"I remember losing only one job because of my coming out. I was supposed to play one of the lead roles in Harold Pinter's 'Betrayal' who eventually were given to Ben Kingsley & Jeremy Irons. The producer Sam Spiegel dropped a sexist comment about wives during a meeting & when I replied I was fortunate to be gay, I was quickly shown the door.”
We both belong to Acting Guilds & we both became passionate about theatre after viewing Peter Pan. We both started acting as a child, did university theatre, moved on to regional theatre & came to work in movies & TV later in life… & we are both big old homos who thought working in the theatre was a good place to meet guys. I guess the similarities end there. Sir Ian McKellen is the greatest actor of last 50 years & I am a dilettante. He is one of the people that I admire the most & inspire me the most in the world.
Sir Ian McKellen became an actor to meet men. He admits he felt isolated when he was younger, but thought he would meet other gay people if he embarked on a stage career: "I'd heard that a lot of professional actors were gay. Acting seemed like a chance for me to meet like-minded people. You know, at that time same-sex love in Britain got you into prison. Homosexuality was being completely hushed up. Gay teachers, politicians or firemen - that was something unthinkable. When I was young I thought I was the only gay Brit. That's why I was glad to find people like me in the actors guild."
Early in his career he was spotted by Maggie Smith. She recommended McKellen to Laurence Olivier, then building his new National Theatre at the Old Vic.. His first production at the National was Franco Zeffirelli's 1965 production of Much Ado About Nothing, with Maggie Smith, Robert Stephens, Albert Finney, Derrick Jacobi & newcomer Michael York.
Sir Ian worked through the ranks in repertory theatre & tours of the classics. At the Edinburgh Festival in 1969, Ian performed both Richard II & Edward II & blew audiences & critics away. McKellen:"I remember one heady evening in my dressing room at the Piccadilly, when I introduced Noel Coward to Rudolf Nureyev. I thought, I suppose I'd arrived".
McKellen was persuaded to join the Royal Shakespeare Company by its artistic director, Trevor Nunn. His range included Dr Faustus & Romeo. His Macbeth in 1976, with Judi Dench is considered to be the best since Lawrence Olivier. The company took The Three Sisters & Twelfth Night on tour to 26 towns in the UK & then on to the USA. He loved to take theatre to the people: " it truly was the most enjoyable thing I have ever done".
On Broadway in 1980, McKellen played Salieri in Amadeus. He created the role for which F. Murray Abraham would later win an Oscar. McKellen was consoled with the Tony Award. Also on Broadway, he played Richard III as a wicked plotter creating a fascist state in future England. He brilliantly recreated the role on film.
Never really in the closet to the theatre community, in 1988, McKellen admitted he was gay while discussing Section 28, Margret Thatcher’s legislation that would make the "public promotion of homosexuality" a crime. He became a one of the foremost campaigners for Gay Rights, co-founding the Stonewall group. John Gielgud would be a contributor in secret.
McKellen originated the role of Max in Bent, about the suffering of gays under the Nazis. The film version featured Clive Owen as Max, McKellen as Uncle Freddie, & with Mick Jagger appearing in drag. He appeared in Tales Of The City, & in And The Band Played On, about the discovery of & early fight against HIV. As activist Bill Kraus, Ian stood out in a cast including Richard Gere, Anjelica Huston, Steve Martin, receiving an Emmy nomination .
Even as a full blown movie star, McKellen returned to ensemble theatre for a season at the West Yorkshire Playhouse, appearing in The Seagull, The Tempest & Noel Coward’s Present Laughter. On screen he would appear in small art house film fare: The Lord Of The Rings Trilogy (another Oscar nom), X-Men, & The Da Vinci Code.
McKellen is responsible for 2 of my favorite performances in 2 of my very favorite films: hilarious & outragous in Cold Comfort Farm & pretty, witty & very gay, & Oscar nominated as director James Whale in Gods & Monsters. I can’t think of a living person that I admire more. Sir Ian McKellen is one of the greatest actors of all time & a relentless activist for equal rights. He remains happily single as he turns 73 years old today.
It would be impossible to underestimate the influence 2 of John Schlesinger's films had on my life as a gay man. Midnight Cowboy (I was 15 when I saw this X rated film) & Sunday Bloody Sunday (I was 17) both contained mind blowing moments for me. Truly great films, they both have fascinating gay characters as well as homoerotic moments that lodged in my young gay mind & stayed through my middle age. Jon Voight is luscious in Midnight Cowboy, & Murray Head is the poster boy for the sexy 1970's male in Sunday Bloody Sunday. Glenda Jackson checking out Murray's perfect physique as he showered made me consider how I felt when I stood next to beautiful boys in the showers after gym class. I kept sneaking a peek & wondering if any of them might ever be mine.
Sunday Bloody Sunday is an astonishing film for it's time, the 1st film I ever saw where a gay man was rather "normal" & sympathetic & where male attraction we inevitable & fated. The film asks: Is it better to share a lover than to have none at all? This is essence of John Schlesinger's film, a story of 2 people, a gay middle-aged Jewish doctor played Peter Finch & a 30-ish working woman- Glenda Jackson, who are romantically intertwined with a boyish artist played by Murray Head who treats them both with a bit of ennui.
