Ian McKellen Takes Gay Rights Message to Schools

[Guest fountainhall]

Bravo Sir Ian McKellan!

 

Britain’s theatrical knight, best known worldwide perhaps for his role as Gandalf in The Lord of the Rings Trilogy is now in the third month of a UK nationwide “role model” tour of secondary schools (basically ages 11 – 18).

 

It is all part of the Education for All campaign launched in 2005 by Stonewall, a UK gay rights charity co-founded in 1989 by Sir Ian, the year after he came out, to help tackle homophobia and homophobic bullying in primary and secondary schools.

 

This is an exceprt from a description in The Guardian by a Stonewall staffer who accompanies McKellen on the tours.

 

"Do you know any gay people?" Sir Ian McKellen asks. Silence. Heads shake. "Well, you do now. I'm gay." It's my turn to speak up. "You know two now. I used to go to this school – and I'm gay," I offer. "You know three now," a sixth-former chips in. The other pupils don't look too surprised, and he seems admirably comfortable in his sexuality. Silence. Then: "Erm. Well. You know four now." Heads shoot around to see a uniformed boy, leaning close to McKellen. Mouths fall slightly open – including mine – but nobody speaks. Then McKellen says, in that mellifluous voice of his, "Well. How about that? It turns out we all know quite a few more gay people than we thought we did."

 

This is the third month of McKellen's nationwide "role model" tour of secondary schools on behalf of Stonewall, the gay equality charity that he co-founded, and which I work for, and the two of us have come to Hundred of Hoo comprehensive in Kent, which I left over a decade ago.

 

It has become a familiar scene for him. "My school visits are often rewarded by people coming out," he says. "And I don't just mean pupils – I've heard staff coming out to their heads on my visits, too."

 

McKellen obviously has a powerful effect on the schools he visits; how does this make him feel? "A bit overwhelmed – and privileged," he says.

 

Gandalf has worked his magic in 54 secondary schools over the last two years. His dream? An education system free of the homophobia that has plagued it for years – and a curriculum that fully includes lesbian, gay and bisexual people . . .

 

This has a profound effect on two year 10 friends, who tell me: "We didn't realise calling things 'gay' could offend someone. It was touching when he talked about never being able to tell his mum he was gay. One of our best friends is gay and he gets abused for it. We hope it will stop now."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2011/apr/12/ian-mckellen-gay-tour-schools

[KhorTose]

Agree, this man is a living Saint and he has participated both in the Seattle AIDS walk and the Gay Parade in Seattle. A truly remarkable man.

 

While in Seattle he commented that other gay actors are reluctant to come out. I can think of many greats of the past like Sir Lawrence Oliver who could have helped like Sir Ian is doing.

[Guest fountainhall]

I can think of many greats of the past like Sir Lawrence Oliver who could have helped like Sir Ian is doing.

I don't think Olivier was gay. On the other hand, one of his contemporaries Sir John Gielgud (fabulous actor!) very definitely was. Unfortunately, though, he had been caught in some police trap in the 1950s before the UK changed the laws against homosexuality. That became, for a time, a major public scandal. Thereafter, he was never associated publicly with gay issues.

 

A friend in New York who has worked with McKellan told me that McKellan was always displeased to see the bible in hotel rooms, as he felt the references to the sin of a man "lying" with another man being punishable by death were intolerable. Allegedly he would tear out and throw away the relevant pages from Leviticus!

 

Over 40 years ago, as a youth I saw McKellan at the Edinburgh Festival acting in Christopher Marlowe's Edward II and Shakespeare's Richard II. I knew then that McKellan had a boyfriend although he did not come out for another 20 years. What was so interesting was that Edward II was written by a gay playwright, McKellan was gay, and he was playing a gay King who was destroyed by his infatuation for another man.

