Tony Randall & Jack Benny: gay or not gay?

What do you think?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQFrUuHgqYg&feature=related

I read that when Tony was a contestant on password the answer was "flaming" and the guest just kept repeating "you" to Randall.
They were as gay as my fudge-packing 9-incher.
I wonder why we never hear anything about them being gay. I guess because they never ever did anything to give anyone "evidence," aside from being quite feminne. But in those days a man being feminine did not indicate homosexuality to the general populace. Even in the 80's women still insisted that Liberace was straight.
r1 made me laugh out loud. Tony Randall had to be the gayest "straight" man in all of history.
"Yoooouuuuu...." Peter Griffin to Tony Randall on Password. Tony: "Actor?" Peter: "YOOOOUUUUUUUUUUUU....." Tony: "Tony?"
Young Tony naked. Not bad at all.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_VMSXOjVIoU4/TIGeHUPl2AI/AAAAAAAABcM/ARdGCShkTY4/s1600/Randal 01.jpg
Johnny Carson was a guest on the Jack Benny Program in the early sixties. During their opening routine, Johnny said that when he was an usher at NBC, and Jack was its biggest star, Johnny started to emulate Jack's mannerisms...his walk, his swinging arms, his folded arms...and it didn't work out so well when NBC decided to make Johnny an usherette instead of an usher. So Jack's [childish epithet posted by a bigoted tool] mannerisms were joked about while he was alive. Whether his mannerisms included taking it in the face is still unknown to the general public.
Both Randall and Benny were straight. Why would this be a subject for a poll, and why in the world would these two be linked, of all people? Randall has been discussed repeatedly on the DL. Benny played off the slightly fey persona, among other characteristics (miserliness, fussiness, vanity) of his stage character but was known to have an eye for the ladies. Mary Livingstone kept him on a short leash (as Lucille Ball said) after they were married.
Who knows ? It's been well documented that Lawrence Olivier had an affair with (ugh) Danny Kaye. Olivier was a stunner in his day (check 'Wuthering Heights'), Kaye, frankly was hideous looking. I digress. The point is, almost every mainstream star back then had a wife -whether or not he was gay, or not. So bottom line, we'll never really know. They're all dead, and anyone they may have slept with is too. Speculate all you want, it can never be proven anymore.
Tony%20Randall.....hehehehe
Young Tony Randall in MISTER PEEPERS is a wonderful discovery. He played the slightly overbearing history teacher who was best friend to Wally Cox. Randall had a gift for making obnoxious behavior endearing.
I have a friend who did a show with Tony Randall. She said he was a prick to everyone.
R9, I think Danny Kaye was very appealing when he was young. No, he was not a Ken-doll bland pretty boy or a handsome leading-man type. But he was tall and lean and funny and had a big nose, big ears, big hands, and big feet, and I'm guessing he was both fun and hot in bed.
I used to see TR all the time on the C train. He always got on at 68th St and CPW. He must've lived near there. He was married to his first wife for 50 years, then married that 25 year old and had two kids before he died.
Jack Benny had a brief but intense love affair with actress Ann Sheridan, while the two worked on the comedy "George Washington Slept Here."
Rochester
In the 1940s Jack Benny made one the first ever references to homosexuality on National Radio. His line was "When I was in the army, they tried to assign us to jobs that reflected our personalities... I was on a ferry"
Both were gayer than a Christmas tree full of Christopher Radko ornaments.
"I wonder why we never hear anything about them being gay." Speak for yourself. Did you know that Randall was also Jewish? Could you "tell?"
Anyone can pretend to "have an eye for the ladies." Don't fall for that bullshit. Some of the greatest "hetero Lotharios" I've known were actually gay.
I remember hearing somewhere that Tony Randall was at least bi, and made an obvious point of hitting on women just to throw people off the scent.
Tony Randall may have been bi, but he chased women, too and fathered children with his very young wife late in life. I actually met him a few times, and he was not nearly as fey in RL as he was on the screen. He played the implied-to-be-gay character in romantic comedies. He also played a gloss on that character in the tv show "Love, Sidney". That was a screen persona. Apparently, Lawrence Olivier was truly bisexual and considered the two great loves of his life Vivian Leigh and Danny Kaye and claimed the two were a lot alike.
bump
[quote]Lawrence Olivier was truly bisexual and considered the two great loves of his life Vivian Leigh and Danny Kaye and claimed the two were a lot alike. Now I'm imagining 'Gone With The Wind' and 'Streetcar Named Desire' with Danny Kaye in the Vivian Leigh roles.
