When you grow up in the ’30s, ’40s and ’50s being gay, it not only ain’t easy, it’s just impossible. You cannot do it. (He learned growing up) that being gay was the worst thing you can possibly be. I assumed there was something terribly wrong with me. And even becoming famous and all that, it was still there.”
— 80-year-old acting veteran Richard Chamberlain discussing in a New York Times profile why he waited to come out publicly as gay with the release of his 2003 memoir Shattered Love.
Trippy
When I watched the Thorn Birds miniseries in the early 80’s, to me, Richard was the most beautiful man on earth. At 80, he’s still pretty hot. I’d do him.
1EqualityUSA
At least you came out. Thanks for your courage to be true. Being honest about ourselves helps others who are suffering the same fate.
mbfmark
Yes, I’m glad he finally came out, but I wonder if my mother had known that “Dr. Kildare” was gay whether she would have passed less judgement on me when I came out in 1980. She absolutely idolized him in that role.
Cam
Somebody at his age coming out was great. It’s amazing that he is older, from a darker time in gay rights than younger people and yet you still get people much younger than him claiming that asking them about sexuality is no different than kids bullied and beaten. Yeah, I’m looking at you Kevin Spacey.
Congrats to Chaimberlan, and I hope he at least was in a happy relationship while he had to stay in the closet. 🙂
dvlaries
He’s right. It’s easy to forget the ignorance that passed as ‘common knowledge’ in a pre-Oprah, pre-Donahue world. Maybe, maybe not, Chamberlain would have exposed himself to danger and ridicule, but he certainly would have had no successful career in show business. Like Rock Hudson, he employed the correct survival instincts for his time.
Ladbrook
Chamberlain is definitely Pantheon worthy. I admire his candor and his survival instincts. Hollywood is still thick with closeted gay actors, though, so hopefully some of the younger and not-so-younger ones will look to men like Chamberlain and NPH and finally burn down the closet doors. (@Cam: don’t hold your breath on Spacey… I suspect he’s a lost cause.)
Jonty Coppersmith
Being gay was not all that much easier growing up during the sixties, seventies, eighties or even nineties for that matter. We sometimes forget gay sex was still a crime in a number of states until the US Supreme Court’s Lawrence v Texas decision in June 2003. Now, eleven years later we have marriage equality in 35 states.
NoCagada
I was about 4 when I drooled all over the TV box when he was in Dr. Kildare…didn’t know, exactly, what I wanted at that age, but he made me put my Tinkertoys away!!!
Alan down in Florida
@mbfmark: A valid question. Conversely if they knew he was gay he likely would not have been Dr. Kildare (unless the studios covered up for him like they did Rock Hudson).
Desert Boy
Things are so different today for gay men. I came out at age 16 — everyone was supportive and I mean everyone.
lougenessis
When I was a little girl, I thought Richard Chamberlain was the most handsome man my young eyes had ever seen. That first glimpse was all it took for me to follow any and everything he did. I saw him in The Count of Monte Cristo, Shogun, Centennial and the Man in the Iron Mask. But my all time favorite, in which I loved him even more was the Thorn Bird. So damn sexy as Father Ralph!!! I didn’t know he was gay, couldn’t care less. Still don’t. I only knew he was a great actor and was so easy on the eyes. Because of my love for him and his work, it made me read all the books his characters were featured in. I also read his autobiography. I wish happiness and health to this great man and actor. And to me, even at 80, he’s still easy to the eye.
Kieran
It would have been a truly heroic act if Richard Chamberlain came out publicly as a gay man when he was a young actor. It would have helped a lot of young gay kids. It would also have most likely destroyed his career as a romantic leading man. If he had come out in the sixties and seventies it is highly unlikely that he would have been chosen to play the Dr Kildare role or the romantic lead in ‘The Thorn Birds’. Sad but true. Homophobia is deeply rooted in America.
Andrew2500
@lougenessis: Hi Lougenessis. Did you see him in “The Music Lovers”? It’s a must-see if you enjoy R.C. Handsome guy! Although it’s not a historically accurate portrayal of Tschaikovsky’s life, it certainly captures the mood of it, although his professor’s reaction to the 1st Piano Concerto is definitely accurate!
muscl954
I had the biggest crush on him when I was a kid.
stanhope
I might have been 5 years old watching Dr. Kildare but I knew even then he was a bottom and I wanted it. Hot with narrow hips….he was second only to Jan Michael Vincent in the hot blonde category. Better late than never.
stanhope
@Kieran: Then give it up for George MaHarris often overlooked and he didn’t hide being gay from anybody!!!! Big hug to George!!!!
darkanser
@Jonty Coppersmith: Individual/circumstantial experience varies but I think you’d have to admit that going back in time in this country, there was less public tolerance for being gay. It’s one thing to discover that you’re gay and to accept it while realizing there’s not a lot of support for your kind out in the world. It’s another thing to have discovered who you are and to realize you’re the object of all the homophobia you’ve accumulated all of your life and to walk around with that burden. Naturally, there’s shades in between. Despite what Richard Chamberlain has said, I still wonder what camp he fell into. Perhaps, a memoir would make it more clear.
Bob LaBlah
I loved him in the 1970’s during the classic Rich Man/Poor Man series on ABC. I was a teenager then but I always felt he and Mike Brady of the Brady Bunch were a bit on the sweet side”. I feel the same way about the ex-emperor of NYC, Michael Bloomburg. Now if that ain’t a rich queen I don’t know what else could be. I know he has a screen….er, um, daughter (Bloomburg) but that old queen ain’t a fool’in me. During the gay pride parade of 2011 Mario Cuomo look very uncomfortable marching with him.
stranded
I didn’t grow up knowing who he was. he did an episode of Nip/Tuck in 2006, “Blue Mondae” at first i was taken away by the actor who played his toy boy Thad Luckinbill, you’ve probably seen the stills of the scene where he tries to seduce Christian and the shot shows his naked backside. God damn he had a luscious ass. Anyway i thought the grampa who kept was really good looking so i looked him up. Chamberlain is very sexy, younger and older.
tricky ricky
@Bob LaBlah: he wasn’t in rich man, poor man. you must be thinking of peter strauss. bit the show did have Robert reed, dick sargent, and george maharis in it, a gay trifecta.
tricky ricky
@lougenessis: loved him in all the same things.
LadyL
@Andrew2500: It fascinates me when closeted gay actors (as of course Richard Chamberlain was at the time of “The Music Lovers”) play gay characters. Did his agent or manager try to talk him out of doing the film? I’ll bet just getting the chance to essay a role in which something of the character’s life mirrored his own, even if he could never acknowledge it in interviews of the day, felt like a breath a fresh air for Richard, a way of quietly opening the closet door if only momentarily.
o.codone
@Trippy: but he can’t do you.
o.codone
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