[Guest fountainhall]

Thinking of other British theatrical knights who were gay, two obvious ones were Noel Coward and Dirk Bogarde. Even towards the end of his life, Coward refused to acknowledge his sexual orientation publicly, wryly observing, "There are still a few old ladies in Worthing who don't know." (Worthing is a seaside town south of London, a reference to the fact that the ladies who came in on organized trips for the mid–week and Saturday matinees were as much a part of his audience as the celebrity and high so crowds.)

 

Bogarde was a film matinee idol who branched into more serious work later in life, thanks largely to the influence of the directors Joseph Losey and Luchino Visconti. He worked with the latter in The Damned and Death in Venice. (Who can forget that long opening shot of the steamer emerging from the dawn mist to enter Venice, and the shimmering closing sequences with Tadzio wading into the water whilst Bogarde's character is dying, both to the strains of the slow movement from Mahler’s Fifth Symphony?)

 

 

A few years ago, I read the latest biography of Bogarde. I was astonished by a quote from one famous movie director (can’t now recall which one) who said of Noel Coward: “He was the saddest man I ever met.”

 

There was also Michael Redgrave, father of actress Vanessa Redgrave, who was known in the profession to be very bisexual, even though it was never admitted during his lifetime.

 

Coward’s biographer Sheridan Morley used to tell a lovely story about Coward and a friend walking through London’s Leicester Square. The friend drew his attention to the billboard for a new British film which had in very large letters -

 

MICHAEL REDGRAVE AND DIRK BOGARDE

IN

“THE SEA SHALL NOT HAVE THEM”.

 

“Why ever not?” quipped Coward. “Everyone else has!”

[TotallyOz]

I met Ian McKellen when I was in undergraduate school. We were doing a one month theater tour of London and we saw him on two different nights doing 2 different lead roles days apart. He was amazing. He met with our group afterwards and chatted with us. He was charming and amazing. He went out drinking with us afterwards as he was friends with my professor who was leading the tour. He was openly gay. I was not. That night played a pivotal role in helping me come out several years later.

[Rogie]

A truly remarkable man.

While in Seattle he commented that other gay actors are reluctant to come out.

 

Thinking of other British theatrical knights who were gay . . .

 

He was charming and amazing.

 

Always interesting to read of others' experiences, I've never seen McKellan on stage, let alone met him, so I've clearly missed something. My reason for quoting Fountainhall is I am wondering what is the American equivalent of the Brit's 'theatrical knights'? And which of them are or were gay?

[Guest fountainhall]

As there is no honours system in the US as such, the closest you probably get is those winning the Oscar and Tony Awards - especially those given Lifetime Achievement Awards.

 

If there were a system similar to the UK, I am sure actors like Marlon Brando, Paul Newman, Jack Nicholson, Al Pacino, Robert de Niro, Robert Redford, Gregory Peck, Robert Duvall, Sidney Poitier and James Earl Jones would definitely be on the list. You could also add in those who have been awarded the National Medal of Arts, created by Congress in 1984. Recipients have included actors Jose Ferrer, Hume Cronyn, Gene Kelly, Kirk Douglas and Olivia de Havilland. But none of the above is/were gay, as far as I am aware.

 

Charlton Heston, unfortunately, would probably also have made the list! I say unfortunately because he did try to do some stage work with pretty disastrous results. Doing a show in London in 1999 with his wife, Claire, where they merely quoted bits and pieces about something or other, Sheridan Morley (whom I mentioned earlier) loathed it and wrote in his International Herald Tribune review: "The most moving part of Mr Heston's performance was his hairpiece."

 

In the theatre business, the British honours system basically rewards people who have been nominated by a group of their peers. So knighthoods and their female equivalent of “Dame” are generally given to older, established actors. Until Ian McKellan, hardly any actors had come out, even though they were known to be gay in theatre and film circles.

 

Of America, McKellan said in a BBC interview a few years ago -

 

"It is very, very, very difficult for an American actor who wants a film career to be open about his sexuality. And even more difficult for a woman if she's lesbian. It's very distressing to me that that should be the case."

