Gay flings in old Hollywood

Lesbian stars- Julie Andrews and Carol Burnett have been a couple since the 1970's. Matt Damon and Ben Affleck.

Whoops you said old Hollywood.

Gary Cooper and Anderson Lawler.

Cliff Robertson and Rod Taylor ?

If I woke up and saw a pair of boobs , I would just die.

Cary Grant and Randolph Scott.

Lassie and Rin-Tin-Tin

William Eythe and Lon McAllister.

Joan Crawford and Director Dorothy Arzner.

Janet Gaynor and Mary Martin.

Tony Perkins-Paul Newman.

R11, when did that happen?

In the 50s. It's mentioned in one of the two biographies, but I'm afraid I can't remember which. I think it wasn't a major affair, but it was more than a one-off encounter.

Lilyan Tashman made a pass at Irene Mayer Selznick in a ladies' powder room.

Richard Pryor and Marlon Brando, apparently

Danny Kaye and Lord Laurence Olivier.

R12, if you google both names together you'll come up with a number of hits. Nothing definitive, but similar to what was in the biography. Who knows what's true?

Tony Perkins got some primo dick!

r12, believe it started shortly before or after Newman got married. Supposedly Newman was staying at the Chateau Marmont hotel and saw Tony in the pool. He went over and chatted and within the hour they were in bed. Pretty hot stuff.

Cooking for Tony.

I want Joanne Woodward to spill all the tea!

Pics of Tony Perkins dick?

I have heard that James Dean was gay or bi.

Steve McQueen allegedly fucked the hell out of Paul Newman.

r18 - love it! What was he cooking, sausage?

Lucky bastard.

Marlon Brando and Wally Cox Marlon Brando and Truman Capote

Liberace and a variety of men

Sal Mineo and James Dean

Paul Newman and Robert Wagner

Lana Turner and Ava Gardner

Joan Crawford and Marilyn Monroe

Guy Madison and Rory Calhoun

John Ireland and Montgomery Clift

Paul Newman and Brandon deWilde

Robert Mitchum and Charles Laughton

I'm trying to research which old Hollywood stars were banging each other. Unfortunately the field of study has been shat over by terrible writers such as Darwin Porter. Unless it's in a trustworthy autobiography I remain skeptical of many claims

Merv Griffin and Ryan

I suspect Leonard Bernstein and Andre Watts.

R11, it didn't.

Claudette Colbert and Dietrich?

Tallulah Bankhead and Hattie McDaniel

Rory and Guy?

Farley Granger and Leonard Bernstein

Robert Wagner and Clifton Webb

Heard somewhere that Jack Webb who played Joe Friday on Dragnet had numerous flings with his younger male guest stars. Also heard that Martin Milner got a career boost with his help in return maybe for a encounters in the sack. Maybe George Maharis too.

Gene Kelly would choose a young male dancer from the chorus to bed during each movie he made.

Director John Ford also chose a young actor or male extra to sleep with during each of his movies. He was usually roughing it on location since he did many Westerns.

(BTW, both were married with children.)

I think both were also strict Catholics too, especially Gene Kelly, weren't they r34? I had never heard that about either one, but somehow I find it believable.

Anthony Perkins and Grover Dale

Montgomery Clift and that guy who played Jimmy Olsen on the old Superman tv show

Jack Larsen ^^^^died recently

Franklin Pangborn and Edward Everett Horton

Gavin Gordon and Edward Everett Horton

(oh sorry, that was a LT relationship, not a fling. carry on!)

Married, there'd be Gavin Gordon Horton.

Tab and Nureyev

Valentino and Navarro

Director Nicholas Ray fucked both Sal Mineo and Natalie Wood while filming Rebel Without a Cause.

Laura Hope Crews and Jessie Royce Landis.

R18, I believe Joanne Woodward is either in that photo or just out of frame.

Farley Granger and Arthur Laurents.

Fred Flintstone and Barney Rubble.

very clever, R45.

r43 That is Joanne Woodward bending over behind Newman's arm in the picture at r18

Dorothy Arzner made several passes at Merle Oberon on the set of FOREVER AND A DAY (1943). But Merle liked bones in her fish and wasn’t having any of it. There is a photo of the two of them on set and Merle looks very uncomfortable next to her.

