Born On This Day- August 24th... Stephen Fry

“You are who you are when nobody's watching.” 

Comedian, successful novelist, star of the silver screen, raconteur & wit are all part of the dazzling resume of Stephen Fry.

Perfectly cast, he played The Cheshire Cat in Tim Burton's Alice In Wonderland & Mycroft Holmes in Sherlock Holmes directed by Guy Ritchie.

I thought he was hysterical as King Charles l in Black Adder. He is good personal friends with Prince Charles & his horsey 2nd wife, even though his performance in Black Adder was a parody of Elizabeth 2’s son. Other favorite performances: Oscar Wilde in Wilde with Jude Law (“a role that I was fated to play”) & 2 of my all time favorite films- Gosford Park & Cold Comfort Farm. I understand that he appears in something refered to as The Harry Potter Series of films. Please, don't make me watch them, as much as I admire Fry.

I have also enjoyed his books- The Liar, Making History, The Hippopotamus & The Star’s Tennis Balls. Fry lives in London with his husband- Daniel Cohen. He famously drives a black TX4 London cab. Mr. Fry has & maintains a nifty blog- The New Adventures Of Mr. Stephen Fry.

"My first words, as I was being born... I looked up at my mother & said, 'that's the last time I'm going up one of those.'"

Born On This Day- August 17th... Monty Woolley

Edgar Montillion Woolley was born on this day- August 17th, in 1888, in NYC. He was a professor & lecturer at Yale University & he became an actor rather late in life, appearing on Broadway in 1936.

Woolley was typecast as the sharp speaking, supercilious sophisticate. His most famous role is the cantankerous radio personality forced to stay immobile because of a broken leg in The Man Who Came to Dinner, which he performed on Broadway, on the road, & in the film version. The play is based a on the radio & press celebrity of the 1930s & 1940s, Alexander Woollcott, who was also gay.

In the early 1970s, I performed in The Man Who Came To Dinner, a near perfect piece of theatre comedy confection by George Kauffman & Moss Hart. I played the role of Banjo, a thinly disguised caricature of Harpo Marx. In a crazy coincidence, I would play Harpo Marx a year later in a rather good musical, ready to be revived I believe- Minnie's Boys.

Woolley was a teacher & trusted sidekick of Cole Porter while at Yale & throughout their lives. They enjoyed many amusing disreputable adventures together in NYC & on foreign travels.

He played himself, badly, in Warner Brother's misinformed, misrepresented, & miserable bio-pic about Cole Porter's life- Night & Day (1946), a fictionalised retelling of Porter's peculiar professional & personal life. In the film he is much older than Cary Grant's Cole Porter, but he was actually only 3 years older than his friend.which might give you a clue about the nature of some of their audacious assignations

Woolley starred in a CBS TV adaptation of The Man Who Came to Dinner in 1954, the year of my birth. Woolley appeared in the TV series- Best of Broadway.

After finishing his final film, Kismet (1955), he returned to radio. Woolley was nominated for an Oscar as Best Actor in 1943 for The Pied Piper & as Best Supporting Actor in 1945 for Since You Went Away. He won a Best Actor award from the National Board of Review in 1942 for his role in The Pied Piper.

I have it on good authority that Woolley had a passion for black men, as did Cole Porter. Bennett Cerf in his 1944 book Try & Stop Me, tells the tale of Woolley at a dinner party where he suddenly belched. A woman sitting nearby glared at him; he glared back & said: "& what did you expect, my good woman? Chimes?"  Woolley died in 1963. I could play his signature role- Sheridan Whiteside in the Man Who Came To Dinner, with my eyes wide shut.

Born On This Day- June 21st... Maureen Stapleton

I loved the film version of Bye, Bye Birdie as a child, & I still do. Maureen Stapleton played Dick Van Dykes mother, & was Oscar nominated, even though, at 36 years old, she was only half year older than Van Dyke. At the finish of filming there was a wrap party, & the director, producers & the cast including Van Dyke & Janet Leigh, gave speeches extolling the extraordinary talents of newcomer Ann-Margret.  When it was her turn, Stapleton announced: "I guess I'm the only person in the room who doesn't want to fuck Ann-Margret."

Stapleton had many great successes on Broadway, from Tennessee Williams' The Rose Tattoo (Tony award), The Glass Menagerie & Orpheus Descending to Neil Simon's Plaza Suite. In 1971 she won another Tony Award for The Gingerbread Lady. Neil Simon reportedly used parts of Stapleton's own life in his play about an alcoholic actor in recovery.

I only saw Stapleton once on the stage, in Juno & The Paycock with Jack Lemmon & Walter Matthau at the Mark Taper in LA. A memorable night at the theatre. Jaw- dropping talent. I remain inspired by her work in that Sean O’ Casey play, proof that you don't have to be pretty to be a star.

My favorite Stapleton role on film is in Woody Allen's very unfunny Interiors, a fascinating but excruciating study of a very dysfunctional family in NYC, led by the humorless E.G. Marshall & Geraldine Page, both wearing various shades of beige. In saunters saucy Stapleton in a bright red dress to steal patriarch E.G. Marshall away, much to the horror the very beige daughters- Diane Keaton & Mary Beth Hurt.

She is heartbreaking in the 1975 TV film musical- Queen Of The Stardust Ballroom with Charles Durning.