 

The Lord of the Rings star added: "The film industry is very old fashioned in California" . . .

 

The same was not true on Broadway, where people were "very at ease with being open and honest"

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/4706092.stm

 

Nowadays, there is much more interaction between Broadway stage and movies. In the older days, that was less so, and thus the actors we now know to have been gay tend to be ones we know from film. The three most often mentioned are Rock Hudson, Montgomery Clift and the very cute Sal Mineo (Rebel Without A Cause, Giant, Exodus, The Longest Day). More recently there is Ellen DeGeneres and Nathan Lane. Had he lived, who knows if James Dean would have swung off the fence on the side of being 100% gay!

 

One of the funniest gay stories I heard about the American movie world features the playwright Tennessee Williams. Jack Warner, the head of Warner Brothers, invited Williams to a small dinner party. By then openly gay, Williams brought along his partner, Frank Merlo. Given the title of Williams P.A., Frank actually did not have much of a brain, and spent most of his days just taking good care of his lover.

 

During the dinner, Warner turned to Merlo and asked: “And what do you do, Frankie?”

 

“I sleep with Mr. Williams,” was the reply!

[Bob]

For many years, I've had a habit of watching/buying any movies where certain actors show up. Sir Ian McKellan (and, for another example, Morgan Freeman) is one of those people on the screen that fascinate me and their personalities/characters usually make the movie.

 

Besides his acting prowess and stage presence, I've been both impressed and entertained by this guy's wit and humaneness as evidenced in every interview of him that I've ever watched. Wish I could go drinking (or whatever) with him some day.

[Guest fountainhall]

Has we known about it, we could have seen him in Singapore 4 years ago when he performed King Lear with Britain’s Royal Shakespeare Company.

 

That production called for Lear to be naked at one point. Since in Singapore this would have meant minors being forbidden to see the play, he agreed to cover up so school groups could attend.

 

However, on a local TV interview, he made fun of the nation state’s anti-gay laws.

 

"I was rather naughty because I was on an early morning show - the sort of show that happens all over the world on TV, where you get a couple who are clearly not married or related that flirt all the time, usually an older man with a younger woman.

 

"At the end of the interview, they asked what was I looking forward to doing while I was in Singapore. And I looked at the man, who was clearly straight, and said, 'Can you recommend any decent gay bars?', which would be illegal in every possible way. I looked at the playback of the program afterwards and I've never seen the credits come up (on the screen) so quickly."

http://www.starpulse.com/news/index.php/2007/10/19/ian_mckellen_makes_fun_of_singapore_s_an

 

In fact, running and being a patron at a gay bar is not illegal. There is even a theatre-themed gay bar called rather appropriately - in more ways than one - Back Stage!

[Rogie]

"The most moving part of Mr Heston's performance was his hairpiece."

 

Had he lived, who knows if James Dean would have swung off the fence on the side of being 100% gay!

 

During the dinner, Warner turned to Merlo and asked: “And what do you do, Frankie?”

 

“I sleep with Mr. Williams,” was the reply!

 

 

However, on a local TV interview, he (McKellan) made fun of the nation state’s anti-gay laws.

 

There is even a theatre-themed gay bar called rather appropriately - in more ways than one - Back Stage!

 

Great anecdotes!

 

Until Ian McKellan, hardly any actors had come out, even though they were known to be gay in theatre and film circles.

 

One of my favourite British theatrical knights is Derek Jacobi and although he is not gay he's played a few characters who were gay in real life. I really enjoyed Love is the Devil, a made for television film shown on BBC TV in 1998. In it he plays Francis Bacon, the artist. A lot of the film takes place in a bar with Bacon surrounded by various cronies and assorted ne'er-do-wells. I laughed out loud when, in the bar, he uttered the lines:

 

"Champagne for my real friends, real pain for my sham friends."

