This list details the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer people who have been nominated for or received Academy Awards and/or cis-hetero actors who have been nominated for or won for playing queer characters. Individuals are identified as queer, though they may not have publicly or personally identified at the time of their nomination.
Best Actor in a Leading Role
Confirmed individuals
Marlon Brando, bisexual, winner of 2 Oscars, nominated for 8.
Sir Alan Bates, bisexual, nominated for 1 Oscar.
Paul Winfield, gay, nominated for 1 Oscar.
Tom Hulce, gay, nominated for 1 Oscar.
Sir Ian McKellen, gay, nominated for 2 Oscars.
Best Actor in a Leading Role
Year
Name
Film
Role
Status
Actor's Demographic
Out at the time?
Observation
Reference
1951
Marlon Brando
A Streetcar Named Desire
Stanley Kowalski
Nominated
Cisgender Bisexual
No
Brando spoke more openly on his bisexuality later on in life, including a list of affairs he had with other celebrities, both men and women. On his greatest love affair, he [stated], “If Wally Cox had been a woman, I would have married him and we would have lived happily ever after.“
Bates was attached to several men privately, behind the heterosexual marriage facade, such as ice skater, John Curry, and British TV sleuth, Peter Wyngarde.
Brando did not attend the ceremony, choosing instead to have himself represented by Sacheen Littlefeather (a.k.a. Maria Cruz), who identified as ApacheNative American. She stated that Brando refused the award due to the poor treatment of American Indians in entertainment, as well as the recent Wounded Knee Occupation.
First Black gay actor nominated in an acting category. In relationship with architect Charles Gillan Jr., until his 2002 death. Also, he was the first openly gay actor to be nominated for Best Actor and the first openly gay actor nominated in any category to have been out on their own terms.
In an interview with Seattle Gay News, Tom Hulce acknowledged his status as a gay actor, although he emphasized the word "actor" is less applicable due to inactivity.
Hawthorne was outed as gay in 1995 due to the attention his nomination at the 67th Academy Awards had gathered, but nonetheless he attended the ceremony with his long-time partner Trevor Bentham. He also spoke openly about his sexuality in interviews and in his autobiography Straight Face.
For each of his nominations (Gods and Monsters in 1998 and The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring in 2001), the star said he had speeches prepared beginning with the line: "'I’m proud to be the first openly gay man to win the Oscar.' I’ve had to put it back in my pocket twice."
The following list is composed of actors who have been claimed to be LGBT by others. They have been outed by a third party either while alive or after their death. However, they never publicly came out.
Foster has acknowledged her romantic relationships with women, but has not identified as a specific sexuality. Foster is the only openly queer woman to win two acting Oscars.
The following list is composed of actresses who have been claimed to be LGBT by others. They have been outed by a third party either while alive or after their death. However, they never publicly came out.
Sal Mineo, bisexual, nominated for 2 Oscars.
Sir John Gielgud, gay, winner of 1 Oscar, nominated for 2.
Joel Grey, gay, winner of 1 Oscar.
Best Actor in a Supporting Role
Year
Name
Film
Role
Status
Actor's Demographic
Out at the time?
Observation
Reference
1955
Sal Mineo
Rebel Without a Cause
John 'Plato' Crawford
Nominated
Cisgender Homosexual or Bisexual
No
Mineo confirmed his bisexuality slightly over a decade after his second nomination, in a 1972 interview with Boze Hadleigh—four years prior to his murder.
In 1953, Gielgud was arrested in Chelsea for cottaging (cruising for public sex), as homosexuality had not yet been decriminalized in the U.K. until the late 1960s. Gielgud was the first openly gay actor nominated in any category.
The following list is composed of actors who have been claimed to be LGBT by others. They have been outed by a third party either while alive or after their death. However, they never publicly came out.
Note: Nominated for his performance in 2024's The Brutalist, Guy Pearce's character rapes his male protagonist. However, the action transpires in an ambiguous manner, leaving the audience to interpret whether the character is in fact gay or bisexual or if the attack is a narrative scheme supposed to highlight the power dynamics between protagonist and antagonist.
Best Actress in a Supporting Role
Confirmed individuals
Lily Tomlin, lesbian, nominated for 1 Oscar.
Linda Hunt, lesbian, winner of 1 Oscar.
Tilda Swinton, queer, winner of 1 Oscar.
Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, bisexual, nominated for 1 Oscar.
The following list is composed of actresses who have been claimed to be LGBT by others. They have been outed by a third party either while alive or after their death. However, they never publicly came out.
The following list is composed of directors who have been claimed to be LGBT by others. They have been outed by a third party either while alive or after their death. However, they never publicly came out.
Incorrectly pronounced themself as the first ever openly gay person to win an Oscar during their acceptance speech[316] after misinterpreting an interview where Sir Ian McKellen said no openly gay actor had ever won in the Leading Actor category.[317] They later apologized for the mistake and justified their point was to shine a light on the LGBTQ community.[318]
The following list is composed of producers who have been claimed to be LGBT by others. They have been outed by a third party either alive or after their death. However, they never publicly came out.
The following list is composed of writers who have been claimed to be LGBT by others. They have been outed by a third party either alive or after their death. However, they never publicly came out.
Academy Award for Best Writing (Original Screenplay)
The Governors Awards are an annual ceremony hosted by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences dedicated to honor actors and filmmakers with lifetime achievement awards. Three awards are given: the Academy Honorary Award, the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, and the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award. Unlike the Academy Awards, the nominations and voting for these awards are restricted to members of the Board of Governors of AMPAS.
The Academy Honorary Award honors exceptional career achievements, contributions to the motion picture industry, and service to the academy.[398] The Academy Honorary Award is often awarded in preference to those with noted achievements in motion pictures who have nevertheless never won an Academy Award. Thus, many of its recipients are Classic Hollywood stars, such as Lillian Gish, Barbara Stanwyck, Kirk Douglas, and Lauren Bacall.
Among its Honorary Awards for acting, the academy also presents deserving young actors with the Special Juvenile Academy Award. (Most of those are not listed here; some of the early "Special Awards" that later became known in that acting category as the "Special Juvenile Academy Award" are listed with "Special Award" added parenthetically.)[399]
The Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award honors an individual's outstanding contributions to humanitarian causes.
The Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award honors creative producers, whose bodies of work reflect a consistently high quality of motion picture production.
Governors Awards
Year
Name
Award
Achievement
Demographic
Reference
1942
Noël Coward
Academy Honorary Award
For his outstanding production achievement in In Which We Serve. (Certificate of Merit)
^ abIn one of the alternate universes shown in the film, Evelyn and Deirdre are shown to be in a romantic relationship. The main universe Evelyn is depicted as straight while the main universe Deirdre is not depicted as any specific sexuality.
^ ab
Rutledge, Stephen (2023-03-25). "#QueerQuote: 'Like a Large Number of Men, I, Too, Have Had Homosexual Experiences & I Am Not Ashamed…' –Marlon Brando". World of Wonder. Los Angeles. Retrieved 2023-09-17. Brando's bisexuality was not a secret in the Broadway community or in Hollywood. His greatest love affair was with fellow actor Wally Cox. Their relationship lasted a lifetime and beyond. After Cox took his final curtain call in 1973, Brando kept his ashes. On Brando's final bow in 2004, in accordance with his wishes, their ashes were mixed together and scattered in Death Valley.
^
Callahan, Dan (2018-02-16). Baker, R. C. (ed.). "The Two-Faced Actor Alan Bates Could Be Both Gentle Heartthrob and Ruthless Tyrant". The Village Voice. Financial District, Manhattan, Manhattan. eISSN0042-6180. Archived from the original on August 20, 2023. Retrieved 2019-04-19. The clearly conflicted Bates was married and had children, yet in his personal life was frequently in gay relationships that had to be kept secret from the public.
^Marlon Brando's Best Actor Oscar win for The Godfather feat. Sacheen Littlefeather (Video clip). Academy Award for Best Actor (45th ed.). YouTube. 2008-10-02 [First broadcast on March 27, 1973]. Retrieved 2017-01-31. Sacheen Littlefeather (a.k.a. Maria Cruz) refuses to accept the Best Actor Oscar® on behalf of Marlon Brando for his performance in The Godfather (1972) at the 45th annual Academy Awards® in 1973. Liv Ullmann and Roger Moore presented the award.