Not FOREVER AND A DAY, but FIRST COMES COURAGE...

[quote]Merv Griffin and Ryan

Right. When I think "old Hollywood," Ryan Seacrest is the first name that comes to mind.

For me it's Andre Watts and Leonard Bernstein. So Old Hollywood.

[quote] When I think "old Hollywood," Ryan Seacrest is the first name that comes to mind.

Me too!

I heard once that Tommy Kirk's 15 year old boyfriend that got him kicked out of Disney was Luke Halpin of Flipper.

Didn't Tommy Kirk become a makeup artist in Hollywood?

Van Johnson and......

Burt and Ernie

r55 Van Johnson and Peter Lawford

Merv Griffin and Peter Lawford

What would be fun here would be a topic thread that's a chain of old Hollywood LGB flings, like Starwave's "Romantically Linked" in 1996. OP starts with a statement of game rules -- the comment immediately after a star's name must contain the name of a Hollywood personality (including producers, wardrobe designers, composers, directors) or entertainment celebrity (so we can include Mercedes de Acosta, Libby Holman, Pepi :Lederer, etc) who had a fling with the abovementioned star.

Example -- I start with "Shelley Winters" and r1 follows with "Frank Sinatra," r2 follows with "Ava Gardner", r3 with "Artie Shaw", et cetera.

In the "who knows" category.

Lancaster and Brando

Lawford and Mineo

Errol Flynn and Tyrone Power

We tend to forget how attractive Anthony Perkins was when he was young. Sweet face, really, and a very nice lean muscular bod.

No idea about the package, but the odds are good that some of our eldergays have a report.

On the old "Van Johnson, Golden Age Queen" thread someone claimed Van had an affair with Richard Carlson

Well if you've seen "the lovely Mrs. Richard Carlson," can you blame him?

Helen Lawson and Greer Garson and Joan Crawford and Fay Bainter and Hattie McDaniel and Butterfly McQueen and Hope Emerson and Marie Windsor. Helen is such a slut. Oh I forgot -- and Vivian Vance.

Well according to the book Merv Griffin: A Life in the Closet, Merv had his share of old Hollywood stars.

What I didn't know was that Merv lost his virginity to Judy Garland.

r53 - That doesn't quite work out. Supposedly Tommy Kirk was 22 when the incident happened and if it was a 15 year old that would make a 7 year age difference. Luke halpin was only five years younger than Tommy. In addition, Luke was Florida based and Tommy was California based. So unless I got Tommy's age wrong itseams that it was someone other than Luke Halpin.

R63, Darwin Porter. Fiction.

[quote] Robert Mitchum and Charles Laughton

Yuk!

I knew Merv was gay, but if I didn't the Judy story would have been the giveaway. Did Judy ever fuck a straight man?

R66, doubt it, but RM was rumored to be a rent boy early on for Clifton Webb.

Frank Faylen and Frank Jenks and Alan Jenkins

Heard that Clifton Webb was like the Kevin Spacey of yesteryear - he offer to "help" young actors in exchange for sex.

Clifton Webb was first famous as a song-and-dance man on Broadway and in "Ziegfeld Follies" before Hollywood came a-calling. He probably cut a swath through NYC's chorus boys too.

R66

Laughton lusted after Mitchum who would let just about anyone suck his cock. Mitchum admired Laughton's talent and unlike Clark Gable 20 years earlier wasn't bothered in the least by the older homosexuality.

Van Johnson & Keenan Wynn

Spring Byington & Marjorie Main

Francis Taylor (Liz' dada) & Adrian (costume designer)

Errol Flynn & Sabu

Mary McCarty & Margaret Lindsay

Marjorie Main was a big licker!

"Them redheaded men ..... they're fierce !"

Bob Calhoun & Farley Granger

Paul Newman and Marlon Brando..

Abbott and Costello

Sal Mineo and Bobby Sherman

Rock Hudson & George Nader

Rock Hudson & Lee Majors

Lee Majors & Ryan O'Neal

Liberace and Mr. Ed

Mr. Ed and Wilbur

Andy and Barney

Jack Webb?! Never heard that one before.

George Cukor and Aldo Ray.