When she won the Academy Award for her small but powerful role as Emma Goldman in Warren Beatty's Reds in 1981, she gave what I consider the best acceptance speech ever: "I want to thank everybody I ever met in my entire life."

Minutes after winning the Oscar, a reporter asked her how it felt to be recognized as one of the greatest actresses in the world. Stapleton: "Not nearly as exciting as it would be if I were acknowledged as one of the greatest lays in the world." When they asked her if she had expected to win, she answered: "Yes, because I'm old & tired & I lost 3 times before."

I cannot recall another actor with such a down-to-earth personality, completely devoid of pretension. When asked what was the key to good acting, Stapleton stated: "As far as I'm concerned…  the main thing is to keep the audience awake."

Born On June 13th... Paul Lynde

My favorite Paul Lynde anecdote:

In the early 1960s, Lynde was on trans-continental flight. A child was not being supervised by her parents & was running up & down the aisle making noise & annoying the other passengers. The mother obviously thought this behavior was precious. When Lynde could take no more of the child's shenanigans, he rose from his seat & approached the mother & stated: "Madam. if you don't control your child this instant, I will have to fuck her."

Lynde was one of the first personalities that I identified as gay when I was a child. I thought his way with a salty one liner & his unique delivery was just too funny. I loved him in the film of Bye Bye Birdie, in a role he originated on Broadway. He was only just barely a closet case with his camp & snarky demeanor & delivery.In 1965, Lynde was involved in an accident in which his 24 year old lover, fell  8 stories to his death from the window of their hotel room in San Francisco's Sir Francis Drake Hotel after a night of drinking games. The event was witnessed by a pair of policemen, but the story was largely kept out of the press. In 1976, a People magazine article on Lynde featured him with Stan Finesmith, his “chauffeur/bodyguard.”  In 1978, Lynde was arrested outside of a gay bar in Salt Lake City. After the arrest, he lost his guest starring role on The Donny & Marie Show.

Peter Marshall: “Paul, why do Hell's Angels wear leather?”

Paul Lynde: “Because chiffon wrinkles too easily.”

Peter Marshall: “What's the one thing you should never do in bed?”

Paul Lynde: “Point & laugh!”

Peter Marshall: "In The Wizard Of Oz, the Tin Man wanted a heart, & the Lion wanted courage. What did the Straw Man want?”

Paul Lynde: “He wanted the Tin Man to notice him.”

Peter Marshall: “At a recent hearing, opponents of fluorinated water claim that when it is in in a person's system it can cause an uncontrollable desire for sex.”

Paul Lynde: “HEY, CULLIGAN MAN!”

Peter Marshall: “Paul, any good sailor knows that when a man falls off a ship you yell 'Man overboard!' What should you shout if a woman falls overboard?”

Paul Lynde: “Full speed ahead!”

Peter Marshall: “What is said to be wasted on the young?”

Paul Lynde: “A whipping.”

Lynde was club performer, director, recording artist, actor on Broadway, in films, TV, cartoons & summer stock, & one of Hollywood's finest chefs & hosts. Lynde: “I can't even get 3 weeks off to have cosmetic surgery!”

Lynde spent a lifetime engaged in ongoing personal struggles in private life, as the tabloids occasionally reported, but he remained appreciated by those in his profession, friends & fans. He was perhaps most famous just for being Paul Lynde.The enigmatic Lynde:  “I don't know who the hell Paul Lynde is, or why he's funny, & I prefer it to be a mystery to me. An actor shouldn't undergo psychoanalysis, because there are a lot of things you're better off not knowing.”

Lynde was found dead in his Beverly Hills home by his friend Paul Barresi on Monday, January 11, 1982. He was just 55 years old. Lynde enjoyed a precarious life of men, drinking & partying.

Born On This Day- June 3rd... Maurice Evans

How astonishingly gay was the cast of Bewitched: Paul Lynde, Dick Sargent, Agnes Moorehead, plus the star of the series- Elizabeth Montgomery, a supporter of gay rights before it was cool.

American TV audiences of the 1960s remember Maurice Evans as Samantha's father, Maurice (the character was originally named Victor when he was introduced), on Bewitched. I knew, of course, but most viewers were most likely unaware of Evans' stellar Shakespearean resume. Evans insisted that his first name was pronounced the same as the name 'Morris'. It was ironic then that his Bewitched character's stance that it be pronounced: 'Maw-REESE'.

Evans first appeared on the stage in 1926 and joined the Old Vic Company in 1934, playing Hamlet, Richard II & Iago. His first appearance on Broadway was in Romeo & Juliet opposite Katharine Cornell in 1936, but he made his biggest impact in Shakespeare's Richard II, a production whose unexpected success was the surprise of the 1937 theatre season & allowed Evans to play Hamlet in 1938, the first time that the play was performed in it’s entirety in NYC , Falstaff in Henry IV, Part I (1939), Macbeth (1941), & Malvolio in Twelfth Night (1942) opposite Helen Hayes as Viola.

During WW 2 arrived, he was in charge of an Army Entertainment Section in the Central Pacific & played his famous 'G.I. version' of Hamlet that cut the text of the play to make Prince Hamlet more appealing to the troops, an interpretation so popular that he took it to Broadway in 1945. Evans specialized in the works of Shaw, notably as John Tanner in Man & Superman & as King Magnus in The Apple Cart. He was also a successful Broadway producer of productions in which he did not appear.

