LGBT-Friendly classic era stars from the Golden Age Of Hollywood?

For both men and women...

What exactly do you mean "LGBT-friendly"?

Bette Davis and Joan Crawford, for example, both very much liked gay men in private life (and one of Crawford's favorites was William Haines, her longtime decorator) , but they would disparage them to the press back in the day. So would they count?

Judy Garland was one of the few I can think of who never (to my knowledge) disparaged gay men.

Lucy! She had a ton of gay friends

So did Natalie Wood

Gregory Peck was a proud liberal who appeared at the GLAAD Awards later in life

Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward

Why are you looking at me, Darlings?

Is it because I've been known to be liberal and progressive, or is it just because I adore pussy?

Humphrey Bogart greatly liked Noel Coward, it was said.

Elizabeth Taylor, of course. I don't think she ever met a gay man she didn't like, and she did so much for gay men during the AIDS crisis before anyone else famous did.

Richard Burton let himself be passed around among Laurence Olivier, Ralph Richardson, and John Gielgud even though he was technically straight (according to him). Does that count?

R3- I would have licked 👅 his balls and sucked his cock back in 1948.

It seems most people were homophobic back in those days.

Miss Kay Francis surrounded herself with gay men, and even slept with a few.

Myrna Loy, another proud liberal, remained friends with Montgomery Clift at a time when many had dropped him due to his erratic behavior.

This photo was Loy was shot by Clift:

Harold Lloyd was very supportive of his gay son, iirc.

Lana Turner was supportive of her gay daughter

I read that Eddie Albert was quite liberal.

How did Grace Kelly, Vivien Leigh, Hedy Lamarr, Gene Tierney feel about homosexuality?

Vivien Leigh had a lot of gay friends. She supported John Gielgud after his "cottaging" bust

Who were all of the gays that Vivien Leigh got along with?

Was Gary Cooper homophobic?

What do you mean by "men and women", OP? Surely that's transphobic and therefore not T-friendly.

^ Not from what I heard, I know he was friends with Gary Cooper

R23, Noel Coward, Cecil Beaton, John Gielgud, Terence Rattigan (among others)

[quote] I know he was friends with Gary Cooper

Super Duper.

R21 Considering Vivien Leigh was bi, I'm sure she was fine with gay people

Crap, I meant Cary Cooper was friends with Cole Porter

Ava Gardner was friends with Dirk Bogarde and his partner, Tony

Gary Cooper allegedly had a go with roommate Anderson Lawler (pictured with Kay Francis at R13) back in the 1920s when everyone was carefree and gay.

Was John Wayne homophobic?

What were Marilyn Monroe's views on homosexuality?

R33 Yes! He was also homosexual.

John Wayne was nasty to Monty Clift but got along well with Rock Hudson

Elizabeth Taylor didn't get along with Cecil Beaton from what I have heard.

Gary Cooper, Jimmy Stewart, Clark Gable, Henry Fonda among others were all viciously anti-gay. Lesser know actors like Walter Brennan, Ward Bond, Charles Coburn were too

Grace Kelly despised gay men. She was a very nasty piece of work.

R39, where did you hear that?

R37. Who did? Even Garbo had issues with the nasty anti-Semite.

Grace Kelly was close to (gay) agent, Rupert Allen

Grace was close to her gay uncle

I didn't know Grace had a guncle

Stop monopolizing posts by trying to make your hate of “guncle” a relevant or interesting opinion. It is not.

Wasn't right-wing Ginger also cozy with some gays?

Was Jane Wyman homophobic?

Not that I ever heard. Didn't she attend Rock Hudson's funeral

I'm not sure about how Gene Tierney felt about it

Wavishing Kay Fwancis, r14.

[quote]Gary Cooper, Jimmy Stewart, Clark Gable, Henry Fonda among others were all viciously anti-gay.

Source, r38?

r47 Yes. Tommy Kirk said she was really mean and homophobic.

She was very Catholic, r52.

Gary Cooper was far from homophobic. He was bisexual, and early in his career he had a long, close relationship with a man. The studio told him to cut the guy off, and he did, although he was - as told by people who knew him - devastated. After that, I haven't heard anything, but that means he abided by the requisite discretion, by hook or by crook.

Shelly Winters was homophobic

Shelly was bffs with Farley Granger

[quote] What exactly do you mean "LGBT-friendly"?

I refuse to use the term.

Irrelevant then.

Irrelevant now.