How come Rock Hudson was not mentioned.

Rock supposedly hooked up with lots of extras and bit players on his movies

R84 I wonder if the men who slept with Rock Hudson are HIV? The list expands after...

Any of Angela Lansbury’s husbands and Cesar Romero.

In 1961 a college acquaintance , pretty flambouyant for a “straight guy” , who had spent the summer in Ca, reported that he saw APerkins tie a knot in his dick - can’t validate this but this was the son of a wealthy Kansas City family who did have connections, so possible. In addition APerkins did look like a long dicked kind of guy (I fell in love with Perkins in”Friendly Persuasion)

Preposterous.

Yes, Perkins had a handsome face and a nice body but I really don’t see the likes of Paul Newman being attracted to him. He was so wimpy.

Not sure machismo is a prerequisite for being a bottom, r98

[R83]--Sal supposedly was Bobby's "mentor." Yeah...mentor.

Harry Belafonte and Farley Granger

The thing is, R99, Paul Newman was apparently a bottom when he played for our team.

So Rock would not have dated Sal Mineo? What about Tony Randall? Tony did not Marry till he was about 70...seems desperate.

R102, well Tony Perkins was a bottom, too....

r103 Randall married his first wife when he was 18. The marriage lasted 54 years until her death. Randall was 75 when he married his 25-year-old second wife. They had two children. Randall wasn't gay.

Some may have previously been mentioned

Paul Newman fooled around with many of his male co-stars as well as crew members on his films, including Steve McQueen, Robert Redford, and Tom Cruise

Gary Cooper and several casting directors, studio execs and actors before and during his early silent years, including George O'Brien, who matched Cooper in endowment. O'Brien was also linked to Spencer Tracy for a short time.

Young Marion Morrison was no stranger to the casting couch, playing with casting agents, directors and anyone else who could give him a break into show business, before he became famous as John Wayne

Silent-era cowboy William S. Hart was gay, deeply closeted and forced by the studios to marry a young starlet. The two had one child but afterward she quickly filed for a separation and divorce, reportedly on the grounds of fraud and "morals". Hart, one of the biggest box office names of the silent era, reported chased after younger cowboy actors as well as "chicken"

In the mid-70’s I met a man at the Club Baths in New York. Though he said he was then a Long Island State patrolman, he added he had tried to be a model in Hollywood back in about 1960, where he met Rod Taylor at a cocktail party , and they became fuck buddies for about a year.

It might be more efficient to identify actors/hollywood types who never had a single gay fling.

R104, that’s entirely my point. If Newman and Perkins were both bottoms then no bueno in the boudoir.

Rock hudson and Lee Majors

Phillip Terry and Robert Taylor

George O’Brien was a hot piece for real.

r106, I didn't know William S. Hart's wife cited "fraud" in the divorce - I guess he was the Kenny Chesney of yesteryear

Burt Lancaster and Helmut Berger

When did Berger hook up with Lancaster?

Lancaster and Clift supposedly hooked up during the filming of "From Here to Eternity".

Blanche Yurka, who played Madame Defarge in 1935's "A Tale of Two Cities" had a long-time relationship with another actress of the silent era and into the 30s, Florence Reed.

It's been here mentioned before, but Spencer Tracy's romance with Katherine Hepburn was supposedly a studio invention to hide the fact that they were both gay.

If Lancaster and Berger did hook up I bet he threw him a mean fuck and then punched him before kicking him out the door. Berger was eminently disposable as a piece of ass.

Not a fling, just a rough fuck in the men’s room: Billy Haines and Clark Gable. Gable got George Cukor fired as the director of GWTW because he knew...

Cary Grant and Orry-Kelly, Oscar winning costume designer for films like Casablanca, Now Voyager, Irma la Douce, and Some Like it Hot. Just finished watching “Women I’ve Undressed” on Netflix. Recommended.

Charles Laughton was a scat queen. Did Robert Mitchum shit on him? Wondering if there’s a connection - Mitchum proposed to his wife by saying, “Stick with me, kid, and you’ll be farting through silk.”

Dominick Dunne and Gardner McKay (Stranger In Paradise), Peter Lawford, and Frederick Coombs (Boys in the Band)

Walter Pidgeon and Spencer Tracy and any number of Scotty Bower’s rent-a-gents from the gas station.

