LGBTQ Movie Characters I Love

 Brendan Fraser, who got laughs years ago in GEORGE OF THE JUNGLE and AIRHEADS, won the Best Actor Oscar for his heartbreaking performance as the morbidly obese English Lit. teacher in THE WHALE. Not only is his character a reclusive 600-pound man teaching a course about the classic novel Moby Dick to an online class, he's a 600-pound gay man who grieves having lost the male love of his life. 

So..this post is a quick one about movies with gay male characters who are on the much lighter side in movies that you may enjoy. 

My first recommendation is a 20th Century Fox film that never gets mentioned today in the talk about LGBTQ-related films but it was a much-publicized groundbreaker when it came in 1982. I was in my first TV job at the time and interviewed its female lead star, Kate Jackson. I worked for an ABC affiliate and she was hot on ABC's CHARLIE'S ANGELS at the time. The movie is MAKING LOVE, a bittersweet love story starring Michael Ontkean, Kate Jackson and Harry Hamlin. Ontkean and Jackson play a happily married young couple in L.A. He's a doctor. She's an executive in TV production. He meets a handsome and flirty novelist, played by Hamlin, and starts coming out of the closet. He falls for the novelist even though he still have a deep affection for his wife. 

This was a modestly-budgeted film. No, it doesn't look low-budget. I grew up in L.A. and I recognized several of the film's locations -- like residential, working class areas of Hollywood, the Century City mall and part of the gay-centric West Hollywood. All three lead actors commit to their characters. That includes seeing the two men shirtless and kissing. The story is simply told. The screenplay came from openly gay Hollywood screenwriter, Barry Sandler. I interviewed Jackson. I interviewed Sandler too. I told him that I'm also gay and he sent me a lovely note afterwards. This tender love triangle tale was directed by Arthur Hiller. His directorial credits included THE AMERICANIZATION OF EMILY, LOVE STORY, THE OUT-OF-TOWNERS with Jack Lemmon and Sandy Dennis, and THE HOSPITAL starring George C. Scott.

We care about the three lead characters in MAKING LOVE and watch their relationships evolve. Harry Hamlin went on to a successful TV career. He should've had a much bigger film career but he faced industry discrimination for playing an openly gay character back then in the early 80s. Today, playing an openly gay character can be straight actor's shot at an Oscar nomination. Proof? Starting with William Hurt in 1985's KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN, Tom Hanks (PHILADELPHIA), Philip Seymour Hoffman (CAPOTE) and Sean Penn (MILK) all won Best Actor Oscars for portraying openly gay men.  MAKING LOVE is worth a look. Dame Wendy Hiller (PYGMALION, I KNEW WHERE I'M GOING, SEPARATE TABLES) co-stars.

Millions of fans recognize British actor Terence Stamp as the guy who played the villain, Zod, in SUPERMAN 2. Stamp is a terrific actor, skilled at drama and comedy. To me, it's hard to believe that he has only one Oscar nomination on his resumé. That nomination came very early in his film career -- for playing BILLY BUDD  in that 1962 film. Did the Academy just not see him in THE COLLECTOR, FAR FROM THE MADDING CROWD and 1999's THE LIMEY? I thought for sure he'd get an Oscar nomination for playing the wise, middle-aged, responsible transgender Bernadette who's part of a traveling drag show act in THE ADVENTURES OF PRISCILLA, QUEEN OF THE DESERT. Terence Stamp was faaaabulous!

The marvelous John Malkovich played a real-life gay character in a movie based on a real-life incident. A con man bilked people by claiming to be the famous director Stanley Kubrick. In a way, you may feel that those people deserved to be bilked for believing that this hot mess of a queen was the creative man behind SPARTACUS, PATHS OF GLORY and 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY. The movie is 2005's COLOR ME KUBRICK. It looks at how folks become dazed and a bit clueless when they believe they've come in contact with a celebrity.

Val Kilmer as the tough, no-nonsense, well-dressed and openly gay L.A. police detective in the 2005 crime thriller, KISS KISS, BANG BANG, was just too cool. The fresh and festive spin on the cop buddy movie was an under-publicized Warner Bros. release co-starring Robert Downey Jr. Maybe the studio didn't know how to handle a good movie in which the gay guy is the hero. It was written and directed by Shane Black. He wrote the 1987 blockbuster Warner Bros, hit, LETHAL WEAPON, I love KISS KISS, BANG BANG.

My last recommendation is a movie I saw with two heterosexual Black friends. Not only did all three of us  love it, but we were stunned that we'd never heard of the 1980s British news story that served as the basis for the story.  The film was sorely under-seen and under-appreciated here in the U.S. 

Imelda Staunton, Bill Nighy, Dominic West (of HBO's THE WIRE) and Paddy Considine (of HBO's HOUSE OF THE DRAGON) star in PRIDE.  It's a 2014 release about the British LGBT community and straight British coal miners becoming allies during an intense British miners' strike during the reign of Margaret Thatcher in the 1980s. This is the true story of opposites finding common ground and joining forces. It was a top LGBT news story in Great Britain. It's a mighty fine comedy/drama.

And there you have it. I really wish there was more attention given to MAKING LOVE. That film was truly a trailblazer. Also -- after having seen such films as KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN, PHILADELPHIA, BEFORE NIGHT FALLS, BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN and MILK in later years -- I've come to appreciate even more how refreshing it was to see a movie in which the openly gay male lead characters are all alive and well at the end of the story.