Closeted (gay) actors formerly on the soaps

[Contessa Donatella]

Okay, probably everyone knows this but in case someone doesn't, the rest of you hold off on posting while they guess.

3 women on B&B. There's a fight on the set. Two women fighting over the third woman. A producer had to come out of the booth & break it up, literally. 

[Broderick]

Veering away from "gossip" for a minute, there was a newspaper article that ran all across the South in the late 1980s or early 1990s, concerning the theft of two parrots from a Florida zoo.  The parrots originally belonged to Jean Leclerc (who played Jeremy Hunter on AMC) and Chris Durham (who played Dakota on RH).  Leclerc and Durham decided they had too many animals and birds in their home, and they gave the parrots to friends of theirs who lived down in Florida.  The Florida couple decided they also had too many critters in their house, and they donated the parrots to the zoo.  Late one night, thieves arrived at the zoo and stole the parrots.  The concern was that the birds would ultimately be sold on the "exotic bird black market".  

The article was written in such a way that Leclerc and Durham appeared to be a "romantic couple", which caused a pretty big sensation among Southern female viewers of Ryan's Hope & All My Children, as some female viewers evidently assumed all male soap actors are heterosexual.  lol.  Jeremy Hunter was normally linked in the press with a pretty female actress on AMC named Kate Collins, but he co-owned the birds with the nekkid boy from Ryan's Hope.   

That's why in my response to this "long-standing rumor", I referenced "Bon jour, mademoiselle" [Jean Leclerc was French or French Canadian] and 'South Dakota" [Chris Durham played "Dakota" on RH].  I'm sure I can find the article about the two of them and their parrots if anyone wants to read it. 

It was about 35 years ago when all of that happened.  

[Xanthe]

Found this -- the mention of Leclerc and Durham is extremely brief.

https://www.tampabay.com/archive/1990/04/06/pair-of-parrots-pilfered-from-perches/

[Soapsuds]

I had crush on him during his ATWT days in 1987.

 

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[Broderick]

That is the story of the stolen birds, lol.  You can see the subtext there.  The birds were both males, and they had "bonded for life", as macaws tend to do.  They could say "I love you" to each other in parrot-talk.  

The news article was studied in-depth by the women in the office where I was working.  They were all passing it around, shaking their heads, and saying, "Omg, Jeremy Hunter and Dakota taught the birds to mate and say, 'I love you'."  (These were women who raced home to watch "All My Children" at lunchtime.)

I tried telling them the ladies those birds had likely learned their behavior from Mr. & Mrs. Short (the second owners who donated the birds to the zoo).  But there was no erasing the idea from their minds that Mr. Leclerc and Mr. Durham were roommates who owned pets together.  

I never watched either of the two shows, but I knew who Kate Collins, Jean Leclerc, and Dakota were.   My main concern was the birds might be separated from one another and die,  as they'd been together for several years and were dependent on each other.    

[TheyStartedOnSoaps]

In happier times

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[Sapounopera]

I thought that Jeremy was paired with Stacey on Loving.

[Contessa Donatella]

The guy on the right looks like someone I knew in real life BITD whose name was David A. Stampley. I don't suppose it's him, is it?

[Avatar610]

Well, the cat is out of the bag!  I first heard about the couple years ago but only posted it about here hoping that someone could back up the story- and now it's real!  

 

Thanks to Broderick for his research!

Edited May 18, 2024 by Avatar610
additional info

[robbwolff]

No. It's Christopher Durham.

[Contessa Donatella]

Figured that. I mean, a dead ringer. 

[Soapsuds]

And gay as a picnic basket. The message sent to Locher pretty much clinches it.

No way would I send a message like that to Alan.

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[GymnastGuy]

hah, it's me and thank you!

[Soapsuds]

@GymnastGuy

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Edited May 19, 2024 by Soapsuds

[GymnastGuy]

Haha, you're funny