As of 2006, Evans was a true pioneer, having appeared in more American TV productions of Shakespeare than any other actor. Evans brought his Shakespeare productions to Broadway many times, playing Hamlet in 4 separate productions for a total of 283 performances, a Broadway record.

My favorite Evans role is as Rosemary's friend Hutch in the 1968’s Rosemary's Baby.

In my research I was not able to find out much about his lovers. Possibly, like other British actors of his generation, he would have prefered working class blokes & rough trade.In his later years, Evans lived a great deal of his life in the USA. In his last years, he returned to Britain. It does seem that Evan's former lover & business manager- David 'Taffy' Barlow, made last days all the more comfortable by hiring young rent boys to strip down & lie in the bed with him. This quite shocked some of his deathbed visitors. Evans died of cancer in East Sussex, at 87 years old.

Born On This Day- May 26th... Actor Alec McCowen

Alec McCowen is one of those terrific, highly trained English actors, best known for classical roles including Shakespeare, who dabbles in TV & film, & is always good no matter the quality of the project.

I first took note of him in the a favorite film from  my teens- Travels With My Aunt, starring Maggie Smith, & directed by George Cukor in 1972.

His many stage successes include: Toulouse-Lautrec in Moulin Rouge (1954), Barnaby Tucker in The Matchmaker (1954), Mercutio in R&J at The Old Vic, Friar Rolfe in Hadrian the 7th, for which he won an Evening Standard Award for the London production & a Tony nomination. I was lucky enough to see him in Molière's The Misanthrope opposite the very talented Diana Rigg in 1973. McCowen originated the role of psychiatrist Martin Dysart in Peter Shaffer's Equus, but his greatest achievement was his one-man performance of the complete text of Saint Mark's Gospel (1978), for which he received worldwide acclaim & a Tony nomination.

Among his many film roles, check out McCowen’s work in my favorite Scorcese flick- The Age Of Innocence & he was featured in Scorcese's The Gangs Of New York.

His partner of 20+ years was actor Geoffrey Burridge, who died in 1987 from an AIDS-related illness. In 1989 McCowen was featured on the British version of the celebrity surprise show This Is Your Life.  He was shocked at the slight from the show's complete failure to mention Geoffrey Burridge, who had died 2 years before. Brave for the time, McCowen insisted that his late partner be acknowledged on the program. McCowen turns 87 years old on this day- May 26th.

Born On This Day- May 14th... TV's Richard Deacon

I know that Modern Family will join this list, but that show is only in the third season, & I am still in the first stages of love, all dizzy & blurry & unable to be objective:

Top 10 Sitcoms of All Time:
1. I Love Lucy
2. The Dick Van Dyke Show
3. The Mary Tyler Moore Show
4. Rosanne
5. Will & Grace
6. Friends
7. Frasier
8. Arrested Development
9. Newhart
10. The Bob Newhart Show


He appeared in hundreds of TV shows & films, but I loved him best as the dour Mel Cooley on The Dick Van Dyke Show. At the start of his career, Richard Deacon was advised by Helen Hayes to abandon all hope for becoming a leading man. She encouraged him to chase a career as a character actor.

Big, bald, bespectacled & bass-voiced, Deacon heeded Hayes' advice, & was able to survive in show business far longer than most of the leading men. Usually cast as a sourpuss, Deacon was a valuable & highly regarded supporting cast commodity for films: Desiree (1954), Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956), The Spirit Of St. Louis (1957), The Young Philadelphians (1959) & The Birds (1963), among many others. Virtually every major star who worked with Deacon paid compliments to his skills. His biggest admirers were Lou Costello, Lucille Ball, Jack Benny & Cary Grant, no slouches in the comedy department.

He proved even better on TV. His resume his head-spinning. He guest starred on nearly every sitcom of the era. Deacon had the distinction of doing 2 sitcoms at the same time in the early 1960s: he was pompous suburbanite Fred Rutherford on Leave It to Beaver, & the long-suffering Mel Cooley on The Dick Van Dyke Show. Deacon also co-starred as Kaye Ballard's husband on the delicious- The Mothers-in-Law (1968) with Eve Arden, & enjoyed a rare leading role on the 1964 Twilight Zone installment The Brain Center at Whipples. In his last decade, Richard Deacon hosted a TV program on microwave cookery, & published a companion book on the subject.

Deacon appeared in the long-running Broadway production of Hello, Dolly! as Horace Vandergelder (a role I played to great acclaim in the late 1980s), opposite Phyllis Diller from 1968-1970. Deacon continued appearing on television & in the movies until his death from heart disease at 67 years old.

On The Dick Van Dyke Show, I always wanted him to have more air time, I thought him to be so funny. His work on this show had a certain influence on my comedy style. My favorite Deacon moments were as Tallulah Bankhead’s butler on an episode of I Love Lucy. He was born 90 years ago, on this day, May 14th.  Melvin Cooley, what a cool name, huh?

I would love to know your favorite sitcom of all time. Care to comment?

Born On This Day- April 30th... Eunice M. Quedens

Eve Arden is one of the Husband’s favorite stars, & he introduced me to her most famous role with re-runs on TV. I was just a smidgen too young to have watched the 1st broadcasts of Our Miss Brooks, but watching them with him gave me even more appreciation for her considerable talents. I did have the pleasure of seeing Eve Arden in the title role in Hello, Dolly while I was doing summer stock on Cape Cod in the early 1970s. She was a terrific Dolly Levi.

