My little 15 year old gay self was just blown away by Ken Russell’s Women in Love. Ken Russell's adaptation of D. H. Lawrence's novel Women in Love is one of my favorite films. It explores the hearts & minds, personalities, & philosophies of 4 intelligent & educated young people in the beginning of 20th century & their romantic relationships, heterosexual & homosexual, friendship, love & desire. I experienced the film several times in the theatre & could not believe my good luck at viewing 2 beautiful nude men wresteling by firelight. I played the scene over & over in my head & could never quite erase the images. I knew I wanted to do some nude wrestling myself, & Oliver Reed or Alan Bates seemed like excellent choices for a new hobby- Movie Star Nude Wrestling.
Women In Love is a powerful film with strong homoerotic undertones. It was also one of the first films to boldly show full frontal nudity by men. The plot subtly alludes to a strong relationship between the 2 leading men- Gerald & Rupert . The very physical scene continues for an almost full 5 minutes & both of the men wear absolutely nothing! I will always be grateful to Mr. Russell, Alan Bates & Oliver Reed. At 15 this was quite interesting & definitely a strange, but certainly memorable twist to an already curiously beguiling film & story. In another interesting twist, the Oscar nominated screenplay was written by openly gay- Larry Kramer, another personal favorite.
After graduating from RADA in 1956, Alan Bates debuted on stage in the West End, starring in Look Back in Anger, a role which made him a star. 4 years later, he had his first film role in The Entertainer with Laurence Olivier. He soon starred in Whistle Down the Wind, King of Hearts, & The Fixer, which gave him an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor.
Bates starred in such international hit films: Georgy Girl, Far From the Madding Crowd, Zorba the Greek, The Go-Between, An Unmarried Woman & Women in Love.
On TV, his parts ranged from classic roles such as The Mayor of Casterbridge, Guy Burgess in An Englishman Abroad, Pack of Lies, & the 2000 version of the Arabian Nights. Bates played Antonius Agrippa in the 2004 TV film Spartacus, but died before it debuted. It was dedicated to his memory.
I saw him on stage in Butley along with Jessica Tandy. He was astonishing as a gay English professor finds his life crumbling around him. The script contained a favorite line: “I'm a one-woman man, & I've had mine, thank God”. Bates had a long working relationship with the plays of Simon Gray, appearing in Butley, Otherwise Engaged, Stage Struck, Melon, Life Support & Simply Disconnected, as well as the film version of Butley.
He was married to actress Victoria Ward from 1970 until her death of a heart attack in 1992. They had twin sons born in 1971- Benedick Bates & Tristan Bates, who died of an asthma attack in1990 at the age of 19 in Tokyo where he had a modeling job.
Bates had numerous, often tortured, homosexual relationships during his life, including Olympic skater-John Curry.
Bates was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1996, & was knighted in 2003.
Alan Bates died of pancreatic cancer at the age of 69.
I was a fan of Bates' rumpled, malleable features, & his explosive versatility, Bates was an impossibly beautiful & talented man.
The Husband & I have been big fans of figure skating on TV for decades. We have our favorites, & we also get chuckles watching the insular world of this sport/art, with all of its rules, regulations, costumes, & the denial that there is anything intrinsically gay about figure skating.
We enjoy a good game of making up names for the various, innovative terms, positions & moves: the Double Nipple of the Party Boy, the Death Spiral Camel Toe, the Triple Axle Rose, the Booty Squat, the Fruit Loop-Lose Your Cherry Flip, Kiss the Nun, & the Hair Bending Junior Swish Swizzle. When I ice skate, I look like a newborn fawn standing up for the very 1st time.We were admirers of good looking John Curry, the elegant British 1976 Olympic champion who infused figure skating with the possibilities of dance. As an athlete, Curry was a visionary,defining his sport with balletic sophistication. He became one of the few athletes to speak openly of being Gay & HIV Positive.
Dick Button, the men's Olympic champion in 1948 & 1952: " He was the finest & most intelligent all-around skater I've ever seen. He skated with a combination of superior athleticism, solid technique, classical line & musical sensitivity. He was choreographically inventive."He was born in 1949, in Birmingham, England. Curry wanted to become a ballet dancer, but was forbidden by his father. He turned to the expressiveness of skating, which reminded him of dance.
By 1970, he had become the British national champion. Curry found the training facilities inadequate in England, & in 1973 he moved to Colorado to train with Carlo Fassi, who had coached the 1968 Olympic champion Peggy Fleming.
At the 1976 Winter Olympics in Innsbruck, Austria, Curry faced tough competition from Vladimir Kovalev of the USSR, Toller Cranston of Canada, & skepticism from Eastern Bloc judges who preferred a more athletic rather than artistic style.
In the short program, Curry removed a planned spread-eagle flourish from his approach to a double axel jump. The East European judges apparently appreciated that he did not embellish on what was required. In the long program, Curry sufficiently balanced his refined style with vaulting jumps to receive higher marks than Kovalev, the silver medalist, from 8 of the 9 judges.
Peggy Fleming: "I think he brought the purest form of ballet to the ice. He was a real purist, totally devoted to the art of skating. He also had the technique & athleticism to make that art look effortless. It was a wonderful blend of art & sport."
No longer bound by amateur rules, the professional Curry continued to explore alternate forms of skating, bringing his acclaimed IceDancing show to Broadway in 1977-78 & later touring with his own John Curry Skating Company. He did not go for the glitzy ice shows, Curry: "I never could see the point of spending 12 years training to go dress up in a Bugs Bunny suit. I was brought up on the Royal Ballet, and I hope it shows in my work."
In 1987, Mr. Curry contracted HIV. He later stated that he felt "ashamed" at having contracted an STD. He disclosed his homosexuality: "I just accept being gay as the way I am. I don't think of it as being bad or wrong or to do with any form of illness. I never pretended not to be gay, ever. I think the more open people are, the easier it gets for everybody else because it demystifies it. I don't want others to be frightened like I was" Actor Alan Bates enjoyed an intense, 2 year romance with Curry while still married to actress- Victoria Ward. When he later discovered that Curry was suffering the ravages of AIDS, he took care of his former lover during his last days. Curry eventually died in his arms.
Alan Bates