Allan Nazimova ans Ona Munson

Not Old Hollywood, but re Dominick Dunne: he and Stephen Sondheim knew each other beginning in college. Anything between them?

Joaquin Phoenix was living with his boyfriend for many years, the guy from the band Spacehog.

They were at Williams at the same time, R120, but no idea if they got it on.

thanks, R118/122.

The Gay Blades of Hollywood

[quote]Homosexuality is so much in fashion it no longer makes news. Like a large number of men, I, too, have had homosexual experiences and I am not ashamed. I have never paid much attention to what people think about me. But if there is someone who is convinced that Jack Nicholson and I are lovers, may they continue to do so. I find it amusing.

Nicholson and Brando!?

Is/was Joanne Woodward bi?

Paul Newman and Brandon de Wilde

I don't know if the Spencer Tracy/ George O'Brien romance ever happened, but, my, oh, my, George was a handsome fellow.

A more revealing photo of George.

Any gay flings from the silent era? I know some of the stars back then - like Ramon Novarro and Billy Haines - were gay

r131 "Big" Bill Tilden and Charlie Chaplin

Marlon Brando and French actor Christian Marquand.

Brando named his son after his gay lover.

R131 see 106

Katherine Hepburn & Judy Garland

Someone above mentioned Van Johnson and Keenan Wynn. Yes, they were a thing but the story is weirder than that. When LB Mayer told Johnson he had to get married, Keenan and his wife got a quickie divorce and she immediately married Johnson. The three had some strange thruple relationship in the years following. I don't remember the details but it's easily googled.

R63 - Merv Griffin must have been a 6+ on the Kinsey scale if he wrote in his memoirs that he lost his virginity to Judy Garland.

Someone above mentioned Burt Lancaster & Helmut Berger (who was Luchino Visconti's long term lover until his death). Anyway, here is an alluring still from Visconti's Conversation Piece (1974) with Lancaster looking at Berger's package.

R63, The Porter book also claims that Merv had a one night stand with Frank Sinatra.

Didn't everyone, r63?

yeah, but MERVE?

DL fav Mary Wickes was a muncher.

If Spencer Tracy was long-married with two kids why would the studio have to make up a fake romance with Kate Hepburn to ward off gay rumors?

What about Bob Cummings? Even though he had a long marriage that produced a slew of kids, gay rumors seemed to follow him.

There are probably not that many adults who haven't at least once known the pleasure of boiling their undergarments in a soup pot on the stove. Good times.

whoops! so sorry. ^^^ was intended for the festive "I have crabs" chain.

The Merv Griffin bio was another Darwin Porter creation. And as I've posted several times, I just cannot believe a word that man writes. He'll write long lines of dialogue between two supposed lovers (both long dead), but cites no sources. How does he know what was said in the privacy of their bedrooms? Who were the eyewitnesses? He'll make claims that so-and-so had an on-set tryst, but provides no supporting evidence, witnesses, or claimants. How are we supposed to accept these bios as fact?

Again, the Tracy-Hepburn "romance" was not a studio invention, it didn't become public until the sixties or seventies, after Tracy's death and the end of the Studio Era.

During Tracy's lifetime and the studio era he was publicized as a devoted family man, and his alcoholism and separation from his wife and kiddies were hushed up. His relationship with Hepburn was officially that of friends and colleagues, and the extremely late revelation of the "romance" didn't benefit his career at all, and hers very little. By the time it came out her career was slowing down and everyone had long accepted her butchy persona.

Berger also claimed to have fucked Mick Jagger.

I have a feeling Berger lied often about his encounters. He must have creeped out several potential sex partners and ended up alone at night.

Wasn't it Garson Kanin who first wrote about the Tracy/Hepburn romance in a dual biography after Tracy died? And thereby incurred the wrath of Hepburn who felt her privacy had been invaded? I don't think she ever commented on her relationship with Tracy until at least the late 1980s.

The Tracey/Hepburn relationship was like a father/daughter relationship. Hepburn was pretty much strictly for the ladies.

Did that bitch hedda hopper or whatever her name was ever out gay moviestars back in the day?

