Forgotten Queers

Dirk Bogarde was Britain’s matinee idol turned quiet revolutionary. From his charming Doctor in the House films to the daring Victim (1961)—the first British movie to say “homosexual” aloud—Bogarde risked his career to bring empathy and truth to queer lives on screen. A war veteran, writer, and lifelong partner to Anthony Forwood, he evolved from heart-throb to acclaimed artist in The Servant, Dea...

What happened to Coco on the Golden Girls? One Episode there the next gone. Just like he never existed? Cover up? Or just 80’s conservatism poking through! Enjoy Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/forgotten-queers--6719466/support . Please follow me on Facebook, BlueSky,TikToc,Twitter at Gary Thoren. We must never forget our Forgotten Queers

Sal Mineo’s life was as dazzling as it was tragic—a story of talent, struggle, and queerness in a Hollywood that wasn’t ready for him. Born in the Bronx in 1939 to Italian immigrant parents, Mineo grew up tough but artistic, finding early success on Broadway as the young Prince Chulalongkorn opposite Yul Brynner in The King and I. His breakout, though, came on the silver screen. At just 16, he sta...

Alla Nazimova was one of the brightest, boldest, and most complicated figures of early Hollywood — a woman who refused to live small. Born in 1879 in Yalta, on the Crimean coast, she survived a lonely childhood and strict Russian schooling before finding her calling on the stage. Trained at the Moscow Art Theatre under Stanislavski, she carried a fire and intensity that would soon make her a sensa...

illiam “Billy” Haines was born in 1900 in Staunton, Virginia, the child of a working-class family in a town too small to hold him. At just 14, he ran away with another boy choosing freedom over the small-town suffocation of staying. He eventually landed in New York, where his good looks carried him into modeling, and in a twist of fate, straight into MGM’s orbit. At 22, he boarded a train west to...

Dorothy Arzner may not be a household name today, but in the 1920s through the 1940s she was a rare force in Hollywood: the only woman directing features inside the studio system, a technical innovator, a champion of actresses, and a queer woman who lived openly with her partner for over four decades. Her life, career, and community place her at the very heart of forgotten queer history — and in t...

amón Novarro was a Mexican-American actor who rose to fame in the silent era, becoming one of Hollywood’s first Latin heartthrobs. Best known for his role in Ben-Hur (1925), he rivaled Rudolph Valentino in star power. Behind the glamour, Novarro was a gay man navigating an industry and a culture that demanded secrecy. He resisted pressure from studio moguls like Louis B. Mayer to enter a “lavender...