^
Stein, Ruthe (2008-02-27). "Paul Winfield: Breakthrough actor". SFGATE. San Francisco, California: San Francisco Chronicle. Hearst Communications. Retrieved 2017-01-30. It was here he began a relationship with architect Charles Gillan Jr. that would continue until Gillan's death in 2002. "Paul was openly gay in his life, if not in the media," his friend Jack Larson (Jimmy Olsen from Adventures of Superman) has said.
^Hulce, Tom (2008-10-03). "SGN Exclusive Interview: The Incredible Hulce". Seattle Gay News (Interview). Interviewed by Eric Andrews-Katz. Seattle, Washington, United States: George Bakan (editor-in-chief). Archived from the original on 2020-10-31. Retrieved 2023-09-17. Andrews-Katz: 'How do you respond to the many lists that place you among openly Gay actors?' Hulce: 'I'm comfortable being among the lists, although I stopped acting about 10 years ago.'
^Gawenda, Michael, ed. (2002-06-17). "A very private knight". Culture. The Age. Melbourne, Victoria, Australia: Nine Entertainment. ISSN0312-6307. Retrieved 2016-01-26. In 1994 [sic], after Sir Nigel won his Oscar nomination, the tabloids seized on an interview he had reluctantly given an American gay magazine at the behest of his Hollywood studio. The headlines were the British press at its lowest - tasteless, intrusive, worse than cruel.
^
Ritman, Alex (2016-01-26). Moody, Nekesa Mumbi (ed.). "Oscars: Ian McKellen Says Gay Actors Have Also Been 'Disregarded'". The Hollywood Reporter. Los Angeles: Guggenheim Partners. ISSN0018-3660. Retrieved 2023-09-17. Speaking to The Guardian, McKellen added: 'No openly gay man has ever won the Oscar. I wonder if that is prejudice or chance....What about giving me one for playing a straight man?' asked McKellen,...
^
Vary, Adam B. (2017-10-29). Smith, Ben; Schoofs, Mark; Gibson, Janine (eds.). "Actor Anthony Rapp: Kevin Spacey Made A Sexual Advance Toward Me When I Was 14". BuzzFeed News. BuzzFeed. Retrieved 2020-12-01. Rapp: Spacey followed me to the front door of the apartment, and as I opened the door to leave, he was leaning on the front door[frame]. And he was like, 'Are you sure you wanna go?' I said, 'Yes, good night,' and then I did leave.
^
Billington, Michael (2012-09-30). "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof: Tennessee Williams's southern discomfort". The Guardian. Retrieved 2023-09-13. America, however, had its own censorship problems. In the cinema, the outdated Hays' Code was used to limit freedom of expression. The irony is that one of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof's great virtues is that it shows Big Daddy's tolerant understanding of Brick's sexuality.
^ ab
Slater, Micah (2020-07-07). "How Subtext Saved (and Damned) Homosexuality on Screen". FlipScreened. Retrieved 2023-09-11. Lean implied not only the queer nature of Lawrence (Peter O'Toole), but a homosexual relationship between him and companion Sherif Ali (Omar Sharif).
^ abYardley, Jonathan (1989-02-03). Buzbee, Sally (ed.). "DAVID LEAN, SORCERER OF THE SCREEN". The Washington Post. Fred Ryan. Retrieved 2023-09-13. 'So it does pervade it, the whole story, and certainly Lawrence was very if not entirely homosexual. We thought we were being very daring at the time: Lawrence and Omar, Lawrence and the Arab boys.'
^ abWallechinsky, David; Wallace, Irving (1975). "Was T.E. Lawrence of Arabia Gay? ~ Part 2". The People's Almanac (1st ed.). Doubleday & William Morrow and Company. ISBN978-0385040600. Retrieved 2023-09-12. Some point to Lawrence's close relationship with Dahoum, the Arab workman, as evidence of his homosexuality. Lawrence reserved his fondest words for a mysterious 'S.A.'--dedicating his book to this person with a love poem--and many believe S.A. stands for Sheikh, or Salim, Ahmed, i.e., Dahoum. These sources call Dahoum the love of Lawrence's life and say part of his disillusionment with the desert war was due to the fact that it caused the boy's death.
^White, Armond (2015-11-05). Reynolds, Daniel (ed.). "Marcello, Our Sexual Ally". Out. Joe Landry. Retrieved 2023-09-14. Marcello's performance in A Special Day encouraged gay identification and cinematic recognition.