Peter Marshall: According to Tony Randall, "Every woman I've been intimate with in my life has been..." What? Paul Lynde: Bitterly disappointed
When Tony Randall played Harold Hill in THE MUSIC MAN in summer stock (1977) he was a prick towards his leading lady, Linda Michele.
If Benny had been gay, he lived in a time when people were very closeted. I'm not sure Jack would have had a national TV show in the 50's/60's had he been "out." "Cheap" and "Vane" are obvious character humor; It seems strange that he would have chosen to add the [childish epithet posted by a bigoted tool] gestures and walk. As far as his marriage to Mary Livingston,they were writing/acting partners on the show, so it's possible the marriage may have been a business arrangement. Jack and Mary had one adopted daughter, so make what you will of that.
also%20anonymous
Tony looks kinda cute in some of the old "What's My Line?" clips that I've been watching on YouTube.
Back in the days of vaudeville, his friends Willia Haines and others always referred to Jack as 'Mary' Benny.
sdee
Jack Benny was Lucille Ball's next-door neighbor for many years. I remember reading that Mary insisted that Jack and she move to a modern apartment as they aged. Lucy visited and was shocked and sad that Mary had the master bedroom while Jack was forced to sleep in what was known as the very small maid's room (they did not have a maid). Mary wore the pants in the marriage.
They never double penetrated my ass.
Dawson
Agreed, R10. Tony Randall even made Felix Unger almost lovable.
Friend, now dead, knew Tony Randall but would never reveal to me if he was gay. I gather he was but it was very top secret. Remember a fan magazine spread on him in the 1950s when he was rehearsing the dancing part of his role in a B'way musical (Oh! Captain--?). He was wearing only a pair of trunks and had a very hairy chest. Very hot to this 12 year old fey-fey.
Anonymous
Jack Benny was outed in William Mann's book on Billy Haines. While in the Village in the 20s, Jack was part of the Cary Grant, Orry Kelley clique. When Billy's lover said Mary Benny's name, Billy would ask which one?
In my opinion, Tony Randall was a gay man and I don't care if he had 12 wives. I think he was a gay man.
William J. Mann, the author of Wisecracker: The Life and Times of William Haines says the Jack Benny was gay and that Haines and Benny knew each other from their time spent in the Village in New York prior to each moving to Hollywood. Haines was there first, but they appeared in a short talkie together.
http://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3D70kz_8NGuxo
I don't care what anyone says, I think Randall was gay.
I worked with Tony as well, and I don't think he was gay. In person, he didn't really give off a gay vibe. He was more of a patronizing, know-it-all type. He would lecture the cast about what they should be doing, meanwhile he couldn't remember his own lines. I remember the day he brought his very pregnant new wife into rehearsal, and showed her off to the cast. She was his ex-intern, and maybe 50 years younger than him. It was disturbing. I chatted with him about opera once, and then he became friendly to me, so he had a nice side as well.
I've always heard that Randall was a pompous prick. By contrast, Benny was one of the kindest, best-loved men in the entertainment industry.
R34 I'm currently reading Wisecracker. The dirt on Benny was surprising, but you could have knocked me over with a feather when it comes to the claim about Caesar Romero!
Young Tony Randall naked. He wasn't bad at all in his youth.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_VMSXOjVIoU4/TIGeHUPl2AI/AAAAAAAABcM/ARdGCShkTY4/s1600/Randal 01.jpg
A friend did summer stock with Tony Randall and Ann Bancroft in the 1950s or early 1960s. There was a scene where Ann had to give a payoff to Tony Randall. In rehearsal he would move upstage so she had to turn her back on the audience to hand him the money. Opening night she walked on stage wearing a huge picture hat so Tony was completely blocked by the hat. He did not speak to her for years after that.
Just getting familar with these two. Both were very good at what they did. I don't think either was gay though.
You are cool jack Benny do you have kids
annakeiah
Sorry, but Danny Kaye was HOT.
I would say yes he paid me for sex years ago
[quote]I wonder why we never hear anything about them being gay. Unlike Merv Griffin and Liberace, Randall and Benny didn't get taken to court by guys they slept with.