I never met her, but I wanted to be her, or rather I wanted to receive a review that would claim- “Stephen Rutledge has the charm & the crack top timing of a male Eve Arden.” If my demented memory serves me right, I had a better chance at being compared to Kay Ballard.

Her 50 year career doing supporting & leading roles on stage, in films, radio & TV included an Oscar nomination for Mildred Pierce, but she is best remembered for playing the sardonic high school teacher in the classic Our Miss Brooks on radio & television, & to another generation as the Rydell High School principal in Grease & Grease 2. Ironically. she never finished high school, leaving at 16 to join a stock company.


Eve Arden had an approximately 30 second guest role in a 1955 I Love Lucy episode- L.A. at Last in which she played herself. While awaiting their food at The Brown Derby, Lucy & Ethel argue over whether a certain portrait on the wall is of Shelley Winters or Judy Holliday. Ethel decides to ask a lady sitting in the booth next to them, who replies: "Neither. That's Eve Arden." Ethel suddenly realizes she'd just been talking to Arden herself. As the star is leaving she is gawked by Lucy & Ethel. This same episode also guest starred William Holden.


Desilu Productions, was owned by Desi Arnaz & Lucille Ball, & was the production company for the Our Miss Brooks television show, which was filming during the same period as I Love Lucy. Ms. Ball & Ms. Arden were acquaintances, having worked together in Stage Door in 1937; it was Ball, who suggested Arden for the radio & TV versions of Our Miss Brooks.


Arden's comic talent & timing were absolute perfection for her best known role, Madison High School English teacher Connie Brooks in Our Miss Brooks. Arden portrayed the character on radio from 1948 to 1957, & on TV from 1952 to 1956, & in a 1956 feature film. Arden's character clashed with the school's principal, Osgood Conklin (Gale Gordon), & was burdened by an unrequited crush on fellow teacher Philip Boynton (Jeff Chandler, & on TV by Robert Rockwell).


Eve Arden was born Eunice M. Quedens in Mill Valley, California, & she made her Broadway in 1934 in the Ziegfeld Follies , & her last work was in Grease 2 in 1982. She chose her stage name while shopping for cosmetics & spotting the names Evening in Paris &  Elizabeth Arden. She was married to actor Brooks West for 32 years, until his death in 1984. Eve Arden passed away in 1990 at the age of 82. Happy Birthday, Eve!





"I've worked with a lot of great glamorous girls in movies and the theater. And I'll admit, I've often thought it would be wonderful to be a femme fatale. But then I'd always come back to thinking that if they only had what I've had - a family, real love, an anchor - they would have been so much happier during all the hours when the marquees and the floodlights are dark."

I'm Just A Girl Who Can't Sat No

I met her once. It was really rather a thrill because I am true fan, & at the time, a musical queen. I was over the moon to meet the original Ado Annie from Oklahoma!. As a film smart, savvy young gay man my head was simply spinning to be meeting Karen, Margo Channing’s best friend in All About Eve, one of my very favorite films.

The occasion was being received back stage by Betty Garrett, after her one-woman show- Betty Garrett & Other Songs at the Westwood Playhouse in Spring 1976. Betty Garrett had been my acquaintance for a year, & we had recently been at a very informal outdoor dinner thrown by mutual friends. Betty & I had a very special conversation that evening that ended with Betty offering me the house seats to her show the next evening. I took her up on the offer, & the show was splendid, sparkling & sentimental. After her big finish, but before the curtain call, Betty looked into the house with her hands shielding her eyes & announced while pointing : "My dead friend Celeste & Stephen… I want to see you both in my dressing room in a few minutes.” I turned to the person next to me & nudged & whispered- “That’s me… I'm Stephen, I’m not Celeste.”

So, Oscar winner & consummate character actor Celeste Home, & little curly-haired redheaded Stephen hung out in the dressing room while Betty Garrett got out of costume & make up. Celeste Holm & our hero made small talk & loudly praised Ms. Garrett’s show. I heaped praise on Holme's stage performance in Mame, which I had adored in 1968.

I declined an offer from the 2 amazing stars of Hollywood’s golden era to move on to the next party as a team. Instead, I would opt for Studio One in West Hollywood, hoping that some hot man would shove that little brown bottle under my nose, the one that makes me feel so sexy & really connected with the thumping music. I did meet a beefy redhead that took me to his place in Venice Beach, used me for my considerable talents & then made me breakfast. I came to the fork in the road, & I made the wrong decision. I could have partied away the evening with the woman who introduced the world to the showstopper- I Can't Say No (by coincidence, the title of a chapter in my memoir- Jockstraps & Vicodin), instead I took the fork that might have gotten me forked.

Celeste, I was dense, I was callow, I was young. I was thinking with my dick. I apologize. Ask me again, I will devote a date to you & we can remember our friend Betty. Take me up on my offer. Happy 94th birthday! You out lived the entire cast of All About Eve. You are still one hot number!

