Gay actor Laurence Harvey

"The Magic Christian" is pure camp. The fun starts at 2:21 He was probably smashed out his mind when he made this one.

Frank Sinatra was particularly vicious in his opinion of Harvey. Sinatra was aware of Harvey's sexuality but did not mind, passing it off as a joke: “He has the handicaps of being a homo, a Jew, and a Polock*, so people should go easy on him.”

Was sexy on a stick in The Manchurian Candidate.

He had the longest neck of any male actor.

He was also sexy in "I Am A Camera."

Surprisingly, so was Julie Harris.

HOT!

[R2] - Sinatra was a wop turd.

He couldn't keep his accent straight, so to speak, in The Mamchurian Candidate.

R9 Yes the stag film 8mm porn version of the Manchurian Candidate. Seeing a gay man like Harvey suckle on two mams was beyond shocking.

Harvey did a marvelous star turn on Rod Serling's Night Gallery. It co-starred his good friend Joanna Pettet. He supposedly stayed off his pain meds for his cancer during this performance. Written by Rod Serling the episode was named "The Caterpillar" and it has a particularly horrific twist ending. One justifiably cruel one even for Night Gallery.

Harevy did not get along with many of his female co-stars. Jane Fonda, Lee Remick, Shirley MacLaine, Kim Novak, Capucine, all have singled him out as the one co-star they did not like working with.

An 18-year old Joan Collins begged boyfriend Laurence Harvey to deflower her, but he turned her down, saying "No, you mustn't do this—you're not ready." He took her to a party and introduced her to Hermione Baddeley, who sneered, "If this is the new Jean Simmons, as Larry's told me, Jean has nothing to worry about—you haven't got her looks or her talent." When Joan discovered that he lived with this "old bag" she ran for the hills. She had lost any interest in him after that.

Capuchine too?

That Night Gallery episode is excellent, and his performance elevates it even further. Yikes!

R11 I like Hermione Baddeley, but she had to be one of Hollywood's ugliest fag hags at the time. Harvey was looking for a mother figure, but I guess no one ever told him you didn't have to fuck her or live with her to have that.

Many consider The Caterpillar to be the best Night Gallery episode of all time. Rod Serling did an interesting role reversal in his teleplay. In the original story, the married man wanted to use "The Caterpillar" not the Harvey character. To be honest, it might have been Harvey's best performance. He added a film quality to the episode that was added by the all British cast.

This piece was too good to pass up. Liz drove Harvey crazy:

With her famous sapphire-blue eyes glistening with tears, and her beautiful face a picture of concern, Elizabeth Taylor swept into the home of actor Laurence Harvey and prepared to say her final goodbyes to him as he lay dying of stomach cancer at the age of just 45.

Flying from Hollywood to London to see her friend was a touching gesture, but Harvey was apprehensive about Taylor's visit on that autumn day in 1973. In the 13 years since they starred together in the film Butterfield 8, she had so drained him with her long and dramatic telephone calls concerning her rocky relationships and many physical agonies that he felt he couldn't handle her in his weakened state.

By many accounts he was generally a cold, unpleasant man, no doubt due to being very ambitious but gay. I get the feeling he didn't do a lot a acting in ROOM AT THE TOP or MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE.

r17 I actually think he stretched himself professionally in "Butterfield 8."

R17, Laurence Harvey was the kindest, bravest, warmest, most wonderful human being I've ever known in my life.

The worst young actor of the Angry Young Man set. But then again, he was a terrible actor by any standard.

r19 You're a laugh riot. Miss Thing is quoting from "The Manchurian Candidate."

Ryan Seacrest bought his house in Hollywood. Seacrest is probably hoping a little of Harvey's spiritual 'residue' is left in the old place.

He doesn't ping at all in this pic:

r23 Are you serious? He looks like what was left in a gay bar in 1970 after the lights came up.

[R2] Francis Albert was wrong. LH was born in Lithuania, not Poland.

In 1955 he married actress Margaret Leighton, six years his senior.

In 1968 he married Joan Perry, seventeen years his senior.

Harvey had a serious mother complex.

R25, maybe Frank had an old history textbook.

R37, did he resell it?

r2 Francis Albert had room to talk: his mother was the town abortionist known as "Hat Pin Dolly.' Yes, it was in Kelley's biography, but my great-aunt knew her and swore it was true.

Spade shaped fingernails = common stock.

r20 I've always preferred "French Tips" myself.

The Manchurian Candidate is one of my favorite movies. I especially love Frank and Janet Leigh in it. They both were going through real pain in private and it shows on the screen. Certainly one Frank's best acting roles. Didnt he suppress this one for years after the JFK assassination? Maybe that's why I didn't see it until I was an adult. Or was that Suddenly?

R32, That was the rumor; however, Sinatra didn't own the rights to the film until 1972. It was shown on network television in 1965 and again in 1974; but, there was a lack of public interest both times, so MGM/UA never bothered with it again until the 1987 theatrical re-release got everyone excited about it again.

R32, yes, Frank and Janet were great, but I can't believe you mention The Manchurian Candidate's cast without noting Angela Lansbury's brilliant performance.

BTW, R32 (or anyone who knows), am I crazy or is there a VERY odd scene on a train in which Frank and Janet meet at the end of a train car and share a cigarette or something and Janet says something really bizarre about having worked on the railroad (as though she were actually an undercover Korean spy who had tricked Sinatra into thinking she was a beautiful blonde American woman). It always struck me as truly bizarre because the comment was never picked up on again throughout the film. Am I completely misremembering? Anyone know what the hell I'm talking about?

Laurence Harvey was a gorgeous young man. I can't believe he aged so badly. Or perhaps it was his illness that made him look like that.

Sinatra was po'd at Harvey because his then wife Mia Farrow was making a movie with him in London. The director of the film died while filming and Mia refused to fly back to Frank and finish the picture. For some reason Sinatra blamed Harvey. Movie mags at the time hinted at Larry's gayness by saying he was one man Frank had no worries about stealing Mia.

r35 I think it was the alcohol and cigarettes that did it.

R23 - most guys I have known with that fingernail shape have big cocks.

This was posted on the Lana Wood thread, but I thought it was most appropriate here too:

Wagner is one of the hottest men I've ever seen up close in my life and it appears that he's keeping himself in great shape. I would have hit that hard in the day. An old timer in Palm Springs claims he caught Wager and Laurence Harvey fucking in the men's area of the Aqua Caliente Spa back in the day. No idea if its true but he swears by it and the imagery is pretty hot.

Lana Wood was once married to her PP co-star Stephen Oliver. I think it lasted....a month.

. . . .

He also starred with Elizabeth Taylor in the movie "Night Watch" in 1973, one of Liz's better later films . . . though hard to find.

"Laugh-In" made a crack about his bisexuality in a 1968 episode, so it was well-known among Hollywood insiders. The joke was about Harvey winning "mixed doubles" by himself in tennis. I doubt if many viewers caught on back then.