[quote] Burton let himself be passed around among Laurence Olivier, Ralph Richardson, and John Gielgud

This is the sort of ridiculous speculation that brings Datalounge into disrepute.

[quote] Gregory Peck was a proud liberal who appeared at the GLAAD Awards later in life

How frequently?

Once? When he led in by his carer?

R57 is such a snowflake to freak out over a term that has been around for 30 years or more

[quote] Considering Vivien Leigh was bi…

More unsubstantiated nonsense.

[quote] Gary Cooper was far from homophobic. He was bisexual, and early in his career he had a long, close relationship with a man.

Who?

His chauffeur?

[quote] Elizabeth Taylor didn't get along with Cecil Beaton from what I have heard.

They never worked together.

But Cecil's diaries mention some froideur with Vivien in the 60s.

[quote] Gary Cooper, Jimmy Stewart, Clark Gable, Henry Fonda among others were all viciously anti-gay.

Gable got George Cukor fired from "Gone with the Wind."

This is likely because Cukor knew that Gable worked as a prostitute during his early days in Hollywood, before he made it big with "Night Nurse." The same dynamic was probably the reason for Cooper's homophobia--he also started out in 20s Hollywood as a gay-for-pay escort (he was from Montana and had to do something to pay the bills), and worried gay men who had heard the rumors or met him in that early period would rat him out.

Tony Curtis was another homophobe who sold his ass on the way up.

[quote] Source, [R38]?

R51 One drunk queen speaking to another drunk queen in a dark bar in 1953

R61, all that proves is that the phrase LGBT has been around quite awhile, before you snowflakes started complaining about it

Why has no one mentioned my idol John Payne?

Or Lew Ayres?

R55/R56: "Shelly Winters"

Oh, fucking dear.

But R55 needs a boot to the ass, because Shelley was a vocal supporter of gays in the business. A friend of mine knew her - and everyone else - and at a party in New York in the 1950s she stopped the action by making a loud point of it when a young gay actor was fired.

Farley Granger was a friend, as noted, and she famously married her gay companion of 20 years when she was 85.

Fuck you, R55, for your pointless hate speech.

[quote] Gary Cooper… had a long, close relationship with a man. The studio told him to cut the guy off…although he was …devastated.

But as Gary Cooper lay on his deathbed he whispered the name 'Randy'.

I haven't read the biography of William Haines. Other than Crawford, which stars used him as their interior decorator?

r74, according to this article:

Billy’s friends were clients: Joan Crawford, Gloria Swanson, Carole Lombard, Rosalind Russell, Constance Bennett, Marion Davies, Lucille Ball, Ann Rutherford, Jack Benny and George Cukor.

Cole Porter, another friend, rented Haines’ Brentwood house. Orry-Kelly was a close pal too.

And also Betsy Bloomingdale and Nancy Reagan

[quote] LGBT-Friendly classic era stars from the Golden Age Of Hollywood?

Next you'll be asking about the Cis-friendly Trans stars from the Golden Age Of Hollywood?

r76, oh, please. LGBT includes gay, lesbian, and bisexual people and there were plenty of those in Old Hollywood. You're just looking for shit to complain about

[quote][italic]Elizabeth Taylor didn't get along with Cecil Beaton from what I have heard.[/italic]

[quote]They never worked together.

I'm not R37 but he's right, R64.

[quote]The Hollywood couple were photographed by Beaton at a party thrown at the Rothschilds' home, Chateau de Ferrières, near Paris in December 1971. Shortly afterwards Beaton wrote in his diary: "I have always loathed the Burtons for their vulgarity, commonness and crass bad taste, she combining the worst of US and English taste, he as butch and coarse as only a Welshman can be."

[quote]He said Taylor had craved compliments during the brief shoot. "She got none. I felt I must be professional and continued, but not without loathing at this monster … Round her neck was a velvet ribbon with the biggest diamond in the world pinned on it.

[quote]”On her fat, coarse hands more of the biggest diamonds and emeralds, her head a ridiculous mass of diamond necklaces."

[quote]Ungallantly, Beaton described Taylor's hair as "sausage curls", adding: "Alexandre, the hairdresser, had done his worst.

[quote]However, his real venom was reserved for Elizabeth Taylor, who he photographed in 1957.

[quote]“She’s everything I dislike,” he wrote.

[quote]“I have always loathed the Burtons for their vulgarity, commonness and crass bad taste, she combining the worst of US and English taste.

[quote]“I treated her with authority, told her not to powder her nose, to come in front of the cameras with it shining.

[quote]“She wanted compliments. She got none. “Don’t touch me like that,” she whined!

