When singer/songwriter Little Richard announced in a 1995 Penthouse interview that he always knew he was gay, the world grinned and nodded its collective head with a sigh of, "Finally!" He had always performed wearing women's makeup, played up his effeminate gestures in his act, and showed a fondness for cross dressing, so his statement was hardly earth-shattering.
The illness led to AIDS and Richardson died of related maladies in Los Angeles in 1991. After years of buzz on the streets about his sexual proclivity, Richardson came out as bisexual in 1985, the same year in which he received his HIV diagnosis. They have two daughters together, the actresses Natasha (born 1963) and Joely Richardson (born 1965). Perkins died in 1992 in Hollywood from AIDS and pneumonia Berenson perished on Flight 11 that crashed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center on 9/11.Īlthough TV/Theater Director and Film/TV Producer Richardson was only married to actress Vanessa Redgrave from 1962-1967.
However, he married actress Berry Berenson in 1973 and had two sons with her in 19. An interesting side note: Liza Minnelli married Peter Allen in 1967, who came out as gay shortly after the pair divorced in 1976.īest known for his role as Norman Bates, the deranged hotel proprietor in Alfred Hitchcock's classic thriller Psycho, Perkins reportedly had several sexual/romantic relationships with men in his younger days. Minnelli died of emphysema and pneumonia in Beverly Hills in 1986. According to Minnelli's biographer, Minnelli was openly gay when he visited and worked in New York but climbed back into the proverbial closet when he spent time in Los Angeles. After his marriage to Garland ended in 1951 after 5 years, Minnelli married Georgette Magnani (1954 to 1958), followed by Danica "Denise" Radosavljevic (1962 to 1971) and Lee Anderson (1980 to 1986). Some unions were more amicable than others, and some sadly included spouses that allegedly had no idea they were being bamboozled.Īs famous as he was for marrying Judy Garland, and fathering superstar Liza Minelli, stage and film director Vincent Minnelli was one of the most (heterosexually) married gay men in Hollywood history. In today's progressive society, it may seem like much ado about nothing, but only 50 or 60 years ago, many gay men married, some multiple times, to keep up appearances they deemed vital to their careers moving forward.
This practice also frequently led to gay men and women marrying their beards. In fact, according to the Oxford Dictionary, the term "beard" was a North American term that referred to "a woman who accompanied a homosexual man as an escort to a social occasion in order to help conceal his homosexuality." The term, which became popular in the 1950s and 1960s, was also used for men who married lesbians for the same type of deception. Marrying women was an easy and common practice to "prove" heterosexuality. With all the flamboyance, adultery, and excessive behavior associated with Hollywood celebrities, actors and musicians, many gay men felt compelled to hide their sexuality for fear of being blackballed and their careers ruined.
Not long before we celebrated the turn of the 21st century in 2000, there was still a stigma in many circles against gay people…and not just in conservative areas of the country.