My favorites Schlesinger films:• 1965 Darling• 1969 Midnight Cowboy• 1971 Sunday Bloody Sunday• 1976 Marathon Man• 1996 Cold Comfort Farm
John Schlesinger was well reviewed & celebrated in his life time, but history has not been as kind. He won Oscars for Best Picture & Director in 1969, received nominations in 1965 & 1971, was still doing important work through the 1970’s, but made so many missteps in the 1980’s & 1990’s that when he made his last great feature film, it was all but ignored. He followed that up with the 2 worst films he ever made, the dreadful thriller Eye for An Eye & the miserable Madonna & Rupert Everett vehicle The Next Best Thing (it must have seemed a good idea on paper) & then he died in 2003, remembered only with headlines- “Oscar winning director dies.”
But Schlesinger was a very important part of British cinema in the 1960’s, making the brilliant swinging 1960s- Darling & Billy Liar, A Kind of Loving & the beautiful Far from the Madding Crowd. All were brilliant, with gorgeous production values & 1st rate acting. He then moved to Hollywood & made such thoughtful films as Day of the Locust & Falcon & The Snowman. It is true that his films after that rarely rose above mediocrity, but his last great film is truly a great treasure & one of the Husband & my all time top 10 favorites.
Technically, Cold Comfort Farm came out in 1995, & would have been Oscar eligible had it not played on television in Britain. The film received good reviews but not much notice. Maybe it was a matter of timing, the film was riding the wave of Jane Austen films,though it is not Austen & set in the early 1930’s rather than the 19th century, but it was a British costume comedy of manners. How much more would it get noticed today now that Ian McKellen is known the world over for X-Men & not just as the guy from the interesting Richard III & that Kate Beckinsale is thought of as one of the world’s most beautiful women & not just the actress who was OK in Much Ado About Nothing.
Cold Comfort Farm is a divine peach of a film. Kate Beckinsale (wearing no black leather jumpsuits) portrays a city girl who goes to live with her cousins in the country & perhaps discover herself as a writer. The collection of very odd cousins include the crazed matriarch, the earthy Seth (Rufus Sewell) & an enigmatic preacher father, played by Ian McKellen in a fantastic & eccentric performance. Bryan Singer told McKellen, 2 years later while making Apt Pupil, that McKellen should watch this guy’s performance in Cold Comfort Farm to get some ideas, he didn’t realize he was talking to the very same actor. Add in nutty, only slightly restrained performances by the great Eileen Atkins, Julia Margolyes, Joanna Lumley, & Stephen Fry for a great mix of humor & style.
The film has a happy ending, as a Hollywood producer enters the story, but the true happiness is that Schlesinger made one more great picture, even if it was mostly ignored on impact.
Schlesinger survived a quadruple heart bypass in 1998, before suffering a stroke in December 2000. He was taken off life support in a hospital in Palm Springs on July 24, 2003 by his life partner of over 30 years, photographer Michael Childers. Schlesinger died early the following day at the age of 77.
It would be impossible to underestimate the influence 2 of John Schlesinger's films had on my life as a gay man. Midnight Cowboy (I was 15 when I saw this X rated film) & Sunday Bloody Sunday (I was 17) both contained mind blowing moments for me. Truly great films, they both have fascinating gay characters as well as homoerotic moments that lodged in my young gay mind & stayed through my middle age. Jon Voight is luscious in Midnight Cowboy, & Murray Head could be the poster boy for sexy 1970's male in Sunday Bloody Sunday. Glenda Jackson watching Murray's perfect physique as he showered made me consider how I felt when I stood next to beautiful boys in the showers. I kept sneaking a peek & wondering if any of them would ever be mine. Sunday Bloody Sunday is an astonishing film for it's time, the 1st film I ever saw where a gay man was rather "normal" & sympathetic & where male attraction we inevitable & fated. The film asks: Is it better to share a lover than to have none at all? This is essence of John Schlesinger's film, a story of 2 people, a gay middle-aged Jewish doctor played Peter Finch & a 30-ish working woman- Glenda Jackson, who are romantically intertwined with a boyish artist-Murray Head who treats them both with a dismissive interest. My favorites Schlesinger films:• 1965 Darling • 1969 Midnight Cowboy • 1971 Sunday Bloody Sunday • 1976 Marathon Man • 1996 Cold Comfort Farm John Schlesinger was well reviewed & celebrated in his life time, but history has not been as kind. He won Oscars for Best Picture & Director in 1969, received nominations in 1965 & 1971, was still doing important work through the 1970’s, but made so many missteps in the 1980’s & 1990’s that when he made his last great feature film, it was all but ignored. He followed that up with the 2 worst films he ever made, the dreadful thriller Eye for An Eye & the miserable Madonna & Rupert Everett vehicle The Next Best Thing (it must have seemed a good idea on paper) & then he died in 2003, remembered only with headlines- “Oscar winning director dies.”
But Schlesinger was a very important part of British cinema in the 1960’s, making the brilliant swinging 1960s- Darling & Billy Liar, A Kind of Loving & the beautiful Far from the Madding Crowd. All were brilliant, with gorgeous production values & 1st rate acting. He then moved to Hollywood & made such thoughtful films as Day of the Locust & Falcon & The Snowman. It is true that his films after that rarely rose above mediocrity, but his last great film is truly a great treasure & one of the Husband & my all time top 10 favorites.
The film has a happy ending, as a Hollywood producer enters the story, but the true happiness is that Schlesinger made one more great picture, even if it was mostly ignored on impact.Schlesinger underwent a quadruple heart bypass in 1998, before suffering a stroke in December 2000. He was taken off life support at Desert Regional Medical Center in Palm Springs on July 24, 2003 by his life partner of over 30 years, photographer Michael Childers. Schlesinger died early the following day at the age of 77.