Celeste Holm tells this story: She was nominated for an Oscar for a film she made with Loretta Young- Come To The Stable, in which they both played nuns! Loretta had become quite pious after having given birth to Clark Gable's love child (talk about virgin birth... she then adopts her own daughter) & Loretta Young announced to the cast & crew that there would no swearing or strong language on the set. Miss Young had set up a penalty box; if someone should slip up & use a Goddamn, fuck or shit, they would need to put a nickle in the box, with the proceeds going to a Vatican charity at the end of the shoot. Holme's good friend Ethel Merman stopped by the set to visit. Ethel took a 10 dollar bill out of her purse & slipped it into the Curse Box & loudly proclaimed- "There you go Loretta. Now you can go fuck yourself". I told this story to a group of 20-35 year olds that I supervise at my job. Not a single one knew of Celeste Holm, Loretta Young, Ethel Merman, or All About Eve, even the gay ones. I hate getting old.

Holmes also relates: "I walked onto the set of All About Eve on the first day & said, 'Good Morning,' to Miss Bette Davis, & do you know her reply? She said, 'Oh shit, good manners'. I never spoke to her again ... ever."

Celeste Holm lives in her native NYC. She married 5 times; she married her current husband, opera singer Frank Basile, on April 29, 2004, her 87th birthday. Celeste turns an astonishing 95 today.

Born On This Day- April 29th- Tiny Talent, Leslie Jordan

The diminutive Leslie Jordan has long had me in awe of his comic creations. He is an irrepressible, garrulous Chattanooga pixie who got through a Southern Baptist childhood & same sex stirrings & lived triumphantly to tell the tale.

I first noticed Jordan in his Emmy winning turn in the recurring guest role of Beverley Leslie on Will & Grace, but he has worked for several decades on the stage, TV & films, including last year's The Help as Mr. Blackly, editor of the local newspaper.

Jordan has a special demented genius in his work in Del Shores' Sordid Lives on stage, in the cult film version, & later in the short-lived TV series. I was crazy for the film version, watching it several times. His one-man show Hysterical Blindness & OtherSouthern Tragedies That Have Plagued My Life Thus Far, was first performed off-Broadway in 1992. His shows are produced by his friend- Lily Tomlin.

Jordan has hit on the road, performing his one-man shows- Like a Dog on Linoleum & My Trip Down the Pink Carpet, playing L.A, & NYC & all points in between. These days he's touring a new one-man called Fruit Fly, about life with his very Southern mother.

Always tiny & openly gay, the 4-foot-11 Jordan began using humor early in life as a defense against bullies. He is fond of saying “I fell out of the womb and landed in my mama’s high heels,” but had surprising support from his conservative Baptist parents.

I read his funny, but moving book- My Trip Down The Pink Carpet where tells many poignant anecdotes, like when he wanted a bride doll for Christmas one year. He got “the prettiest bride doll you ever saw” … from his big, muscular career Army father.

After spending a decade working as a jockey, he went back to collge & studied Theatre. Jordan: “I’m a true, true Hollywood success story. Nobody helped me. I stepped off the bus & started doing commercials. I was really good at that, they wanted funny, funny, funny people in commercials.”

Jordan: “My big break was ‘Murphy Brown, I did one episode & the whole town was abuzz. My agent called & said he’d never had that kind of reaction. Pee Wee Herman wanted me on his kiddy show, Burt Reynolds said it would be fun to work with me, & even Stephen Spielberg called. It was like an overnight success. It was fun, but looking back, it was exhausting. I had fun in my 20s, 30s and 40s, but I wish I had a little more financial security.”

During pilot season, Jordan lives in L.A., but the rest of the year he’s on the road. Tate Taylor, the openly gay director of The Help had tried for years to get Jordan to work for him, but Jordan was never available. Jordan: “Tate called me up & said, ‘Damn you, you’ve never worked for me & now I’m going to give you this good part.”

When Jordan won his Emmy, his competition was Ben Stiller, Patrick Stewart, Alec Baldwin & Martin Sheen, Jordan didn’t expect to win, but still flew his mother out for the ceremony.

Jordan: "I have live such a blessed life, I was just a kid who had a dream & got on a bus.”

On gay life: “There are 2 ways to combat homophobia. One is through humor. The second is to put a face on it. People are becoming much more enlightened. People are realizing that being gay is just as defining as the color of our skin & it's not a choice. I'm really encouraged. I think in my lifetime we will achieve equality. I'm honored to be a part of it.”

Jordan is single. He turns 57 years old today.

Born On This Day- April 3rd... David Hyde Pierce

I don’t think I can take more of these mild surprises. First Ricky Martin comes bursting out of the closet door as a “fortunate homosexual man” & wasn’t it just a couple of yeasr ago that I had to lay down from the shock that Sean Hayes was a gay guy? & what is this I hear about Neil Patrick Harris?


Well, imagine the jolt when David Hyde Pierce loaded me with the whammy of coming out in 2007.  Mr. Hyde Pierce, whom I have had a crush on for almost 20 years when I spotted him on a very funny show- The Powers That Be from Norman Lear, had never given me an impression that he might be a homo. The ensemble of theat show included Holland Taylor, John Forsythe (the late & very great), Valerie Mahaffey, Peter MacNicol, & Joseph Gordon-Levitt.


Then came a little TV show – Frasier. As Kelsey Grammer’s title role character's brother- Niles Crane, Pierce was nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Emmy for a record 11 consecutive years, winning in 1995, 1998, 1999 & 2004. In 2005, Pierce was nominated for his turn in the stage production Spamalot. In 2007, he starred in Curtains-a new Kander & Ebb musical for which he won the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical. In his acceptance speech for Curtains, he said the first words he spoke on a Broadway stage were 'I'm sorry, I'm going to have to ask you to leave."


