can be expensive, he wanted other gay men know that they too could have families of their own.
Ottolenghi always wanted to have children because of he grew up in a nurturing family. He was in his early 40s abs wanted to inject some new meaning into his life. His partner Karl had some reservations. Until he met Ottolenghi, he never considered having children. But in the end, he agreed - twice!
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.
Høeg was a Norwegian photographer who worked for years with her partner Bolette Berg. The duo opened a photography business Finland and became closely involved with the women suffragette movement in Finland and Norway.
The Preus Museum has a collection of 440 glass negatives of the pair, often in gender bending outfits.
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.
Congratulations to TJ Osborne and his brother John for winning the 2022 Grammy Award for the Country Music - for their song “Younger Me”. In their acceptance speech, TJ expressed:
“For those of you who do not know, this song was written really in response to me coming out. I never thought I would be able to do music professionally because of my sexuality.”
The Brothers Osborne come from a musical family and began performing professionally in 2013. The duo have also won five CMA Awards and six ACM Awards. The “Younger Me” video was nominated for a CMA Award for video of the year in 2021.
In recent years, TJ Osborne had been open about his sexuality with his close friends and family, but had concerns about how the impact of the news would affect him professional. But he publicly came out in February 2021 making TJ the only openly gay country music artist on a major label.
He explained:
“Country music is a beautiful genre, but there has been this kind of undercurrent of … only certain people are allowed in. However, when you go to shows, you see people of all walks of life enjoying it.”
In his Grammy acceptance speech TJ added:
“I certainly never thought I would be here on this stage accepting a Grammy after having done something I felt like was going to be life-changing, potentially in a very negative way. And here I am tonight, not only accepting this Grammy award with my brother, who I love so much, but I’m here with a man that I love and who loves me back. I don’t know what I did to get so lucky.”
The man TJ loves is boyfriend Abi Ventura who he kissed before accepting the award.
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.”
Richard Chamberlain had only 5 brief appearances as a guest star on TV before getting his big break - the starring role on “Dr. Kildare” with 5 seasons and nearly 200 episodes. As the thoughtful and earnest James Kildare, Chamberlain won the hearts of teenage girls (and probably a few boys too) across the US.
When the series ended, he continued to act on TV and movies. Throughout the 1970s he starred in such acclaimed films as Ken Russell’s “The Music Lovers” (1970), Richard Lester’s “The Three Musketeers” (1973) and the sequel (1974), and as the cowardly archetect in Irwin Allen’s “The Towering Inferno” (1974).
During this time Chamberlain began a two year relationship with Wesley Eure, a young actor who started in the kids program “Land of the Lost”.
After his relationship with Eure ended, Chamberlain met actor Martin Rabbett. The two eventually moved together to Hawaii where the they entered a civil union.
By 1980 he earned the title “King of the Mini-Series” with starring roles in Centennial (1978–79), Shōgun (1980), and The Thorn Birds (1983).
In 1989, a French magazine outed Chamberlain as gay. He continued to act in Hollywood but did not publicly address his homosexuality until his autobiography “Shattered Love: A Memoir” (2003).
After over 30s with Rabbett, the couple separated and Chamberlain returned to Hollywood. He said, “… we’re much better friends than we’ve ever been.”
Congratulations to Ariana DeBose for winning the Best Supporting Actress Award for her performance as Anita in “West Side Story” (2021). Rita Moreno won the same award for playing Anita in the 1964 version of the musical.
In her acceptance speech DeBose spoke about the importance of representation and opening doors for marginalized people.
“Imagine this little girl in the back seat of a white Ford Focus, look into her eyes. You see an openly queer woman of color, an Afro-Latina, who found her strength in life through art. And that is, I think, what we’re here to celebrate.”
DeBose came out to her grandparents in 2015. She identifies as Queer.
In 2017 she met Sue Makkoo, a costume designer and professor, while working on Summer: The Donna Summer Musical (DeBose played Disco Donna). They are currently in a relationship and attended the 2022 Oscar’s ceremony together.
DeBose and actress Jo Ellen Pellmen created the Unruly Hearts Initiative to help young people connect with organizations and charities that advocate for the LGBTQ+ community.
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.
Paul Gerrior was an avid athlete, running track and field in high school in Arlington, Massachusetts. Then next he focus on body building which he continued into his senior years.
After serving in the army, station in Germany, he settled in San Francisco. By 1971, Gerrior met Jim French (aka Rip Colt) and became one of his stable of male nude models under the pseudonym “Ledermeister”. His age and muscular physique made him appealing - adding a leather cap, chaps or cock ring made him one of the first Leather Daddy of gay porn. He appeared in photos for sale, magazines and erotic film shorts (solo or with a partner).
With his clothes on, he worked for a telephone company in California for 25 years. And he also acted on stage in San Francisco.
In his later years, he appeared in 3 independent films: the scifi spoof “The Four Twenty-One” (2009); the gay drama “Strapped” (2010); and the drug comedy “Welcome to Dopeland” (2011).
After suffering a brief bout with cancer, Gerrior died in 2021. He was survived by his husband Bill Essex.
Barbie’s longtime boyfriend is Gay? Some of her fans seem to think so.
The duo began dating in 1961. Obsessed with fashion, the two have had difficulty holding down jobs to pay for their extravagant life styles. Both have upwards of 50 different jobs in their resumes.
Over the years, Ken has adopted a number of different looks and hairstyles. But one thing is constant - he likes to show off his abs.
While there have been rumors that Ken has been unable to satisfy Barbie, the release of “Magic Earring Ken” in 1993 seemed to reveal the reason. Ken was dressed for a night at a WEHO gay disco - wearing a see-thru shirt, exposing his six-pack; a lavender open vest; and frosted blond hair. And most suspicious of all, his necklace looked like a “cock ring” on a chain.
A few years later, Ken announced he had become a “Sugar Daddy”, suitably attired for an elegant afternoon on Palm Beach. Although he said the title was a result of him buying a miniature pet dog named Sugar, many suspect there is a Sugar Baby out there some where.
Ken also has several gay friends, including out lesbian Pussy Galore; closeted actor Rock Hudson, and astronaut Sally Ride.
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.
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.