[quote]“Her breasts, hanging and huge, were like those of a peasant woman suckling her young in Peru. On her fat, coarse hands more of the biggest diamonds and emeralds...

[quote]“And this was the woman who is the greatest “draw”. In comparison everyone else looked ladylike.”

Lauren Bacall was homophobic

R81, but what about her friendships with Rock Hudson and Roddy McDowall? Did she just ignore their proclivities because they were celebrity peers?

What did Shirley Temple think of homosexuality?

[quote] What did Shirley Temple think of homosexuality?

She was probably fine with it considering The Good Ship Lollipop was all about men sucking each other's cocks.

Doris Day had many gay friends and was devoted to them. Of course, she just blocked that aspect of their lives out of her mind.

R79 Who is that in the photo of the article?

Wasn't Shirley Temple conservative? Her daughter was a semi-famous bass player in punk and metal bands in the 80s-90s.

R62 Vivien Leigh having sex with women and visiting lesbian bars isn't unsubstantiated nonsense. What's next, John Travolta being gay/bi is unsubstantiated nonsense?

Anne Revere was homophobic

Gale Sondergaarrd was awful.

And Henry Daniell was a beast!

R88 Unsubstantiated, undocumented nonsense.

Cary Grant was homophobic

R91 What does your post has to do with Vivien Leigh being bi?

Stanwick, R91, claims Vivien was a 'whore' but not a lesbian.

[quote]Was Jane Wyman homophobic?

She nixed the introduction of a lesbian couple on Falcon Crest.

Rosemary Clooney was like Doris Day in that regard. She had many gay friends and knew they were gay, but turned a blind eye to their love/sex life.

R94 Where in that text does she mentions anything about being or not being a lesbian? Also, I said Vivien was bi, not a lesbian.

[quote] I said Vivien was bi

How can you say Vivien was bi?

[quote] Bette Davis and Joan Crawford, for example, both very much liked gay men in private life (and one of Crawford's favorites was William Haines, her longtime decorator) , but they would disparage them to the press back in the day. So would they count?

Who did Bette like?

Angela Lansbury loved gays. She even married one.

[quote] Harold Lloyd was very supportive of his gay son, iirc.

He was but he blamed his son’s homosexuality on himself for being an absentee father.

Buster Keaton seemed fine with it. Hell, he dressed in drag and displayed his feminine side a million times.

Richard Burton was homophobic

Jeffrey Hunter was homophobic

It's retarded to consider people born in the early 20th century homophobic because they said a few un-PC comments about gays. You all must be Gen Z morons.

Bette and Joan were both very supportive of gay men, I don't give a hang about off hand jokes or comments. Most old Hollywood stars were gay friendly, most of them WERE somewhat gay, for fuck's sake.

R104 uses "retarded" as an insult. Probably a low IQ Trump voter. Baby boomer moron.

[quote] Richard Burton was homophobic

He hated everyone, not just gay people. He was a miserable cunt through and through.

There is NO documentation to say that Vivien ever touched Isabel.

Richard Burton was close to gay men like John Gielgud and Alec Guinness

The alte great Vivian Blaine was pro-gay & pro-AIDS activism in her life/career =

Viv was doing AIDS benefits before some of the more diva stars attached their name to the cause. This is an '83 interview

[quote] Richard Burton was close to gay men like John Gielgud and Alec Guinness

He may have allowed Gielgud to direct him in a New York production 'Hamlet'.

He may have allowed Guinness to support him in that weak film called 'The Comedians'.

But they weren't invited to his private parties and you don't find their names in his personal life in his diaries.

^ That's cool of her, there was a TON of stigma around AIDS back then.

I agree R112. It's hard to believe that the woman performing with such a high voice in R109 is the same as the one in the interview below it.

There is NIL documentary evidence to say that Ursula and Vivien connected.

[quote] Jeffrey Hunter was homophobic

He may have been, but he would have had to put up with them being around because both Barbara Rush and Emily McLaughlin were very accepting of gay people and welcomed them into their homes.

I know Barbara Rush said she loved working with Rock Hudson. So did Doris Day.

I loved working with Rock Hudson.

Bacall wasn't homophobic, she hated everyone equally

Ursula and Vivien:

there's just twelve inches separating their lips.

Mr. & Mrs. Alfred Steele with Jimmy Shields and Billy Haines

These gays...they're trying to murder me!

Haven't you eldergays daydreamed up some secret stories about Phillips Holmes?

R114 What do you mean by connected?