Hyde Pierce came out in the softest way possible. An Associate Press notice simply stated: "He worked at Playwrights Horizons, the Public Theater, Shakespeare in the Park & a lot of regional theaters such as the Guthrie in Minneapolis, Chicago's Goodman & Long Wharf in New Haven, Conn. Pierce moved to LA in the early 1990s when his partner, actor-writer-producer Brian Hargrove, wanted to write for television."


The mention warranted little attention until picked up by the Village Voice’s Michael Musto. The reaction was underwhelming, & his relationship with Brian Hargrove was made public in 2007.

When accepting his Tony Award for Curtains, Pierce thanked "my partner, Brian, because it's 24 years of listening to your damn notes… that's why I'm up here tonight." He & Hargrove were married in California on October 24, 2008, just before Proposition 8 was adopted as law.They live in NYC & LA.

Born On This Day- March 21st... James Coco

James Coco was a pudgy & bald character actor whom I admired a great deal, for reasons you can easily grasp. He worked steadily for over 3 decades in commercials, TV, films & on stage.

Coco's career climax came in the role of a struggling gay actor & buddy to a boozy Broadway actress played by Marsha Mason in the film Only When I Laugh (1981). As the supportive friend who wants to be a "big, big star," Coco was winsome, waggish, winning, wise, & over the top gay. He received a well deserved Oscar nomination as Supporting Actor.


Coco was associated with the works of one of my favorite playwrights- Terrence McNally. He played in an off-Broadway double-bill of one-act plays- Sweet Eros/Witness (1968), followed by Here's Where I Belong, a disastrous Broadway musical adaptation of East of Eden that closed on opening night. They had far greater success with Next, which ran for more than 700 performances & won Coco the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Performance.


Coco also achieved success with Neil Simon, who wrote The Last of the Red Hot Lovers (1969) specifically for him & Doris Roberts. It won him a Tony Award nomination as Best Actor in a Play. More work in Simon projects included a Broadway revival of the musical Little Me & films: Murder By Death, The Cheap Detective, & Only When I Laugh.


Coco's other film credits: Ensign Pulver, Tell Me That You Love Me, Junie Moon, Man of La Mancha, Such Good Friends, A New Leaf, The Wild Party, & The Muppets Take Manhattan.


Coco was known for his cooking capabilities, publishing several best-selling cookbooks & making frequent guest appearances on talk shows dressed in his chef's hat & apron. Coco died of a heart attack in NYC, in 1987 at the age of just 56.

Are You A Good Witch, Or A Bad Witch?... Considering Margaret Hamilton On Her Birthday

One of my favorite films from the early 1970s is Robert Altman's Brewster McCloud, which I saw in the theatre, on initial release, multiple times. Brewster McCloud is a film about flying, & it pays homage to Margaret Hamilton's Wicked Witch of the West. In the film, Hamilton plays a wealthy woman who is crushed by a large birdhouse. As the camera pans down her body, you see that on her feet are the ruby slippers.

Today marks the birth, 119 years ago, of Margaret Hamilton, an exceptional character actor who never asked for more than $1000 for her work, for fear she would price herself out of a role. She had a career that lasted 5 decades & more than 70 films, but we all remember her best for her iconic Hamilton Wicked Witch of the West in the 1939 MGM classic The Wizard of Oz, in my top 10 films of all time. The Wizard of Oz did not bring Ms. Hamilton fortune, & did it really bring her fame. Nothing much happened for her career after the excitement over the film’s initial release died down. It wasn't until the 1970's that her career blossomed as she was rediscovered by a new generation.

As Maxwell House Coffee's spokesperson, Cora, an old shop keeper with that no nonsense New England charm. Hamilton was once again in the spotlight that she deserved. Cora was so popular that she even had a cookbook, with Hamilton 's image on the cover.

I've always had a special place for Hamilton. As Almira Gulch, the busybody who stuffed Toto into the picnic basket, or the Wicked Witch of the West, Margaret Hamilton, brought her characters to life.

Hamilton's line from The Wizard of Oz - "I'll get you, my pretty . . . & your little dog, too!" - was ranked 99th in the 2005 American Film Institute survey of the100 most memorable movie quotes. Her son, interviewed for the 2005 DVD edition of the film, commented that Hamilton enjoyed the line so much, she would use it in real life. Believe it or not, she appeared in The Wizard of Oz for only 12 minutes, but what an impact she made.

Hamilton was a former teacher, & she also gained recognition for her work as an advocate of causes designed to benefit children & animals. She retained a lifelong commitment to public education, serving on the Beverly Hills School Board. Hamilton lived in NYC for most of her adult life. She had an apartment in my most very favorite NYC neighborhood- Gramercy Park, in a building where she had James Cagney as a neighbor. She died in her sleep in 1985. She was 82 years old. Hamilton’s Wicked Witch of the West scared a lot of children through the decades, but she seemed to have been a real sweetheart.

Born On This Day- August 7th... John Glover

I first made note of John Glover & Meryl Streep in small parts in just 2 scenes in the film Julia (1977). They both made quite an impression in essentially tiny roles. I have watched his career with interest & have enjoyed his performances,most often playing villains, in film & on TV.