^
Winnert, Derek (2016-07-25). "Reviews: The Dresser". DerekWinnert.com. Retrieved 2023-09-14. It is good that the film has a gay lead character, but it's bad that he is an effeminate stereotype, though, to be fair, both Harwood and Courtenay humanise him and try hard to keep him sympathetic.
^
Reddish, David (2022-03-19). Gremore, Graham (ed.). "Let us salute William Hurt and a breathtaking queer character". Queerty. Founded by David Hauslaib & Bradford Shellhammer (founding editor). Q.Digital. Retrieved 2023-09-14. Throughout the film, Luis uses she/her pronouns to self-describe.…The film itself also begs questions about Valentin's sexual fluidity; has he fallen in love with Luis, or just an idea the pair have created? If Hurt gets all the praise for his work in Kiss of the Spider Woman, Julia doesn't get enough. Both actors give sensational performances here.
^
Andrew, Scottie (2022-06-16). "Tom Hanks says Philadelphia wouldn't get made today with a straight actor in a gay role". CNN Entertainment. CNN. Atlanta, Georgia, United States. Warner Bros. Discovery. Retrieved 2023-09-15 – via CNN.com. 'One of the reasons people weren't afraid of that movie is that I was playing a gay man,' Hanks said. 'We're beyond that now, and I don't think people would accept the inauthenticity of a straight guy playing a gay guy.'
^
Stroude, Will (2018-04-19). Cain, Matt; Joannou, Cliff (eds.). "How Gods and Monsters cast one of Hollywood's most successful gay directors as a predator". Attitude. United Kingdom: Stream Publishing Limited. ISSN1353-1875. Retrieved 2023-09-14. In reality, Clayton Boone never existed. While [spoiler alert] Whale's death played out as it does in the film, he, at the time, was living with his boyfriend Pierre Foegel. Far from the tragic figure portrayed in the movie, Whale was openly gay in Hollywood (quite remarkable for the era) and was with his partner, David Lewis, for more than 20 years. Hollywood is all too keen on presenting gay stories as brave, heroic tragedies. From Philadelphia to Brokeback Mountain, I worry about the legacy of the 'Dead Gay' trope. Why must gay stories inevitably end in death and weeping?
^
Abramovitch, Seth (2021-09-01). Moody, Nekesa Mumbi (ed.). "Venice Flashback: Before Night Falls Made Javier Bardem a Star in 2000". Movie News. The Hollywood Reporter. Founded by William R. Wilkerson; Company: Eldridge Industries. Los Angeles, California, United States: Victoria Gold & Elizabeth D. Rabishaw. ISSN0018-3660. Retrieved 2023-09-14. — returns to the same glittery stage that made [Javier Bardem] a global star in 2000. That's when he appeared at the [Venice Film Festival] in support of Before Night Falls, the Julian Schnabel-directed adaptation of gay Cuban writer Reinaldo Arenas's 1992 memoir...The performance earned Bardem Venice's Volpi Cup for best actor.
^
Farid-ul-Haq (2014-08-11). "Re-watching Brokeback Mountain Character Analysis: Ennis Del Mar". The Geekiary. Retrieved 2023-09-14. I think Ennis is gay. He married Alma, had kids, and even tried to get another girl because that was considered 'normal' in society. Ennis is a perfect example of closeted gays living in countries where LGBT rights don't exist. Coming out as gay can mean a death sentence for some, depending on the area they live in. I think if Ennis grew up in a society where being gay was acceptable, he would've lived his life as gay man.
^
Collins, Donald (2020-12-16). Cartagena, Rosa (ed.). "That 'Gay Cowboy Movie': Queer People Reflect on 15 Years of Brokeback Mountain". Bitch. Founded by Lisa Jervis, Benjamin Shaykin, & Andi Zeisler. Portland, Oregon: Kate Lesniak. ISSN2162-5352. OCLC46789560. Archived from the original on 2023-08-07. Retrieved 2023-09-14 – via Bitch Media. The men intermittently meet for clandestine 'fishing trips' and motel rendezvous. Jack schemes for a way for them to build a life together, away from society, while Ennis doesn't believe such a thing is possible. Ennis's fear and inability to believe in—or try for—a future together, and Jack's relentless pursuit of it, drives a wedge between them.
