By RM
saturday, august 30, 2025 at 7:59:00 p.m. edt
On homosexuals playing normal men
I knew as much about this stuff as anyone else growing up-little to nothing! I absolutely couldn't stand Jim Nabors, but I didn't connect it with "gayness" till much later. I thought Rock Hudson was a good actor, especially in one of my favorite movies, Seconds. Unlike a lot of gay actors, he always seemed to have a rapport with his leading ladies, which probably explained his success, but he could also fake enough "gravitas" to play a dramatic role reasonably well. I hated Robert Reed at first in The Defenders, but he seemed to improve as an actor as the series developed, which made his "strangeness" tolerable. Same for one of the most blatant gays ever, Richard Chamberlain, who was really creepy as Dr. Kildare, but became a decent actor over time and eventually was somewhat palatable (though not when they'd put him in a romantic situation!). He was so strange looking, with his lidless, lizard-like eyes and skin pulled tight over his prominent cheekbones like someone who'd had plastic surgery, that they had a hard time photographing him at first, but figured out how to make him look human by the second season.
See what happens when you ask me a simple question?
-RM
By Grand Rapids Anonymous
sunday, august 31, 2025 at 12:46:00 a.m. edt
That wasn't excessive, RM. Pretty restrained, actually.
--GRA
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5 comments:
jerry pdx
I never had any inkling Rock Hudson was gay until I saw a picture of him with Carol Burnett in National Enquirer. It was an article about what good friends they were and he was standing behind her with his hands on her shoulders with a weird effeminate look on his face. It was jarring because I was used to seeing him as a hyper masculine ladies man. This would have been about the time of McMillan and Wife, a series I watched as a kid. I felt great envy seeing him in bed with the fetching Susan St. James, who I had a huge crush on. It was the first time I realized that a "fag" (what we called them back in the day) could be a real man type, not a pansy. I had thought he must be a real stud with the ladies, I had no idea he was banging guys and it was a bit of a shock.
Another actor I had no idea about was Raymond Burr. Again, he just seemed like a man's man. Just shows how good some actors can be being something they are not.
Another overrepresentation--queers. From watching tv,you'd think earth only had fags,blacks and fat White women and no mex or White men. Not true.
--GRA
I wonder if they invented those low voices for the public,but in private,sounded like effeminates.
--GRA
Funny, more recently I saw a photo of Rock with Doris in the Universal commissary, and same thing- he was smiling/laughing and looked totally girlish. Of course, actors from that time were carefully-groomed to appear serious before the camera.
Raymond Burr was terrific, even under-rated in my estimation. That man had gravitas for sure! Some could project drama no matter what they really were inside- that's what acting is all about! (However- beware actors who buy their own private island in Fiji- who knows what he was up to amongst the natives with his "friend"? "There are some things better not to know.")
-RM
RM, Ray Burr was God's (or the devil's?) gift to TV.
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