 

Jacobi also played Alan Turing in another excellent television play Breaking the Code, shown in 1997. It had started life as a stage play, with Jacobi in the lead role, in London in 1986 and later in New York.

 

Back to the quote about the difficulty of actors coming out, I would imagine it must be a fair bit easier for other 'artists', such as painters, musicians (composers rather than performers) novelists and playwrights. They can just do their own thing (let their creative juices flow!) behind the scenes away from prying eyes and inquisitive journalists as well as not having to fend off homophobia from your peers, which must be an on-going hazard in acting circles. Film producers being very cautious about who they pick for the starring roles - he has to ensure the success of the production from start to finish - it's a money-making venture after all, that caution would usually win out and an openly gay actor may find himself sidelined more often than one who kept his sexuality private.

[Guest fountainhall]

One of my favourite British theatrical knights is Derek Jacobi and although he is not gay . . .

Don't wish to disappoint you - or maybe that should be 'delight you' - but Sir Derek Jacobi very definitely is gay and 'out'.

 

I agree he's one of the best actors around. He's not had the sort of leading film parts as his colleagues, but you see him featured in smaller roles in a lot of major movies. I think his best work is unquestionably on the stage or TV. He recently tackled King Lear in London for the first time. The Telegraph critic talked about Jacobi "enjoying a blaze of autumnal glory as an actor." The same production with Jacobi opens in New York on April 28 and plays until June 5.

[TotallyOz]

I like this shirt.

[Rogie]

Don't wish to disappoint you - or maybe that should be 'delight you' - but Sir Derek Jacobi very definitely is gay and 'out'.

I had no idea; I don't follow the lives of actors closely at all. Usually when I am writing about something I am not 100% sure about I'll say 'as far as I know' or something similar, but in this case I just assumed. Silly me! assumptions can result in egg on your face. I had a premonition (too late to edit my post) that would happen!

 

I like this shirt.

That's undoubtedly a great photo of Sir Ian. I don't know if he's bearded ordinarily? Not having seen him with one before, I assume it was taken around the time he was Gandalf. Fountainhall will no doubt tell me otherwise!

 

______________________________________________________________________________________

 

 

Returning if I may to the era of Francis Bacon and London's lively and interesting Soho inhabitants. . .

 

Britain's Telegraph newspaper had an item on Bill Clinton the other day. Headed "Bill Clinton's fond memories of the Times Square hookers".

 

Clinton nostalgically recalls his visit there for the first time in 1964 - he was 18 at the time. He clearly enjoyed the experience, referring to it as "romantic, fascinating". He goes on to say "I saw a hooker approach a man in a grey flannel suit. . ."

 

That Clinton heterosexual memory from nearly 50 years ago reminds us what it must have been like for homosexual men in those times - men like Bacon. They were poles apart. No hookers in Soho or Times Square for them. Extrovert men like Bacon, the playwright Joe Orton and the Labour politician Tom Driberg may have flourished whatever the sexual climate but it must have been hell for the average suburban gay (or gay curious) guy.

[Guest fountainhall]

I don't recall McKellan having a beard when I have seen him on stage and screen - except in Lord of the Rings! But I do hope he wore that T-shirt when he did the interview on Singapore TV

 

A few thoughts on a Sunday morning. I also know little about the history of gay life in London prior to the last years of the ‘swinging ‘60s’ when I visited occasionally. What an amazing decade that was to be alive, though! Britain finally throwing off post-war austerity and poverty, society finally shattering so many taboos and restrictions, individuals finally free to express themselves, with the result that the country’s pop music, fashion and arts scenes quite literally blazed trails to become world leaders.

 

In England and Wales (but not in Scotland, which has a separate legal system and had to wait another couple of decades), the second half of the ‘60s finally saw the implementation of the Wolfenden Report and the repeal of notorious 1861 law on sodomy, known in polite society as the Offences Against the Person Act!