^
Hubbard, Thomas M. (2022-11-25). Rawles, Timothy (ed.). "The Complicated Relationship Between Jack And Ennis". Gay Education. San Diego Gay and Lesbian News. San Diego, California, United States: Johnathan Hale. Hale Media, Inc. Retrieved 2023-09-14. I've always felt that Ennis was homosexual, but it was difficult to fit some of his clothes together. In the reunion kiss scene, he initiated a kiss that left him speechless.
^
Akyurek, Yagmur (2021-03-25). Burr, Steven A. (ed.). "A Mountain Made For Two: Landscapes in Gay Cinema". Confluence: The Journal of Graduate Liberal Studies. Loyola University Maryland: Association of Graduate Liberal Studies Programs. eISSN1933-0057. ISSN1082-6246. LCCN2006214368. OCLC402816617. Retrieved 2023-09-14 – via NYU – Gallatin. Same-sex love within rurality is intrinsically rooted to love for the landscape itself—Ennis has not only lost Jack, he has lost Brokeback Mountain. In the final scene of the movie, we see that Ennis keeps the two shirts in his closet below a tacked postcard of Brokeback Mountain, though this time his own shirt is the one that covers Jack's, like some final protection of Jack's memory.
^Hoffman, Philip Seymour (2014-02-02). "Remembering Philip Seymour Hoffman (orig. Oct. 2005)" (Out). Interviewed by Michael Musto. Pride Media. Retrieved 2023-09-15. Fortunately, Truman--unlike so many writers, ahem--had a boyfriend to ground him [Jack Dunphy, played by Bruce Greenwood]. They were companions for a long, long time. They had confidences together and Truman trusted Jack implicitly.
^
Staff Writer (2008-12-05). Blackwell-Clark, Edwina (ed.). "Milk exposes irony of gays in films". Entertainment. The Columbus Dispatch. Columbus, Ohio, United States: Gannett Co., Inc. (published 2008-12-04). ISSN1074-097X. Retrieved 2023-09-14. With Sean Penn starring as Harvey Milk, the openly gay San Francisco supervisor who was gunned down in 1978, the movie makes its message clear: Gay people must be 'out' to be counted....But there's also a certain irony: Not only is none of the featured players in the film openly gay, there isn't one openly gay leading man in all of Hollywood.
^
Lee, Benjamin (2015-02-22). Viner, Katharine (ed.). "The Imitation Game director defends film's lack of gay sex scenes". Oscars 2015. The Guardian. Kings Place, London, England, United Kingdom. eISSN1756-3224. ISSN0261-3077. OCLC60623878. Retrieved 2023-09-14. 'It was not because we were afraid it would offend anybody,' Tyldum said. 'If I … had this thing about a straight character, I would never have a sex scene to prove that he's heterosexual. If I have a gay character in a movie, I need to have a sex scene in it — just to prove that he's gay?'
^Hayton, Debbie (2023-01-30). Nelson, Fraser (ed.). "Eddie Redmayne's transgender confusion". Coffee House. The Spectator. ISSN0038-6952. OCLC1766325. Retrieved 2023-09-14. Trans actors would hardly want to be restricted to playing trans characters, so why should the reverse not be countenanced? This logic makes no sense and it does not help trans people. Trans people are human beings just like everyone else – and trans characters should be played by the best actor available. In The Danish Girl that meant a man – Redmayne – played the lead role.
^
Romano, Aja (2019-01-06). Sharma, Swati (ed.). "Bohemian Rhapsody loves Freddie Mercury's voice. It fears his queerness". Vox. Vox Media. Retrieved 2023-09-15. The result is far more hurtful than your average unconsciously homophobic film. Bohemian Rhapsody is a movie that consciously tries to position a gay man at its center while strategically disengaging with the 'gay' part as much as it can,
^
Duffy, Nick (2018-11-15). Cohen, Benjamin (ed.). "Rami Malek hits out at Bohemian Rhapsody over gay representation". Culture. PinkNews. Retrieved 2023-09-15. The Mr. Robot star played Freddie Mercury in the critically-panned release, which spent years in development amid rumoured fall-outs between the production and surviving Queen members Brian May and Roger Taylor over the focus of the film. Malek previously hinted at his unhappiness with the lack of focus on the gay icon's private life in the film, saying he 'would've loved to have incorporated more' about Mercury's relationship with [long-term partner] Jim Hutton prior to his death from AIDS-related illness.