Mr. Glover has done extensive stage work on Broadway, Off-Broadway & regional theatre. Highlights for me include an Emmy nominated turn in An Early Frost, one of the first movies to deal with AIDS & in Annie Hall, in another tiny role, he utters to Diane Keaton, the very funny line: "Touch my heart. With your foot." He has had reoccurring roles on Frasier, Murder She Wrote, Law & Order, Brothers & Sisters, Heroes, & as Lux Luther's father Lionel on Smallville. John Glover received a Tony nomination this year as Lucky in Waiting For Godot. For me the apex of his long career was playing 2 roles, twin brothers in Love! Valor! Compassion! for which he won the Tony & repeated the role in the film version. I really loved this very fine performance.

He lives in NYC with his long time partner- sculptor Adam Kurtzman. Glover turns 67 years old today.

Born On This Day- March 21st... Character Actor James Coco

James Coco was a pudgy & bald character actor whom I admired a great deal, for reasons you can easily grasp. He worked steadily for over 3 decades in commercials, TV, Films & on stage.

Coco's career climax came as a struggling gay actor & buddy to a boozy Broadway actress played by Marsha Mason in the film Only When I Laugh (1981). As the supportive friend who wants to be a "big, big star," Coco was winsome, waggish, winning, wise, & over the top gay. He received a well deserved Oscar nomination as Supporting Actor.


Coco was associated with the works of one of my favorite playwrights- Terrence McNally. He played in an off-Broadway double-bill of one-act plays- Sweet Eros/Witness (1968), followed by Here's Where I Belong, a disastrous Broadway musical adaptation of East of Eden that closed on opening night. They had far greater success with Next, which ran for more than 700 performances & won Coco the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Performance.


Coco also achieved success with Neil Simon, who wrote The Last of the Red Hot Lovers (1969) specifically for him & Doris Roberts. It won him a Tony Award nomination as Best Actor in a Play. More work in Simon projects included a Broadway revival of the musical Little Me & films: Murder By Death, The Cheap Detective, & Only When I Laugh.


Coco's other film credits: Ensign Pulver, Tell Me That You Love Me, Junie Moon, Man of La Mancha, Such Good Friends, A New Leaf, The Wild Party, & The Muppets Take Manhattan.


Coco was known for his cooking capabilities, publishing several best-selling cookbooks & making frequent guest appearances on talk shows dressed in his chef's hat & apron. Coco died of a heart attack in NYC, in 1987 at the age of just 56.

Born On This Day- March 18th... Fred Astaire's Straight Man

From the very start of film as an art form, slightly coded gay characters were used for the easy laugh: sissies, gallery owners, interior decorators, fussy bachelors & prissy artistic types. These incidental characters added spice to the urbane sophisticated comedies of the era. The homosexual hints these minor characters provided were in juxtaposition to the livelier & sexier romantic men of the era. Film comedies deftly employed actors like Clifton Webb, Frances Langford, & Edward Everett Horton as gay comic relief with stereotypes that didn’t threatened the moviegoers, male or female.



I have always had a place in my heart for the work of Edward Everett Horton. I immediately identify Horton with his work in the Fred Astaire/Ginger Rogers musicals at RKO including the apt named The Gay Divorcee, but he provided notable roles onscreen during the 1930s included a portrayal of The Mad Hatter in the 1933 Alice in Wonderland, & a neurotic paleontologist, who first appears disguised as a woman, in Frank Capra's Lost Horizon (1937).

Starting in the early 1930s, Horton made at least 6 films a year for a quarter of a century. Reflecting his work on the stage, there were occasional serious variations in his roles. He played an unusually forceful role in Douglas Sirk's Summer Storm (1944), & he delivered a comedic masterful turn in Busby Berkeley's The Gang's All Here (1943).


Horton worked steadily for more than 60 years. He may have been a sissy, but he was no dummy. He bought up property in the San Fernando Valley starting in the 1920s. He developed what he named- Beleigh Acres, a 23-acre development where he lived with his long time partner- Gavin Gordon & his mother, who passed away at age 102.


Like a good homo, Horton collected antiques, & at the time of his death in 1970, he had a collection worth a million dollars. He was busy on television throughout the 1950s & 1960s: onscreen, voice-overs for commercials, & as host for the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show at Madison Square Garden. Horton was on the silly Western series F Troop, playing Running Chicken, a Hekawi Indian tribe medicine man. But his most enduring work from the 1960s was as the narrator of Fractured Fairy Tales, on Rocky & Bullwinkle, in which he was prominently billed in the opening credits of every episode. This work endeared him to millions of baby boomers like me. One of my favorites of his appearances is an I Love Lucy episode, where he is cast against type as a frisky, amorous suitor.




Edward Everett Horton died in 1970, at age 84. He continued to work up until the week he passed away.

The Joker's Wild... Born On This Day, Cesar Romero!

From everything I have read, Cesar Julio Romero, Jr. was the consumate professional, brimming with talent, & a total nice guy… one of the good ones. Famous as a "confirmed bachelor," the "Latin from Manhattan" was Hollywood's most popular date. After a hard day at the studio, he always dove into the nightlife & the social world. There was rarely a film or gallery where the debonair, dramatically dressed man was not seen with a famous star on his arm: Joan Crawford, Linda Darnell, Barbara Stanwyck, Lucille Ball, Ann Sheridan, Jane Wyman, or Ginger Rogers. It was reported that Romero's closets held 30 tuxedos, 200 sport coats, & 500 suits. Romero rarely spent an evening in his Brentwood home, which he shared with his sister Maria. It was well known in Hollywood that the likable Romero was gay, and it was well assumed that after he dropped off his beautiful date, he would end up in the arms of long time lover-Tyrone Power.