 

It is, I think, generally agreed that the apprehension of Sir John Gielgud in 1953 for cruising in a public lavatory was the spark that lit the torch for repeal of anti-gay legislation. The publicity it engendered resulted in years of private agony for the actor, but much public outrage. Homosexuals had long been feared and hated in England as men who, it was believed, preyed on the innocent young, and were thus unfit to lead normal, happy lives. Until 1967, they risked prosecution for what the law called "acts of gross indecency between male persons", even in private, and could be arrested for merely showing – in a police spy's opinion – an intent to commit them. Police throughout England were alert for any hints of homosexual behaviour. Entrapment was common. The officer who arrested Gielgud was part of a police squad established in 1930 that regularly lurked in and around central London toilets.

 

The witch-hunt against homosexuals was not confined to the ‘general’ public and ‘theatricals’, as actors were often snidely termed. ‘Society’ also targeted men who in previous decades would have been protected by their positions and rank. A Member of Parliament was arrested, and a peer of the realm, Lord Montague of Beaulieu, jailed. This climate of fear was no doubt similar to that in the United States which had its own problems with McCarthy and his louts.

 

Sir John Wolfenden and his colleagues on the 15-strong Committee set up in 1954 possessed immense courage. Three were women. At one point Wolfenden suggested that for the sake of propriety, the words ‘homosexuals’ and ‘prostitutes’ should be dispensed with in favour of ‘Huntleys’ and ‘Palmers’ – Huntley and Palmers being the name of a popular biscuit (cookie) brand of the time! The minutes of their meetings must have made for hilarious reading! Still, within three years their Report would go against the majority feeling of the age and recommend that "homosexual behaviour between consenting adults in private should no longer be a criminal offence.” It took another ten years for parliament to pass the Act in 1967, a landmark piece of legislation.

 

So, it’s against this background that gay men had to live their lives prior to 1967. Not women, note, because the 1861 Act only targeted men. There is a story that all persons were originally included, but when the Bill was sent to Queen Victoria for signature into law, she expressed shock, stating that it was just physically not possible for a woman to have sexual relations with another woman. The Bill was re-drafted – according to the story!

 

Pre-1967 London almost certainly had its pubs and private clubs where gays could meet and hook up. West London was ‘attractive’ as it was close to the cruising haunts in Hyde Park, which had a large army barracks on its perimeter. No doubt, many of its occupants would wander into the park for a bit of short-time R&R and perhaps also a bit of extra cash. I’m sure also that rent boys would have been everywhere, although they’d have had to be very careful how they went about their business. Some, I’m certain, were controlled by gangs like the notorious Kray Brothers.

 

For most of those not in positions of power and authority, though, gay life in London and around the UK in general must, as Rogie says, have been pretty close to hell. My father was a doctor in a smallish town. Many of his prescriptions were filled by the chemist only 100 yards down the street. One of the owners, a middle-aged man, was rumoured to be gay and certainly acted more flamboyantly than others. He lived on his own, a point often ‘winked at’ disparagingly. As a teenager, I would occasionally hear people talk almost in whispers about how “he” had been seen going into “that” club, a non-descript house in a cul-de-sac. This was the only meeting place for gays in town, although how many would be in there – and how many of those would look behind them before ringing the doorbell - I do not know. It must certainly have been a pretty furtive existence, with your neighbours always ready to gossip about who you might have taken back with you one evening – and so on.

 

So, not only did the average gay man in Britain find it difficult to find like-minded partners, as in other countries, they were the target for gossip and scandal, to say nothing of blackmail and extortion. One Member of Parliament, Tom Driberg, who went on to become Chairman of the Labour Party in 1957-58, was a known closet-queen with a penchant for cottaging. I read on the web today that, although Driberg avoided any public scandal during his lifetime, the Kremlin was able to blackmail him into becoming a KGB agent – codename Lepage – after one blowjob too many in Moscow.