How could Joan be homophobic when she was fucking women?

How could Cary Grant be homophobic when he was fucking men as recently as the early sixties.

Carleton Carpenter said Cary Grant hit on him

I've learned so much from this thread.

Thanks, guys!

R38, Didn’t Jimmy Stewart play a gay man in Rope? And Henry Fonda was in Otto Preminger’s Advise & Consent. It seems odd to say they were viciously anti-gay.

[quote] It seems odd to say they were viciously anti-gay.

R129 We shouldn't expect too much intellectual rigor in a thread written about the dead by the almost-dead.

Why have you omitted my god, George O'Brien?

Greta Garbo was homophobic

Ethel Merman was homophobic

R133 That man must be rolling his waistband downward because his elastic has failed.

George O’Brien is of high interest to me now.

I didn’t think George O’Brien actually played tennis in that loincloth at r133.

Apparently, he did.

R91 That Barbara was a bitch.

R1, liking gay men and women if you are opposite sex is not pro gay , it’s also a form of bigotry.

Ethel Merman wasn't homophobic. She supported gay rights and had many gay friends.

You can't give us a link that "She supported gay rights".

I don't think Clark Gable had the power to have George Cukor fired from GWTW. Cukor himself said he had doubts about how he was doing, and Selznick didn't think he was getting it right (for example, the scene of the Atlanta bazaar had to be completely re-shot by Victor Fleming.) Cukor had done pre-production of the film for over a year. Possibly he was too close to the material, or even burnt out.

R144 That sounds like a reasonable assessment.

There was third director needed on this massive production after a year's pre-production.

Natalie Wood was homophobic

So many accusations without anything to back it up.

[quote]Gary Cooper, Jimmy Stewart, Clark Gable, Henry Fonda among others were all viciously anti-gay.

Jimmy Stewart was also virulently racist. I don't know about Fonda or Cooper, but Gable was not racist at all and frequently attended Hattie McDaniel's parties, where he was one of only a handful of white guests. True story!

Is Katharine Hepburn was gay I wonder what she thought of that homophobic scece in On Golden Pond where Henry Fonda condemns a lesbian couple living close by their lake house.

[quote]I don't know about Fonda or Cooper, but Gable was not racist at all

I know very little about Gary Cooper, but Henry Fonda was not racist. He told the story more than once about how when he was a kid he witnessed a lynching.

[quote]Nebraska-born actor Henry Fonda was 14 years old when the lynching happened. His father owned a printing plant across the street from the courthouse. He watched the riot from the second floor window of his father’s shop.

[quote]"It was the most horrendous sight I’d ever seen . . . We locked the plant, went downstairs, and drove home in silence. My hands were wet and there were tears in my eyes. All I could think of was that young black man dangling at the end of a rope."

[quote]During Fonda’s long career, at least two of his best movies — Young Mister Lincoln and The Ox Bow Incident — featured lynchings as major plot points.

Not race related, but Fonda also had a falling out with his best friend James Stewart over the fact that Stewart had been providing names of suspected Communists to the FBI. I believe Fonda called Stewart a "stupid bastard" and they didn't talk for a few years.

Fonda was pretty liberal, although he did make a homophobic comment about Charles Laughton when they worked together

Jane Fonda was homophobic

"What do you know about men, you fat, ugly faggot!”

Fonda may have been pretty in 1938.

He specialised in playing passive characters.

He never radiated a scintilla of intellect.

"I don't think Clark Gable had the power to have George Cukor fired from GWTW. "

I disagree, I think that if Gable had told Selznick "It's Cukor or me", I think Selznick would have fired Cukor and kept Gable. Gable was the King of Hollywood, the whole world wanted to see him in the role, Selznick didn't have the kind of financial cushion that a studio had, he was always on the financial edge and couldn't afford to waste time and money in court when there was a huge movie to be made.

This doesn't mean that Gable *did* have Cukor fired, just that I think he could have if he'd really wanted to. He probably didn't, Gable wasn't given to throwing his weight around, he usually showed up and did a good job, and if he didn't like his co-star (as happened) he got on with the job.

James Garner was a proud liberal so I can’t imagine him being homophobic.

[quote] I can’t imagine him

The so-called 'Golden Age Of Hollywood' ended around 1954.

So I can’t imagine any of those people would have any idea what a 'LGBT' is.

Was Jean Harlow homophobic?

She held the rights to Terms of Endearment for years to make her big return to films in. She never could get it made though.

She’s usually boring as excement.

