The Golden Age of Hollywood gave us many of the biggest icons of the 20th Century. But did you know the film industry’s queer culture existed even before that famous HOLLYWOODLAND sign went up in 1923, and half of Tinseltown kept their identities a secret to safeguard their careers? So, here are some Old Hollywood stars you probably didn’t know were LGBTQ. You might know some, but we guarantee some intriguing surprises.
James Dean
James Dean was a Hollywood Giant who forever changed pop culture as the first true Rebel Without a Cause. Jimmy only made three films before tragically losing his life in his Porsche Spider in 1955. He was 24. While Dean dated women, including Natalie Wood, rumors he was gay circulated in his heyday and persist today.
Several authors claim James Dean was involved with Rogers Brackett, the advertising executive. More shockingly, Jimmy’s friend Stanley Taggart insisted the star had an affair with fellow rebel Marlon Brando.
Marlon Brando
Marlon Brando married four women, and some claim he fathered 17 children. However, in addition to his alleged affair with James Dean, the Hollywood heavyweight reportedly had encounters with Cary Grant, Montgomery Clift, Sir John Gielgud, and even Bob Dylan.
In 1976, Brando told a French journalist that he had been with men but stated, “I am not ashamed.” In a later Vulture interview, composer Quincy Jones said Brando also slept with James Baldwin, Marvin Gaye, and one very famous comedian…
Elizabeth Taylor
Though Elizabeth Taylor married eight times to seven men — including doomed soulmate Richard Burton twice — she’s alleged to have had relations with Marilyn Monroe. But that’s not the reason she became a celebrated gay icon.
The English actress is loved for her dedicated and passionate activism regarding the LGBTQ+ community. Liz had many close relationships with gay men, although that was probably because she’d married half the straight men on the planet!
Cary Grant
Cary Grant was born Archibald Leach in Bristol, England, and became one of Hollywood’s greatest leading men. He was a ladies’ man who married five times and had a daughter. However, Gillian Armstrong’s documentary Women He’s Undressed reveals Cary met Australian costume designer Orry-Kelly in New York in 1925. They became lovers and lived together on and off for nine years.
Cary Grant also lived with fellow actor Randolph Scott for 12 years in a Los Feliz mansion nicknamed “Bachelor Hall.” Rumors have long swirled that the pair were involved romantically.
Judy Garland
Judy is the ultimate gay icon. Her father, Francis Gumm, was a closeted gay man, and the family moved to California after he seduced young local Minnesotan men. Judy always preferred the company of gay men, hung out in gay bars, and the LBGTQ phrase “A friend of Dorothy” is named after her Wizard of Oz character.
She also kept marrying gay men — Vincent Minnelli, her tour promoter Mark Herron, and finally, singer Mickey Deans. In Tinseltown, she allegedly spent the night with her friend Marilyn Monroe after giving in to Marilyn’s many propositions.
Sir Alec Guinness
Sir Alec Guinness is best known for playing Obi-Wan Kenobi in Star Wars: A New Hope. But did you know that Sir Alec kept his orientation away from the media and out of the public eye for the entirety of his seven-decade career?
Only after the veteran English actor of stage and screen passed away was it revealed he was a card-carrying member of the LBGTQ+ community. According to his biographers, Guinness’ family and close friends always knew he was gay.
Joan Crawford
Lucille Fay LeSueur, aka Joan Crawford, was one of Old Hollywood’s biggest stars. She married four times and adopted five children. But while Crawford was known as a maneater, she had an insatiable appetite for both men and women. Joan had dalliances with Clark Gable, Spencer Tracy, Kirk Douglas, Barbara Stanwyck, Greta Garbo, and Marilyn Monroe.
Her lifelong arch-nemesis Bette Davis once quipped Joan slept with everyone in Hollywood except Lassie! You can learn more about her lifelong rivalry with Bette Davis in Ryan Murphy’s FX series Feud.
Ramón Novarro
After Rudolph Valentino passed away, hunky Mexican-American actor Ramón Novarro became Hollywood’s go-to Latin lover, playing the title role in the 1925 version of Ben-Hur. Ramón was also gay and had several relationships with men, including with Hollywood news writer Herbert Howe and composer Harry Partch but he always struggled with his secret life.
Tragically, in 1968, decades after Navarro’s career fell from grace, Paul and Tom Ferguson called Novarro, offering their services in exchange for cash. Ramón let the two brothers into his home, whereupon they robbed him and took his life.
Spencer Tracy
During his 40-year career, Spencer Tracy was known as a tough-guy womanizer and was linked to Ingrid Bergman, Bette Davis, Joan Crawford, Hedy Lamarr, Myrna Loy, and Gene Tierney. But, for the last 25 years of his life, he had a long, studio-engineered lavender relationship with Katharine Hepburn… a relationship they never consummated.