 

http://dutroux.blogspot.com/2006/01/tom-driberg-rent-boys-aleister-crowley.html

 

I wonder if there is any gay history of this period. It sure would make for fascinating reading.

[Guest fountainhall]

One of my favourite British theatrical knights is Derek Jacobi . . .

There's an interesting little article on Jacobi in this month's Vanity Fair magazine which coincides with his King Lear in New York. In one part it says: "Despite his renown as a Shakespearean actor, Jacobi doesn't believe that William Shakespeare wrote the plays attributed to him. "Edward de Vere, the Earl of Oxford, is the most likely of the claimants, but I think the plays might have been contributed to by different people," Jacobi says. "What I am sure of is that the man from Stratford-upon-Avon didn't write them."

 

I had no idea the authorship of the plays was in such doubt. Others, much earlier, seem to agree -

 

[KhorTose]

"Despite his renown as a Shakespearean actor, Jacobi doesn't believe that William Shakespeare wrote the plays attributed to him. "Edward de Vere, the Earl of Oxford, is the most likely of the claimants, but I think the plays might have been contributed to by different people," Jacobi says. "What I am sure of is that the man from Stratford-upon-Avon didn't write them."

 

 

You can add US Supreme court Judge Paul Stevens to your list of doubters and he actually sat in a mock trail where he heard both sides.

 

If you believe the man from Srtatford wrote the plays then you are a Stratfordian, if you believe it was Edward De. Vere you are an Oxfordian. I am and will always be an Oxfordian and truly believe that the Gay (bi-sexual) Ear of Oxford, Edward De. Vere is the true author of these plays.

 

There have been volumes written on this subject from both sides and these are two of my favorites:

 

"Who wrote Shakespeare" by John Mitchell

"Shakespeare by Another Name: by Mark Anderson

 

For a summary of some of salient points try this web site:

 

http://www.free-books.org/shakespeare/EdwardDeVere-17EarlOxford.htm

 

Want more? Contact any of the Hundreds of Oxford Societies that have sprang up around the world. I am a member of the Seattle chapter.

[Guest fountainhall]

If you believe the man from Srtatford wrote the plays then you are a Stratfordian, if you believe it was Edward De. Vere you are an Oxfordian. I am and will always be an Oxfordian and truly believe that the Gay (bi-sexual) Ear of Oxford, Edward De. Vere is the true author of these plays.

This is quite fascinating and mostly unknown to me up to now. I have seen many of the plays, some several times over, and read most of them. I had never realised there was even a hint of opinion that he actually wrote none.

 

Doing just a little research, it's clear, as you say, that there are strong opinions on both sides. Against you and the heavyweights in the Oxford lobby are people like Sir Peter Hall, formerly artistic director of the Royal Shakespeare Company and Britain's excellent National Theatre. In a 2008 interview in the Daily Telegraph, he said:

 

“There is no question in my mind that these plays are by one man. To me it is complete nonsense to say that Shakespeare didn’t exist or that he was someone else.”

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/theatre/3563542/Peter-Hall-everything-but-God-in-the-RSC.html

 

Interestingly, there's a big budget Hollywood political thriller about the authorship due out in September titled Anonymous (with Derek Jacobi and Vanessa Redgrave in the cast). This credits authorship to the Earl of Oxford. Yet in an article in The Guardian last month, the writer gives a different viewpoint by highlighting -

 

the gathering acceptance in academies that William Shakespeare, although an actual and prolific dramatist, worked in a theatre in which collaboration and adaptation was standard and constant. So, while his plays weren't written by Bacon or Oxford or Marlowe, they were co-written with, or rewritten by, John Fletcher, Thomas Middleton, George Wilkes and many others.

http://www.1bdnews.com/guardian/2011/04/23/should-we-care-who-wrote-william-shakespeares-plays-mark-lawson

 

There are now several new books on my reading list - and I haven't received my Barbara Tuchman Stilwell book from amazon yet!