Oscar-nominated/winning LGBT roles

[HarryGoldfarb]

Newman is able to convey much of that tragic longing with just the pained look in those gorgeous blue eyes. To me, Paul Newman and Liz Taylor never looked more gorgeous than when they played Brick and Maggie the Cat, respectively. What absolute *perfect* casting.

Totally agree!

So... you were a stage actor back in college, plus the captain of the track team in high school and "a state semi-finalist in the hurdles". Nice résumé! It would have been quite interesting seeing you as Brick.

[flipp525]

Brick.

[HarryGoldfarb]

Paul Newman as Brick Pollitt in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958)

The film toned down the suggestion of Brick's homosexuality but I guess it was quite explicit in the original play. Nonetheless, it might have been toned down to its time, but to any contemporary watcher, Brick's depression and his constant reference to his buddy make the point quite explicit or at least obvious. My wife had no idea about the film or the play when she first saw it last year, and as soon as possible she said "this guy had something with this so-called friend"...

All the same, toned down or not, Newman's performance is amazing, way ahead of its time. So ambiguous and hypnotizing. It's a shame that academy voters have this bias against young leading men, specially if they are somehow handsome (It's easy every year to rule out a nominee from the actor's race based on age and looks. DiCaprio is going to receive an Oscar, if he ever do so, when he's 65; this unwritten rule helped prevent a Ledger's or Phoenix's win in 2005 and a Brandon's or Clift's win in 1951; Depp is on the list too as well as Pitt. I mean, even Cruise, Hollywood's ex-darlin' and golden boy suffered this).

[Damien]

What about Ethan Hawke in Training Day? (well, I can dream, can't I?)

[Penelope]

What about Anne Baxter as Eve Harrington in All About Eve?

[Penelope]

I have to admit, I'm questioning the inclusion of Djimon Hounsou in In America as well; is there a moment in the film when he acknowledges that he's gay?

Also questioning Clifton Webb in Laura--yes, he's very prissy and effeminate, as he always was in every film he made, but the story pivots on his attraction and love for Laura, so I don't even think it qualifies as coded.

[anonymous1980]

Djimon Hounsou in In America? I know the character had AIDS but I don't remember him being depicted or referred to as gay/bisexual.

[Penelope]

Another one and then I MUST leave for class!

Daniel Massey as Noël Coward in Star! (1968)

[Penelope]

Just remembered one more for the coded/speculative category:

Norma Shearer as Marie Antoinette in Marie Antoinette (1938)

[Penelope]

In fact, here's the list I have thus far; feel free to remind me of any further suggestions.

Definite:

Margaret Avery as Shug Avery in The Color Purple (1985)
Javier Bardem as Reinaldo Arenas in Before Night Falls (2000)
Kathy Bates as Libby Holden in Primary Colors (1998)
Cher as Dolly Pelliker in Silkwood (1983)
James Coco as Jimmy in Only When I Laugh (1981)
Tom Courtenay as Norman in The Dresser (1983)
Jaye Davidson as Dil in The Crying Game (1992)
Bruce Davison as David in Longtime Companion (1990)
Judi Dench as Iris Murdoch in Iris (2001)
Judi Dench as Barbara Covett in Notes on a Scandal (2006)
Peter Finch as Dr. Daniel Hirsh in Sunday Bloody Sunday (1971)
Whoopi Goldberg as Celie Johnson in The Color Purple (1985)
Jake Gyllenhaal as Jack Twist in Brokeback Mountain (2005)
Tom Hanks as Andrew Beckett in Philadelphia (1993)*
Ed Harris as Richard Brown in The Hours (2002)
Salma Hayek as Frida Kahlo in Frida (2002)
Philip Seymour Hoffman as Truman Capote in Capote (2005)*
Djimon Hounsou as Mateo in In America (2002)
Felicity Huffman as Bree in Transamerica (2005)
William Hurt as Luis Molina in Kiss of the Spider Woman (1985)*
Tommy Lee Jones as Clay Shaw in JFK (1991)
Catherine Keener as Maxine Lund in Being John Malkovich (1999)
Catherine Keener as Harper Lee in Capote (2005)
Nicole Kidman as Virgnia Woolf in The Hours (2002)*
Greg Kinnear as Simon Bishop in As Good as it Gets (1997)
Heath Ledger as Ennis del Mar in Brokeback Mountain (2005)
John Lithgow as Roberta Muldoon in The World According to Garp (1982)
Marcello Mastroianni as Gabriele in A Special Day (1977)
Ian McKellan as James Whale in Gods and Monsters (1998)
Julianne Moore as Laura Brown in The Hours (2002)
Al Pacino as Sonny Wortzik in Dog Day Afternoon (1975)
Estelle Parsons as Calla Mackie in Rachel, Rachel (1968)
Robert Preston as Toddy in Victor/Victoria (1982)
Vanessa Redgrave as Olive Chancellor in The Bostonians (1984)
Geoffrey Rush as The Marquis de Sade in Quills (2000)
Chris Sarandon as Leon Shermer in Dog Day Afternoon (1975)
Meryl Streep as Karen Silkwood in Silkwood (1983)
Hilary Swank as Brandon Teena in Boys Don’t Cry (1999)*
Charlize Theron as Aileen Wuornos in Monster (2003)*
Peter Ustinov as Nero in Quo Vadis (1951)
Kate Winslet as Iris Murdoch in Iris (2001)


Coded/Speculative:

Judith Anderson as Mrs. Danvers in Rebecca (1940)
Alan Arkin as John Singer in The Heart is a Lonely Hunter (1968)
Marlene Dietrich as Amy Jolly in Morocco (1930)
Hope Emerson as Evelyn Harper in Caged (1950)
Greer Garson as Eleanor Roosevelt in Sunrise at Campobello (1960)+
Grayson Hall as Judith Fellowes in The Night of the Iguana (1964)
Rex Harrison as Julius Caesar in Cleopatra (1963)+
Van Heflin as Jeff Hartnett in Johnny Eager (1942)*
Charlton Heston as Judah Ben-Hur in Ben-Hur (1959)
Dustin Hoffman as Ratso in Midnight Cowyboy (1969)
Raymond Massey as Abraham Lincoln in Abe Lincoln in Illinois (1940)+
Sal Mineo as Plato in Rebel Without a Cause (1955)
Paul Newman as Brick Pollitt in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958)
George Sanders as Addison de Witt in All About Eve (1950)*
Jon Voight as Joe Buck in Midnight Cowboy (1969)
Clifton Webb as Waldo Lydecker in Laura (1944)
Clifton Webb as Elliot Templeton in The Razor’s Edge (1946)



*Won
+Historical person whose GLBT status is theorized or established after the film was made

[Big Magilla]

You are misquoting me. I only stated that Eleanor, as far as we know, hadn't yet had a gay relationship at the time of the events covered in Sunrise at Campobello. More to the point, though, is that this was not public knowledge and although it may have been known to the authors of the play had they done copious research, it was unlikely that Garson would have had privy to such information unlike say, Cary Grant or Tom Drake, who had knowledge of Cole Porter and Larry Hart's gay lifestyles when portraying them in Night and Day and Words and Music.

It's unlikely that information regarding Lincoln was available to Robert E. Sherwood when he wrote Abe Lincoln in Illinois and much less likely that it was available to Raymond Massey. Let's see how h subject is treated in the Lincoln biopic with Liam Neeson due next year.

It's like you're not even reading my posts. What I'm saying is that it DOESN'T MATTER whether or not the writers, actors, producers or even the prop-master knew of any whiff of gay about these people. Applying what we now know to be possibly true today is enough to place them on the "gay vague" list. See below posts if you need this reiterated again.

And, no I'm not misquoting you. You said that the events portrayed in Sunrise at Campobello preceded Eleanor Roosevelt's supposed lesbian involvement. Even if you were to use this as some sort of arbitrary criterion for determining whether or not a character was gay (which is ridiculous in and of itself -- like she could become a gay woman only after she'd been intimate with another woman :/), the events portrayed in Abe Lincoln in Illinois coincided with Lincoln's involvement with Joshua Fry Speed making that a moot point.

We're talking apples and oranges. I don't dispute your argument, only whether or not those characters qualify for inclusion on this list. Since it is anonymous' list, I defer to him as whether this should be a list of what is up on the screen or whether it should be a list of what some of us think should be up on the screen.

[Penelope]

It's a history as unexplored as any disenfranchised group of people.

This, for me, comes the closest to hitting the mark I expected of the discussion, the closest to offer evidence in support of retroactively gaying that which was likely not gay in intention. ... In other words, as homosexuality was the most easily hidden of all minority traits, its traces are in many ways the most difficult to uncover.

By the by, under this category, we should also include Peter Ustinov as Nero in Quo Vadis and Rex Harrison as Julius Caesar in Cleopatra.

[flipp525]

You are misquoting me. I only stated that Eleanor, as far as we know, hadn't yet had a gay relationship at the time of the events covered in Sunrise at Campobello. More to the point, though, is that this was not public knowledge and although it may have been known to the authors of the play had they done copious research, it was unlikely that Garson would have had privy to such information unlike say, Cary Grant or Tom Drake, who had knowledge of Cole Porter and Larry Hart's gay lifestyles when portraying them in Night and Day and Words and Music.

It's unlikely that information regarding Lincoln was available to Robert E. Sherwood when he wrote Abe Lincoln in Illinois and much less likely that it was available to Raymond Massey. Let's see how h subject is treated in the Lincoln biopic with Liam Neeson due next year.

It's like you're not even reading my posts. What I'm saying is that it DOESN'T MATTER whether or not the writers, actors, producers or even the prop-master knew of any whiff of gay about these people. Applying what we now know to be possibly true today is enough to place them on the "gay vague" list. See below posts if you need this reiterated again.

And, no I'm not misquoting you. You said that the events portrayed in Sunrise at Campobello preceded Eleanor Roosevelt's supposed lesbian involvement, thereby discounting Greer Garson from our list. Even if you were to use this arbitrary criterion for determining whether or not a character was gay (which is ridiculous in and of itself -- like she could become a gay woman only after she'd been intimate with another woman :/), the events portrayed in Abe Lincoln in Illinois coincided with Lincoln's involvement with Joshua Fry Speed making that a moot point.



Edited By flipp525 on 1227556591

[Eric]

It's a history as unexplored as any disenfranchised group of people.

This, for me, comes the closest to hitting the mark I expected of the discussion, the closest to offer evidence in support of retroactively gaying that which was likely not gay in intention. ... In other words, as homosexuality was the most easily hidden of all minority traits, its traces are in many ways the most difficult to uncover.



Edited By Eric on 1227555965

[Eric]

knowing that Rock Hudson was a sexaholic power bottom has inherently colored the way I view his performances as the dashing male hero in such films as Giant or the Sirk years.

Flipp, I say this with affection. You're watching movies with your dick.