She broke up one of Hollywood’s most powerful marriages in her youth and married the producer husband. He then over managed her career to the point where she appeared mostly in boring projects when not tied to his overblown bombs. She still won an Oscar, but her career would have really been better if not shackled to him.

In later life (after marrying another multi millionaire) she had a hairdresser and makeup man drop by the house every morning and do her up. Because she didn’t trust a mortuary to make her look good for an open casket should she drop dead.

r160 who the hell are you talking about? I don't recognize the woman in your link.

R161 Jennifer Jones, one of the biggest stars of the 40s and 50s.

And I don't think she was boring, far from it.

I seem to remember in Henry Fonda's autobiography that he said Dick Powell (the official director of the stage production, The Caine Mutiny Court Martial) was in way over his head, and that Charles Laughton (who I think was the producer, with Paul Gregory) took over and directed the actors on the bus as they toured from city to city prior to Broadway. He certainly comes across in the book as admiring Laughton.

Also, Advise And Consent was the first big movie to have a closeted gay character (played by Don Murray) and he's presented sympathetically in the film. I wouldn't think Fonda would accept one of the biggest roles in the film (and top billing) if he were homophobic.

Where is that quote where he called Laughton a faggot taken from? Is it a reliable source?

That picture has Tyrone and Charles together.

I wish we had some RELIABLE, credible, FEASIBLE gossip about Tyrone's prvate life.

What did Marilyn Monroe think of homosexuality?

R34

[quote] What were Marilyn Monroe's views on homosexuality?

R165

[quote] What did Marilyn Monroe think of homosexuality?

I don’t think Marilyn was totally straight.

R164, Power and Laughton made a movie together, "Witness for the Prosecution" in 1957, of course they'd be photographed together.

As for Power, didn't Susielee describe him as someone very nice, obliging, and willing? Like he'd have sex if the other person wanted it, so it was out of the way and they could get to know each other, if I remember correctly and I probably dont.

Tyrone Power was homophobic

Tyrone Power was family. His best friend was Cesar Romero

R170, Cesar Romero was straight

^Straight into big hard dick.

R165 She was bi so I guess she was okay with it.

In one biog. of Power there was info about him having an early relationship with some other young gay man, very affedtionate in front of the other guy's family. It was a NY "society" family, I think.

Laughton also directed Power (and Raymond Massey, Judith Anderson) in John Brown's Body.

Natalie Wood gay AND lesbian friendly . A big advocate

R177, nope she was a homophobe

Natalie Wood was quite close to a number of gays.

Natalie wanted to play a lesbian in a movie involving twins in early 60’s and it never came to pass . She was ardently a champion for LGB rights and was courageous.

[quote] She was ardently a champion for LGB rights and was courageous.

She was as courageous as St Joan of Arc.

Photo is Bogie, Webb, and Larry Olivier.

(Bogart and Lauren Bacall were friends with Clifton Webb, Noel Coward.)

What did Elvis Presley think of homosexuality?

Remember the story Tom Jones told about Elvis in a hotel room?

Is this the story?

It’s got nudity and transgressed boundaries, but it’s almost anti-homoerotic.

Betty Grable loved gay men. Chuck Walters writes in his autobiography that when he and Betty were in "DuBarry was a Lady" on Broadway after the show they would go out and party in the Village all night with his (gay) friends.

Grable's best friends at Fox were the gay chorus boys and girls she worked with and she hooked up her friend and favorite co-star Dan Dailey with the hottest boys on the lot. She loved to hang out with her gay choreographers Hermes Pan and Jack Cole. Marge Champion was interviewed live about working with Grable in "Three For The Show" and said all Grables scenes had to be done in the morning before lunch, because she and Cole would have big boozy lunches with Coles hottest male dancers and was in no shape in the afternoon to do much.

I consider gay acceptance if straight men have gay male friends and straight female have gay female friends. And accept both gay sexes

Who were all of Tyrone Power's gay friends?

One interviewer wrote that Ava Gardner told him she realized women turned her on when watching Betty Grable (left) and Charles Walters in the number. Well Did You Evah?, from DuBarry Was A Lady (starring Ethel Merman and Bert Lahr). Ava wasn't a star at the time. She said that later in Hollywood she told Grable this, and Grable just laughed.

Isn't Raquel Welch homophobic?

R184 I think Elvis was a product of his times but he was friendly with a lot of bisexual and gay stars like Nick Adams, Sal Mineo, Cary Grant, Sammy Davis Jr., Little Richard, Liberace, etc.

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