#closeted actors

[wewerealwaysthere]

Dean Martin & Jerry Lewis couldn’t stop kissing each other.

[100gayicons]

During WWI, Van Johnson became a Hollywood star playing a freckle-faced soldiers, sailors, or bomber pilots who were the boy-next-door".

While making “A Guy Named Joe” (1943) Johnson was in serious car accident. His injuries required a metal plate inserted in his forehead and plastic surgery to try and hide the scars.

At the height of his career, Johnson was the second highest-paid actor (behind Bing Crosby) and MGM’s most valuable asset. He received 50,000 fan letters a month. But 1947, MGM Studio head Louie B Mayer became concerned about rumors that Johnson was a homosexual.

When asked about his love life or why he wasn’t married, Johnson joked that he was married to MGM

But Playwright Arthur Laurents wrote years in his own autobiography that Johnson been caught “performing” in public restrooms.

Mayer insisted that Johnson get married. The problem was that the only woman he would consider was Eve Abbott, who was already married to his best friend Keenan Wynn. Mayer blackmailed Abbott, threatening Keenan Wynn’s contract would not be renewed unless she divorced him and married Johnson.

So on January 25, 1947, Wynn & Abbott drove to Mexico and got a quickie divorce, then drove to Hollywood where Abbott and Johnson were married. Believe it or not, Keenan Wynn stayed friends with both of them.

(This is based on an interview with Abbott shortly before her death in 2004.)

Keenan’s father actor Ed Wynn once described the situation:

"I can't keep them straight. Evie loved Keenan. Keenan loves Evie. Van loves Evie. Evie loves Van. Van loves Keenan. Keenan loves Van."

By the 1960s, Johnson transition to mostly making guest appearances on Tv shows (including 2 episodes of Batman in 1966, playing the villain the Minstrel).

Johnson also pursued the theater, appearing in a number of stage musical, including “The Music Man” in London in 1961. This led to Johnson’s divorce to Abbott.

According to Abbott, in 1961, she discovered her husband was having an affair with the lead dancer in the London production of “The Music Man”.

Abbott son Ned Wynn wrote that his mother told him that Johnson had left her "for a man - a boy, really. He's the lead boy dancer."

The marriage was over but they didn’t finalize their divorce until 1968. Johnson himself said it was acrimonious, “the ugliest divorce in Hollywood history".

Johnson continued to perform in regional theater and occasional on television. He died of natural causes in 2008. (No word on what happened to that dancer from The Music Man.)

[anneapocalypse]

So, just curious how many writers and creators will have to be forcibly outed by relentless harassment before we acknowledge that "This queer characters was written by a cishet person and that's why they're bad" is not good criticism.

[orsanedraws]

stole Hamish's face to create a little fucked up science freak and play him like a doll

[bodhrancomedy]

Again, Treasure Planet meant a lot to me as a kid.

[maybe-boys-do-love]

every so often some writer will show up to GMMTV like, I have a show with this character who's deeply problematic, pretty much unlikeable from the very start, he'll have half your audience protesting because they don't even give him a chance...

and then Krist emerges out of the shadows: "this show is getting made and that part is mine."

[prophetictattoo]

laurence coughlin, a-list actor and jude hurt's secret lover

and some of my favorite outfits i gave him

[theclosetedskeleton]

everytime anyone mentions that raz's VA also voices someone in helluva boss an angel loses its wings

[twopoppies]

Hi, love. Wow. That really similar to so much of what we think has happened with Harry and Louis, as well as what we’ve heard from so many formerly closeted celebrities. It’s disgusting. Thank you so much for sharing and yes, come back and share anything else you remember!

[mysharona1987]

So every movie fan who is also a car thief just got their newest target.

[leavemetoexist]

It needs to be said how Cunty Edwin is. Like he was serving all season with his gay little bowtie and his sassy little walk and quips.

[100gayicons]

Adam West’s Batman series is known for its campy style. But just how campy was it? At least nine of its Guest Stars playing the series’ villains knew first hand as they were closeted LGBT. Until the last few decades, if an actor was outed in public, their careers would end. So most of these actors never came out to their fans. Some were known to be LGBTQ by their friends or families, and stories about them still linger.

In the next few days I will post about Batman’s Campiest Gay Villains.

[wewerealwaysthere]

Rock Hudson made several romantic comedies with Doris Day. He usually played a womanizer. Yet he played characters who hinted at being gay.

In “Pillow Talk” he pretends to be gay when wooing Doris Day.

In “Lover Come Back” (1961) he appeared in a scene just wearing a woman’s mink coat. And in another, he’s in bed with Tony Randall (with a Champaign bottle).

The scenes come across as very gay. I wonder what went through Hudson’s mind. Did he think playing such scene proved he was straight by willing to pretend to be gay? Or did he secretly enjoy showing the true side of his nature?.

[thelavendrhaze]

fic: king of my heart

author: wildestdreams

rating: explicit

word count: 83.7k

Harry shrugged, his shoulders brushing against Louis’. “I think since I was young, I craved that feeling, though. I didn’t always hate being a prince, but over time, certain aspects of it just bothered me so much. I remember being four years old and realising that every person in the world knew my name, and I wasn’t sure if I wanted that. I told my mum as much and she tried telling me that being a prince is not a punishment. That it was a privilege that I should be happy about it, but no one asked me if I was. But looking up at the sky, I remember that all of this will one day mean nothing, and neither will I. All the pressure will then disappear and I could just be.”

Louis stayed quiet, allowing Harry the space to open up because he knew Harry wasn’t looking for advice, but just someone to confide in. What he wished he could tell him was that in the short amount of time that he’d known the prince, in Louis’ eyes, he couldn’t be insignificant if he tried. He was brighter than every star up there in the sky. He was all Louis could look at and think about. 

or

A Red, White, and Royal Blue AU where Hollywood elite, Louis Tomlinson, finds himself falling for the closeted Prince of England.

chapter one / chapter two / chapter three / chapter four / chapter five / chapter six / chapter seven / chapter eight / chapter nine / chapter ten / chapter eleven / chapter twelve / chapter thirteen / chapter fourteen

fic page / wattpad / twitter / playlist

[bodhrancomedy]

I’m about a decade too young to play Milo, but I’m willing to give it a bash 😂.

[destielwarmsthecocklesofmyheart]

them liking each others christmas posts has me like