# Has Any Famous Person Who "Came Out" Ever Truly Surprised You? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 21, 2010, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-any-famous-person-who-came-out-ever-truly-surprised-you/529867 "2010-02-21T13:52:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2010, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-any-famous-person-who-came-out-ever-truly-surprised-you/529867/1 "2010-02-21T13:52:45Z")
I am a gay male, and I have a pretty decent record for knowing (or at least strongly guessing) who is or isn’t gay. Let’s face it I don’t think many of us would be taken by surprise to find out Paul Lynde, or Jim J Bullock or Neil Patrick Harris, or that little kid on “Who’s The Boss,” were gay. I mean I recall looking at a still photo of [George Maharis](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Route_66_(TV_series)) from “Route 66” and saying “Boy that guy is gay.” I will admit when I heard Merideth Baxter was a lesbian, I didn’t see that one coming at all. Though she has been getting rather “butch” in her later years 🙂 So my question is has there ever been a famous person who was either outed or came out and it really took you for a surprise. I know a lot of people seemed to be shocked by Rock Hudson, but that was one I got right off. One I didn’t get was Richard Deacon from “The Dick Van Dyke Show,” and “Leave It To Beaver.” That one I totally missed. To avoid this turning into a “is he/she or isn’t she/he” debate, I would like to stick to those who have come outor reasonably outed. I say that in light of people like Liberace who went to his deathbed denying he was gay and took a lot of effort to conceal the fact even after his death Obviously people like Julius Ceaser and other historical figures are never going to be known. So I’m looking for famous people that truly surprised you when the said they were gay or it was revealed. ---
**Author:** ![Lethal\_Babydoll](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3be4f8/32.png) [@Lethal\_Babydoll](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lethal_Babydoll)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2010, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-any-famous-person-who-came-out-ever-truly-surprised-you/529867/2 "2010-02-21T14:50:00Z")
Neil Patrick Harris. Don’t know why. Julius Caesar wasn’t gay. There’s a lot of knowledge about his life that points to him being a big time womanizer. There’s a famous slander that his opponents used about him being an Eastern king’s “wife” when he was a young man. ---
**Author:** ![aldiboronti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc348/32.png) [@aldiboronti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aldiboronti)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2010, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-any-famous-person-who-came-out-ever-truly-surprised-you/529867/3 "2010-02-21T15:25:56Z")
I was surprised to learn after his death that [Raymond Burr](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raymond_Burr#Personal_life) (of Perry Mason and Ironside fame) was gay. > [@](#): > > Raymond Burr was homosexual, but hid his sexuality for most of his life out of fear that it would damage his career.[7] He was married for all means and purposes except in law for 35 years to Robert Benevides (born 1930), a young actor and Korean war veteran whom Burr had met on the set of Perry Mason.[8] For several years in the 1950s, according to an excerpt from Hiding in Plain Sight, a 2008 biography of Burr written by Michael Starr, another young Korean War veteran named Frank Vitti shared Burr’s home and was identified in some publications as his nephew. ---
**Author:** ![joebuck20](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/74df32/32.png) [@joebuck20](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joebuck20)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2010, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-any-famous-person-who-came-out-ever-truly-surprised-you/529867/4 "2010-02-21T15:29:16Z")
Second Raymond Burr. It’s just hard to imagine Old Ironsides getting it on with another dude. Also Richard Chamberlain. That one really came out of nowhere. ---
**Author:** ![Illuminatiprimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/illuminatiprimus/32/11520_2.png) [@Illuminatiprimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Illuminatiprimus)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2010, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-any-famous-person-who-came-out-ever-truly-surprised-you/529867/5 "2010-02-21T15:37:50Z")
Gareth Thomas - a gay rugby player in the UK. It’s not actually him per se that I found surprising, it’s that anyone in the world of professional sport would ever actually come out whilst they’re still playing. ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2010, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-any-famous-person-who-came-out-ever-truly-surprised-you/529867/6 "2010-02-21T15:49:16Z")
Just scanning [Category:Gay\_actors](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Gay_actors) (both pages) I either didn’t recognize anybody or wasn’t surprised. ---
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2010, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-any-famous-person-who-came-out-ever-truly-surprised-you/529867/7 "2010-02-21T15:55:00Z")
NPH and George Takei. ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2010, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-any-famous-person-who-came-out-ever-truly-surprised-you/529867/8 "2010-02-21T15:57:49Z")
> [@Zeldar](#): > > Just scanning [Category:Gay\_actors](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Gay_actors) (both pages) I either didn’t recognize anybody or wasn’t surprised. The category is filled with theater actors or bit players in TV and movies. Not exactly the names you think of when you hear the term “out actor”. I’m guessing a lot of these Wiki entries were added to by the actors themselves… ---