Hedda was too busy getting licked by Mary Wickes to care.

Hedda had a gay son, William Hopper of Perry Mason TV fame, so she was sympathetic and discreet about homosexuality.

And though you didn't ask, r153, Louella Parsons, Hopper's arch-rival, had a lesbian daughter Harriet Parsons, a director of mostly minor films in Hollywood in the 1940s and 50s (the exception being the hit Irene Dunne classic I Remember Mama).

And I would think because of those two ladies' ultimate power, other columnists also were wary of homosexual reporting and even innuendo in their columns.

[quote] William Hopper of Perry Mason TV fame

You have to wonder what William and Ray got up to once they were done filming for the day, or during a break, or whenever.

I've heard that about William Hopper, but I've never seen anything to back it up. As much as I'd like it to be true, it smacks of wishful thinking.

R155, you're nuts, Hedda Hopper threatened to out gay celebs, regardless of her closeted gay son.

I'm surprised there's no Lena Horne - Ava Gardner romance mention in this thread. So lets' go to the Lena Horne - Jinx Falkenburg affair. It happened in New York, not Hollywood. Lena always had her eyes open and her gay husband didn't care.

Lena was a licker?

Anthony Perkins was a cute twink.

"I've heard that about William Hopper, but I've never seen anything to back it up. As much as I'd like it to be true, it smacks of wishful thinking."

What were you expecting - a sex tape?

[quote][R63] - Merv Griffin must have been a 6+ on the Kinsey scale if he wrote in his memoirs that he lost his virginity to Judy Garland.

I SINCERELY DOUBT this ever happened.

It's even too gay to be reported HERE!

Katherine Hepburn was Judy's neighbor in the late 40s and for a time was a friend and helpful listener to Judy's woes as her mental health and marriage to Minnelli crumbled. I think she saw that Judy was very destructive and moved on, I doubt there was any romance. Judy did have brief affairs with women apparently, including her Maid of Honor to her marriage to Minnelli, Betty Asher, who it later was found out was hired by MGM to spy on Judy and report on her drug habit. That I do believe.

I think Hepburn, slightly aided by Garson Kanin, invented the "secret romance" angle with Spencer Tracy, mostly after Tracy's death and she dined out on it for decades afterward. I am certain theirs was a close friendship, but I think the romance was entirely invented by Hepburn.

Tallulah Bankhead, ever the thrifty type, had Patsy Kelly as her assistant AND lover for awhile. I think Patsy needed the work before her late-in-life career revival!

R54, you might be thinking of Tommy COLE, one of the original Disney “Mickey Mouse Club” Mouseketeers who later became an Emmy-winning makeup artist.

Yes, R164, that's exactly who I was thinking of--thanks.

R159, did you just hatch from an egg?

Judy Garland and Lena Horne

Josephine Baker and Eve Arden

Ethel Waters and Marilyn Miller

Arthur Laurents and Monty Clift

Debbie Reynolds and Agnes Moorehead

Nick Adams and Elvis (Adams also slept with James Dean, Sal Mineo and George Hamilton)

Tallulah Bankhead and Billie Holiday (Tallulah also slept with Dietrich, Joan Crawford, Stanwyck, Lynn Fontanne, Estelle Winwood, Josephine Baker, Hattie McDaniel, Lena Horne, Elsa Lanchester, Vera Zorina, etc)

That's Lena Horne and Tallulah Bankhead, not Judy Garland you fool.

Ethel Waters and Marilyn Miller?!? They didn't even LIKE each other.

Mmhmmm

Arthur Laurents and Farley Granger.

Any scoop on Allen Ludden, Ann B. Davis, Joe Flynn or other lesser personalities ?

Yes, r172. Massive Pussyhounds. Big Bush supporters.

It would be a major shame if Brandon de Wilde and Paul Newman didn't fuck.

Katharine Hepburn & Greta Garbo had a fling. Apparently Garbo tried to come on to Mae West who was flattered but said that her body was "strictly for the fellows".

Laurence Olivier and Richard Burton

Eddie Fisher and Richard Burton

Not exactly Old Hollywood but Matthew Broderick and Liberace.

What?!!! When the hell did that happen?

Matthew wasn't Liberace's type. Not true.