But behind the scenes, Tracy often stayed at George Cukor’s house for days on end, getting up close and personal with the director’s male friends. He’s also rumored to have been in a long-term relationship with All the King’s Men actor John Derek.
Katharine Hepburn
Gorgeous Katharine Hepburn enjoyed a 60-year career and a long relationship with frequent co-star Spencer Tracy. While they loved each other and were inseparable, screenwriter Larry Kramer and LGBTQ+ activist said, “Hepburn and Spencer Tracy were both gay. They were publicly paired together by the studio. Everyone in Hollywood knows this is true.”
Hollywood “arranger” Scotty Bowers claims he set Hepburn up with over 150 women but that she would see them once or twice before quickly tiring of them.
Anthony Perkins
Anthony Pekins is famous for his terrifying turn as Norman Bates in Alfred Hitchcock’s seminal horror movie Psycho (1960). Later in life, he married actress Berry Berenson and had two children, but Perkins was with Tab Hunter for four years and actor and dancer Grover Dale for seven years.
According to Scotty Bowers, Perkins “always wanted someone different. ‘Who’ve you got who’s different, Scott?’ ‘Who do you have for me for tomorrow night that will surprise me? Anything really new?” Anthony passed away in 1992 after keeping his illness a secret.
Walter Pidgeon
Who is this Scotty Bowers character whose name keeps popping up? Well, he provided services to the stars, and it all began at a gas station. One day in 1946, married actor Walter Pidgeon pulled into a Hollywood gas station and paid 23-year-old ex-Marine turned pump attendant Bowers a $20 tip to come home with him.
Pidgeon told his gay friends about the enthusiastic pump attendant who soon began providing services to the stars. Ryan Murphy dramatized Scotty’s story in his wonderfully camp Netflix show Hollywood.
Charles Laughton
Actor and director Charles Laughton married fellow actress Elsa Lanchester in 1929. They were together for over thirty years, but Laughton was another of Scotty Bower’s regular gas station customers. The Hunchback of Notre Dame actor’s first relationship with a man was with a handsome young actor named David Roberts. They met in 1941, and their relationship lasted until 1950.
In a memoir written after Charles passed away, Elsa said they never had children because Laughton was gay. Several of his contemporaries and Hollywood historians concur with Elsa.
Cesar Romero
Cuban-American actor Cesar Romero appeared opposite Marlene Dietrich in The Devil Is a Woman and played the Cisco Kid in six Westerns. The devilishly handsome 6’3” actor danced with Carmen Miranda and Betty Grable and was Joan Crawford’s best friend. But he’s best known for playing The Joker in the camp 1960s Batman TV show.
While Romero typically played Latin lovers, he was gay. He remained in the closet to the public for the entirety of his career, but close friends and colleagues knew his secret.
Patsy Kelly
Patsy Kelly might not be a household name, but she was an early LBGTQ+ trailblazer in Hollywood. She often played the sassy best friend in 1930s comedies like The Girl From Missouri and Merrily We Live. Kelly is one of the very few actresses to candidly talk about her preference for women.
She told magazines that she was a lesbian, lived with her girlfriend, and never planned to marry. Early in her career, Patsy had a relationship with singer and actress Tallulah Bankhead, another trailblazer who openly admitted liking men and women.
Tallulah Bankhead
Singer and actress Tallulah Bankhead came from a prominent Alabama family and was the wildest, most extroverted, and wittiest socialite of them all. The ultimate rebel, she was so uninhibited she was known for stripping off at private parties. She married actor John Emery and took many male and female lovers.
She allegedly had intimate encounters with fellow singer Billie Holiday, actresses Greta Garbo, Marlene Dietrich, Hattie McDaniel, Beatrice Lillie, Alla Nazimova, Blyth Daly, and writers Mercedes de Acosta and Eva Le Gallienne.
Clark Gable
Clark Gable was a notorious ladies’ man. He slept with many of his co-stars, including Joan Crawford and Carole Lombard, married five times, and had two children. But rumors swirled that he slept his way to the top and had affairs with actors Billy Haines, Rod La Roque, and possibly Montgomery Clift.
Gable didn’t want to star in Gone With the Wind because director George Cukor knew how he made his way to the top. Halfway through filming, Cukor was fired and replaced by Gable’s friend Victor Fleming.
George Cukor
George Cukor was known as “the woman’s director” because he could muster great performances out of any actress, from Ingrid Bergman in Gaslight to gay icon Judy Garland in The Wizard of Oz and A Star Is Born and Audrey Hepburn in My Fair Lady.