Cesar Romero had supporting roles in nearly 100 films from the 1930s-1980s, musicals, period pieces, westerns, noir, comedy, he did it all.

In 1953, Romero starred in a 39-episode TV serial, Passport To Danger, & he continued to do guest spots on TV shows: I Love Lucy & the special Lucy Takes A Cruise To Havana, Zorro, 77 Sunset Strip, Fantasy Island, & Murder She Wrote.

Romero achieved his greatest fame in 1966 as The Joker in the highly successful TV series Batman & repeated the role in the 1966 movie, making him the first film Joker, before Nicholson, & like heath Ledger, he was robbed of an Oscar.

Romero danced with Carmen Miranda on a live broadcast of The Milton Berle Show. Wearing glittering sequins & colorful fruit, Miranda forgot her panties while changing between acts, & when Cesar twirled her above his head, she exposed herself to millions of TV viewers across the country. Talk about your wardrobe malfunctions!

Enduringly popular, the wealthy Romero continued to work steadily through the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, & beyond.

Romero had a great sense of humor. Once, after taping a talk show featuring him & a beauty queen, the technician began removing their clip-on microphones, Romero quipped: "You can do the young lady first. The young queen before the old queen."

In 1968, Romero was named one of the “most beautiful men in the world" by T.V. Guide Magazine with "hair the color of stainless steel," an "alert, erect posture," & "charm to spare." Romero continued to appear in films almost yearly throughout the 1970's and 1980's. In 1985, the still handsome & popular man actor was cast as Jane Wyman's love interest on the popular Falcon Crest.

Romero: "Those beautiful actresses all had individuality & a flair for glamour…years ago the gals were real stars. There was an excitement to the business then."

The elegant Cesar Romero, loved & adored by his friends & fans, died of complications from a blood clot on New Year's Day, 1994.

Born On This Day- February 14th... Cool Cookie Thelma Ritter

Thelma Ritter is one of my favorites & the very essence of the term Character Actor. Thelma Ritter's career was full of excellent supporting roles. She received 6 Oscar nominations, the most for an actor with no wins (tied with Deborah Kerr). But who needs a win with a body of work this strong: A Letter to 3 Wives, All About Eve, The Mating Season, With a Song in My Heart, Birdman of Alcatraz, Rear Window, & my favorite Ritter film- Pillow Talk:


I adore Thelma Ritter. She is one of the classiest character actors to have lent an individualistic groove across cinema screens of her time. Ritter had cool. She could coolly wither many a co-star away with just one line of dialogue. She played wives, mothers, maids, housekeepers, wise types, tough cookies, working class women. All solidly real women; & all take no lip & mince no words women.

She deserves the Post Apocalyptic Bohemian Award for Coolest Character actor of the 1950s & 1960s. Don't you feel that she deserves it?

Born On This Day- August 7th... Actor John Glover

I first made note of John Glover & Meryl Streep in small parts in just 2 scenes in the film Julia (1977). They both made quite an impression in essentially tiny roles. I have watched his career with interest & have enjoyed his performances (most often playing villains) in film & on TV.

Mr. Glover has done extensive stage work on Broadway, Off-Broadway & regional theatre. Highlights for me include an Emmy nominated turn in An Early Frost, one of the first movies to deal with AIDS & in Annie Hall, in another tiny role, he utters to Diane Keaton, the very funny line- "Touch my heart. With your foot." He has had reoccurring roles on Frasier, Law & Order, Brothers & Sisters, Heroes, & as Lux Luther's father Lionel on Smallville. John Glover received a Tony nomination this year as Lucky in Waiting For Godot. For me the apex of his long career was playing 2 roles in Love! Valor! Compassion! for which he won the Tony & repeated the role in the film version. I really loved this performance. He lives in NYC with his long time partner- sculptor Adam Kurtzman.

Born On This Day- September 3rd... Actor Elileen Brennan

Eileen Brennan is an extremely gifted & versatile actor who is able to produce dramatic depths, like her bone-tired, but amiable waitress in The Last Picture Show (1971), a role she reprised in the sequel Texasville, or comedy heights, such as her tough, masochistic drill captain in Private Benjamin (Oscar nomination 1980), Eileen Brennan managed to move from a lovely musical comedy ingénue (She played the title role in Little Mary Sunshine & was the original Irene Malloy in Hello, Dolly! with Carol Channing) to a well respected film & TV character actress within a decade's time. In 1982, with her Hollywood career in full gear, after a dinner out with Goldie Hawn, she was struck by a car while crossing the street in Hollywood. With courage & spirit, she recovered from her extensive facial & leg injuries, & returned to performing. The unsinkable Ms Brennan survived a bout of alcoholism, an addiction to pain killers following the accident & she is a breast cancer survivor & activist. I love her singing voice (try the underrated At Long Last Love) & her trademark acid retorts perfectly demonstrated is her roles in The Sting & Murder By Death, a favorite of mine- as Zandra, the disparaging acting coach, on Will & Grace. She is a long time favorite of the Husband's.