**Author:** ![middleman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9a140/32.png) [@middleman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/middleman)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2010, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-any-famous-person-who-came-out-ever-truly-surprised-you/529867/9 "2010-02-21T15:59:03Z")
Though she has never been real closeted, Portia De Rossi was the most surprising. I find it hilarious that the two best characters on TV, Barney Stinson (HIMYM) and Veronica Palmer, are both convincing hetero, sexually aggressive tomkats, yet both are played by gay actors. M.B. Birney also shocked me a bit. ---
**Author:** ![enomaj](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/59ef9b/32.png) [@enomaj](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enomaj)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2010, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-any-famous-person-who-came-out-ever-truly-surprised-you/529867/10 "2010-02-21T16:31:05Z")
Not shocked but surprised by Wanda Sykes. ---
**Author:** ![delphica](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e9a140/32.png) [@delphica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/delphica)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2010, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-any-famous-person-who-came-out-ever-truly-surprised-you/529867/11 "2010-02-21T16:36:06Z")
While looking over that list, I was in fact surprised to find out that Tab Hunter is _still alive_. I could have sworn he was in one of the Academy Award Death Montages a few years ago. I remember being surprised when Sophie Ward came out. ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2010, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-any-famous-person-who-came-out-ever-truly-surprised-you/529867/12 "2010-02-21T16:50:30Z")
It’s said, though he never came out, that actor Van Johnson, all-American boy in countless peppy movies, was gay. Surprise! ---
**Author:** ![MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c0e974/32.png) [@MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MPB_in_Salt_Lake)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2010, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-any-famous-person-who-came-out-ever-truly-surprised-you/529867/13 "2010-02-21T17:05:07Z")
Jim J Bullock?!? ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2010, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-any-famous-person-who-came-out-ever-truly-surprised-you/529867/14 "2010-02-21T17:21:39Z")
Not just surprised but horrified when the word started getting out that James Dean was at least bi, if not full-blown gay. It had to have been at least 20 years before my teenage idol became the prized possession of the Gay Community. Since then, nobody’s being outed or outing himself or herself has been a surprise. I read such things as [Film Actors: Gay Male](http://www.glbtq.com/arts/film_actors_gay.html) with a measure of indifference. I just think it would be a real neat thing if the declarations would shift from sexuality to whether or not you put cream in your coffee, and have that determine whether you can get a job, get married, or get drummed out of Congress or a governorship. ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2010, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-any-famous-person-who-came-out-ever-truly-surprised-you/529867/15 "2010-02-21T17:24:47Z")
In general I’m clueless about such things, but one of the ones that I was surprised about was Sarah Paulson. ---
**Author:** ![halfliquid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a88e57/32.png) [@halfliquid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/halfliquid)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2010, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-any-famous-person-who-came-out-ever-truly-surprised-you/529867/16 "2010-02-21T17:33:08Z")
Reading about Meredith Baxter floored me, especially her having been married so many times and having children. I used to think of her as my ‘fantasy mom.’ ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2010, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-any-famous-person-who-came-out-ever-truly-surprised-you/529867/17 "2010-02-21T17:34:19Z")
The only person I can think of that made me think “wow, really?” is John Barrowman. ---
**Author:** ![middleman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9a140/32.png) [@middleman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/middleman)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2010, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-any-famous-person-who-came-out-ever-truly-surprised-you/529867/18 "2010-02-21T18:10:10Z")
> [@MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](#): > > Jim J Bullock?!? I almost made the same joke! ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2010, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-any-famous-person-who-came-out-ever-truly-surprised-you/529867/19 "2010-02-21T18:12:15Z")
Living in New Jersey, Governor Jim McGreevey. I read it on the Internet and made such a noise that someone two offices away asked me what was going on. Talk about falling into a Twilight Zone episode. ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2010, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-any-famous-person-who-came-out-ever-truly-surprised-you/529867/20 "2010-02-21T18:26:12Z")
> [@enomaj](#): > > Not shocked but surprised by Wanda Sykes. Same here. Raymond Burr would not have guessed. Surprised Tony Randall \*wasn’t \*gay. He was a hetero horndog. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-any-famous-person-who-came-out-ever-truly-surprised-you/529867.md?page=2)