Actors who played gay roles

Dennis Quaid. The solidly macho Quaid had made a career of comedies and adventure films. Then in 2002’s Far From Heaven, he did an about-face as Julianne Moore’s closeted husband. (In this film, set in the not-so-fabulous ’50s, their snobbish friends were more appalled by Moore’s friendship with an African-American gardener than by Quaid’s gender preference.) After Far From Heaven, Quaid returned to such solid, macho roles as Sam Houston in The Alamo. Tom Hanks. His mantle as the hottest star of the ’90s was partly due to his Oscar-winning performance as an AIDS victim in 1993’s Philadelphia. After the debacle of The Bonfire of the Vanities, Hanks wisely took an ensemble part in A League of Their Own and followed it with a romantic lead in Sleepless in Seattle. Then came his dramatic triumph in Philadelphia, with mega-blockbuster Forrest Gump arriving a year later. An impressive career diagram. Charlize Theron. She proved her versatility by winning an Oscar as an abused prostitute-turned serial killer in 2003’s Monster. She’s betrayed by lover Christina Ricci. Back in 1996, three years before the Wachowski brothers hit paydirt with The Matrix, they cast Gina Gershorn and Jennifer Tilly in the wildly campy Bound. Gershorn and Tilly play lovers who get away with theft and attempt to get away with murder. Leonardo DiCaprio. Just two years before Titanic made Leo everyone’s favorite proletariat hero, he starred in 1995’s Total Eclipse as poet Arthur Rimbaud, whose affair with mentor Paul Verlaine causes all sorts of problems. When Leo became a heart-throb, all mentions of Total Eclipse went into — you guessed it! — eclipse. Kate Winslet. Leo’s Titanic co-star gave a superb performance in 1994’s Heavenly Creatures, an early effort from Lord of the Rings maestro Peter Jackson. She played an aristocratic New Zealand schoolgirl in the repressed ’50s. She and a lonely working-class co-ed form a passionate bond that leads to murder. Definitely worth a rent, with Winslet’s and Jackson’s talent on full display. Judi Dench. In 2006’s Notes on a Scandal, Dame Judi played a bitter, lonely schoolteacher despised by both students and faculty. She lusts after colleague Cate Blanchett, only to discover that Cate’s having an affair with a student. She uses this bit of information to her own advantage. Not exactly in the tradition of Goodbye, Mr. Chips; Good Morning, Miss Dove; and To Sir, With Love.

Pages: 1 2 3