While Cukor never openly talked about his love life, he became a confidante to Hollywood’s brimming secret gay community. As a socialite, Cukor’s Hollywood mansion — decorated by gay actor Billy Haines — became the center of LGBTQ+ society in Tinseltown.
Marlene Dietrich
As well as Jimmy Dean, another icon Madonna sang about in “Vogue” was Marlene Dietrich. Her Madgesty even based her look on the blonde screen siren. Coming from the LBGTQ+-friendly Weimar arts culture, Marlene made it to Hollywood and changed the world by wearing pants and tuxes.
Marlene was fearlessly unapologetic about her love for men and women and kissed women on screen in the 1930s. She was romantically linked with Kay Francis, Edith Piaf, Mercedes de Acosta, and Greta Garbo. Marlene referred to Hollywood’s underground network of closeted actresses as her “sewing circle.”
Montgomery Clift
Dishy heartthrob Montgomery Clift had affairs with actors Roddy McDowall and Marlon Brando, dancer Jerome Robbins, and his Misfits co-star Marilyn Monroe. Sadly, Clift had a bad car crash in Elizabeth Taylor’s driveway, scarring his striking face and ending his career. Clift passed away in 1963 from a heart attack aged 45.
After his passing, Clift’s mother said she knew Monty was gay from his early teens. Liz Taylor famously declared Monty was gay during a speech at the 2000 GLAAD Awards, a claim that Clift’s brother, William Brooks Clift Jr., supported.
Rock Hudson
Today, it’s well-known that heartthrob Rock Hudson was gay. But he kept details of his love life a secret for most of his life. His agent, Henry Wilson, quashed Confidential magazine’s exposé threatening to out Rock Hudson by giving up another of his clients, Tab Hunter.
Harry Wilson also arranged a lavender marriage between Rock and his secretary, Phyllis Gates, which lasted three years. He had a long, intimate relationship with stockbroker Lee Garlington. Hudson was one of the first stars to reveal he had a certain illness and sadly passed away in 1984.
Jim Nabors
Jim Nabors was best known for portraying Gomer Pyle on The Andy Griffith Show. His hapless and naïve auto mechanic was so popular, he even got his own spin-off, Gomer Pyle, USMC. Jim had a relationship with Rock Hudson in the early 1970s, and the two men reportedly married. However, Hudson insisted the marriage was nothing more than a joke and that Hudson took the name Rock Pyle.
A month after gay marriage became legal, in January 2013, Nabors married his partner of 38 years, Stan Cadwallader.
Ruby Dandridge
African American actress Ruby Dandridge was most famous for the 1950s radio show Amos n’ Andy, but she also appeared as a dancer in the original King Kong and the 1943 musical Cabin in the Sky. Ruby left her husband, Cyril, after having two daughters, Vivian and Dorothy, who both became famous actresses.
Ruby then had a Boston Marriage with Geneva Williams, whom historians call “her lifelong companion.” They lived together, and Geneva pushed Dorothy to become the first African American actress nominated for a Best Actress Academy Award.
Raymond Burr
Canadian actor Raymond Burr played two of television’s most iconic characters, brilliant defense attorney Perry Mason and brilliant disabled detective Ironside. Burr married Isabella Ward in 1948, and they shared a house with Burr’s mother and grandparents. However, the marriage crumbled after just a few months.
Then, in 1960, Burr met Robert Benevides, an actor and veteran, on the set of Perry Mason. In the 1980s, the couple started a vineyard in California’s Sonoma County and remained together until Burr passed away in 1993.
Greta Garbo
Another entry from Madonna’s “Vogue” is Greta Garbo. Once known as the most beautiful woman in the world, the stunning Swedish-American enchantress was known for her gorgeous face, melancholy, somber persona, tragic characters, and subtle and understated performances. But most of all, her desire for seclusion.
Garbo had affairs with Marlene Dietrich, Billie Holiday, Tallulah Bankhead, and Mercedes de Acosta. The latter would fall into Marlene Dietrich’s arms whenever Greta moved on. Garbo called her love affairs with women “exciting secrets.” She passed away six weeks after Madonna’s “Vogue” was released.
Marilyn Monroe
Marilyn loved men almost as much as she loved diamonds. But the world’s most iconic maneater was a secret member of the LGBTQ+ community. Before becoming famous, Marilyn had relationships with her acting coaches, Natasha Lytess and Paula Strasberg. Actress Jane Lawrence’s book My Little Secret reveals she also had relations with the iconic buxom blonde bombshell.
Monroe admitted to having encounters with Joan Crawford, Barbara Stanwyck, Marlene Dietrich, Brigitte Bardot, and even Elizabeth Taylor. So, while Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Marilyn didn’t mind if they were blonde or brunette!
