Closeted (gay) actors formerly on the soaps

[GLATWT88]

Wow, quite a read. Such a fascinating backstory. It says a lot about his character that everyone seemed to love him and had such high praise. Seems like the EON cast was really supportive.

I am curious about the details of Joey being cut from EON. It was so vague. 

[Contessa Donatella]

Just so you know, I have run this by some folks from BITD to see if they have any independent memory of it but too soon to have heard back yet. 

I also ran a quick check at DL where they were celebrating his birthday & there was not one word about this so I may be wrong. I'm exploring the idea. 

[Efulton]

Thanks Donna.  I appreciate that.  I think we all need to be careful about posting comments on here without verifying the information first.  Especially when it is topic like the one in this thread 

[Contessa Donatella]

I'm also of the opinion that it's important to be careful when discussing queer folk in public. 

[danfling]

What is BITD?

[Contessa Donatella]

Back in the day 

[Broderick]

My opinion only --- no sources to cite.  TWO actors were cut from that storyline and replaced fairly quickly.  One was the actress who played Molly Sherwood, and the other was the actor who played Kelly McGrath.  

Henry Slesar often plotted his storylines FAR in advance, dropping random little clues as he went.  For the storyline to work correctly, the actress playing Molly Sherwood needed to be a motherly type, ditzy but loving, a lady who appeared to be kind, open & caring.  The recast actress (Laurinda Barrett) seemed to imbue those qualities a little better than the original, who'd already seemed a bit brusque and sinister.    

The actor playing Kelly needed to be a young leading man who appeared to be all-consumed with his puppets, a friendly sort with no agenda or secrets, who'd just popped over from Europe to spend a few months with Aunt Nancy and Uncle Mike.  As the story progressed, other characters would begin discovering that he had a certain secret past in Rome that didn't align with his pleasant personality (things that involved an injured person and a knife attack).  The recast actor (Allen Fawcett) seemed to imbue those qualities a bit better than the original, who'd already seemed extra-fidgety, awkward, and uneasy.  

I've always believed Henry Slesar & Nick Nicholson recast those two roles because the original actors were "telegraphing" too much of the storyline that was still many months from being told.  

[GLATWT88]

Thanks for the insight. I didn't realize that someone else was recast as well. I thought maybe there were more mysterious reasons for the change. 

[Sapounopera]

This post is disturbing. 

@GymnastGuy thanks for sharing the Dennis Parker story. It was fascinating and heartbreaking. 

Edited August 19, 2023 by Sapounopera

[slick jones]

David Oliver's contract with ANOTHER WORLD ended. The theory that he was fired for being gay makes no sense as the same network subsequently hired him to appear on SANTA BARBARA not long after he left AW. His next major role was in the miniseries A YEAR IN THE LIFE in 1986 (NBC) followed by the same role in the series in 1987. 

[Soapsuds]

@GymnastGuy

I second that!

Thank you for posting the article. it was such a great read. Even though he was just 38, Dennis lived a full life. It's sad though because when he finally had it all and AIDS got him. The 80s were a scary time. I recall the fear of getting it as my boyfriend at that time and I were very intimate but we were monogamous.

[Contessa Donatella]

I will just note for the record that I posted the link to that article way upthread. That article was how I got interested in him in the first place. 

And, I'm ready to concede. No one I reached out to remembers David Oliver being the object of a purge, although everyone does remember that there were purges. So, I was wrong. Sorry. My sincere apologies.

And, if any of you were interested in the star billing issue, that correction is now published & the link to it is available & I am waiting to hear if the IMDb is going to accept my 3rd submission to correct Beverlee's page. 

And the 80s, I lost so many friends. So many of us did. 

[te.]

I agree that it's a huge part of it, especially when you start looking at vintage interviews; women's interviews tends to focus more on personal interests, while their male counterparts, especially those who were interviewed for younger focusing magazines like Tiger Beat can get... quite intrusive. It would be far harder for male actors to dodge the questions without either flat out lying about their dating life or lying by omission, or just word answers in a "please Mary" kind of way. 

Having watched Dark Shadows during co-vid and also reading vintage interviews with people like Jonathan Frid and Joel Crothers is illuminating.

[Paul Raven]

Well it wasn't just daytime actors of course.

I've been reading through old TV Guides and Raymond Burr's fantasy backstory is dredged up again - the dead wives and child.

Paul Lynde talks about the girl that got away. Poor Cesar Romero was jilted and that turned him off marriage. And Dick Sargent is interviewed at his house about his bachelor pad that apparently he was sharing with his partner at the time

[Xanthe]

I suspect there are a lot of demographic issues at play that combine with the enforcement of heteronormativity that determine which stars and which publications are providing this slant. TV Guide presumably expects at least 50% of their audience to be female. But I probably haven't read enough magazines targeted at men to verify -- would Playboy (? or suggest another better example) also include that type of coverage?