Point taken, Baker.
Marathon Man director John Schleinger has said in an interview in The Advocate that Roy Scheider’s and William Devane’s characters in the film were definitely lovers. Schieder said in a Playboy interview that his character was “fouled up sexually and felt guilty about it.”
James Gandalfini (sp?) played a gay kidnapper/bad guy in The Mexican and probably best known for his work as straight bad guy Tony Soprano in The Sopranos.
Knowing, and caring, nothing about the private sex life of any actor, I was amused to find this quote by Sir John Gielgud. “I’m an actor, of course I can play a heterosexual.”
He played the William Holden part in the remake of Sabrina.
Also, Cher played a lesbian in Silkwood and a straight wome in Mermaids and Moonstruck.
Christian Bale and Ewan McGregor played gay/bi men in Velvet Goldmine. Both are straight in real life, and McGregor played straight in too many movies to mention, as did Bale.
Following Guin’s suggestions, perhaps the most interesting, certainly the most unusual portrayal of a straight guy by Christian Bale would have to in American Psycho.
Steve Buscemi (Mink), John Turturro (Bernie Bernbaum), and J.E. Freeman (Eddie the Dane) played a gay triangle in “Miller’s Crossing”. AFAIK none of these gentlemen are gay.
Minor nitpick. T.E. Lawrence wasn’t gay, and it’s entirely possible that the only sexual experience he had in his life was when he was raped by a Turkish official of some sort during his service in Arabia. This was alluded to in the movie version of his life, and that’s probably what got you confused. See this site and scroll down the page for a discussion of whether or not he was gay.
Andrew Keegan, John Mahoney, Dean Cain, and Zack Braff all play gay characters in The Broken Hearts Club
According to director John Schlesinger, both Roy Scheider’s and William Devane’s characters in Marathon Man were gay.
However, I remember reading Goldmans novelization of the screenplay, and I don’t recall anything that led me to believe that. Maybe I need to go back over it.
BTW, in a recent re-issue of the novel, Goldman said in the intro that he was inspired to make the bad guy a dentist based on his experiences with his own childhood dentist.
cough yeah right.
“yeah right” as in no he doesn’t, or “yeah right” as in yes he does he just doesn’t do it well?
I made no critique, only that he plays a gay character … or are we figuring out that the character isn’t gay (I haven’t seen the show in a while)?
But if he was really gay, then why was he robbing the bank to pay for his boyfriend’s sex change operation?
To make Leon happy. However, IIRC, neither of them were aware that Leon was transgendered before they got married. He married boy bits, and as far as he knew they were staying boy bits.
Actually, I suppose Sonny wasn’t gay after all - he was closer to bisexual, non?
At least, that’s what I got out of it.
Laurence Luckinbill, the husband of Lucie Arnaz, played gay in “The Boys in the Band”.
WHAAA----??? I owned the VHS, own the DVD, I’ve only seen it about 50 times, and I never noticed this. Don’t I feel like the stupid clueless hetero. Can someone familiar with the movie give me an example of a scene or two from the movie in which this is established?
I may be wrong here, but I think John Mahoney actually is gay. He’s the dad on Frasier, right?
No, I have no cite, since I can’t remember where or why I heard this. I do remember being surprised, and then noting the source as fairly reliable, whatever it was.
Dooku, in The Advocate interview that I found online, Schlesinger says that the inference is in the dialogue William Goldman wrote for the film if you listen closely. It’s been too long since I’ve watched the film closely to remember examples (need to watch that great film again anyway).
Peter Finch played gay characters in Sunday, Bloody Sunday and The Trials Of Oscar Wilde.
OK, thanks widdershins - I’ll watch the DVD at some point soon and resurrect this thread with any dialogue that I find that leans in that direction. (I’m not very hopeful, however, since I’ve seen it dozens of times and never noticed…)
Stephen Fry as Oscar Wilde and in Peter’s friends.
of course, he’s not straight, but it might be a help.