^
Suskind, Alex (2018-11-14). Nementzik, Shari (ed.). "Rami Malek wanted to delve deeper into Freddie Mercury's private life". Who. Australia: Are Media. Retrieved 2023-09-15. 'I just kept pushing for more of that aspect of his life,' he said. 'I don't know if we ever felt fulfilled by it.' It was difficult to work in more, Malek says, since much of the film focuses on Queen's early days and subsequent commercial peak, and Mercury's first relationship – with 'the love of his life,' Mary Austin (Lucy Boynton) – to whom he comes out as bisexual in the film.
^
Dobson, Andrew John-Virtue (2019-12-01). "Pain and Glory Film Review: Banderas Stars in Almodóvar Gay Drama". DobberNationLoves. Retrieved 2023-09-15. Throughout Pain and Glory, the audience discovers Salvador's first desire (cinema), first adult love in the '80s (he's gay), and the lasting pangs of a painful breakup.
^
Barquin, Juan (2022-02-10). "The Beautiful, Indefinable Queerness of The Power of the Dog". Them.Us. Retrieved 2023-09-15. Phil (Benedict Cumberbatch) is not depicted as a comically evil gay cowboy, but rather as a flesh-and-blood being with mortal desires and frustrations.
^
Kramer, Gary M. (2022-12-21). Bryant, Jess (ed.). "The Whale explores the life of a lonely, obese gay man". Arts & Culture (Film). Philadelphia Gay News. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States: Mark Segal. National Gay Newspaper Guild. Retrieved 2023-09-15. In the next scene, Charlie is seen, and it is shocking — and not just because he is masturbating to gay porn when Thomas (Ty Simpkins), a missionary, drops by. It because Charlie is severely obese.
^
Rodriguez, Mathew (6 February 2026). ["Olivia Colman: "I've Always Described Myself to My Husband as a Gay Man"" "Olivia Colman: "I've Always Described Myself to My Husband as a Gay Man"]. {{cite web}}: Check |url= value (help)
^ abcd
Hiatt, Brian (May 30, 2009). "The Rise of Lady Gaga". Rolling Stone. Vol. 1080, no. 43. New York. ISSN0035-791X.
^ ab
Rogers, Destiny (2022-09-14). "On this day: Janet Gaynor & Hollywood's lavender marriages". QNews. Retrieved 2023-09-11. In the thirties, before her marriage to Adrian, Janet was linked to co-star Margaret Lindsay. Although a celebrated beauty and highly regarded actor, Margaret Lindsay never became a great star, allegedly because she refused to play the Hollywood game and marry. When she required a male date for a red carpet event, she inevitably turned to gay friends like Cesar Romero and Liberace.
^ ab
Lyttle, John (1995-08-28). "The bride and groom wore lavender". The Independent. Retrieved 2023-09-12. but with the film colony's most famous closet cases (including Cary Grant, and, gossip avers, the neurotic bisexual and biplane addict Howard Hughes). Still, the marriage was a true meeting of minds: Adrian made the trousers and Janet wore them. Roll that Happy Ending.
^ abc"Spirit of Garbo". Laramie, Moon (2018). Spirit of Garbo. London: Martin Firrell Company Ltd.
ISBN978-1-912622-02-3, p. 43.
^ abcBrooks, Louise; Jaccard, Roland (1976). Louise Brooks: Portrait d'une anti star [Louise Brooks: Portrait of an Anti-star] (in French). Paris: Phébus. ISBN978-2-85940-012-5.
^ abc"Spirit of Garbo". Laramie, Moon (2018). Spirit of Garbo. London: Martin Firrell Company Ltd.
ISBN978-1-912622-02-3, p. 129-132.
^
Mayer, So (2020-12-14). "'My Best Girlfriend': Queer Dietrich, on screen and off". British Film Institute. Retrieved 2023-09-15. In Morocco (1930) and Blonde Venus (1932), von Sternberg cast her as a cabaret performer who flirts with men, women, and disaster. It was the former film that gifted what Laura Horak identifies as probably our era's 'most-reproduced likeness' of Dietrich, as drolly-named performer Amy Jolly – jolly as synonym for gay? – in her perfectly-fitted top hat and tails, cigarette dangling.
^
Westal, Bob (2007-12-28). Cinquemani, Sal; Gonzalez, Ed (eds.). "Bob Fosse's Lenny and the Price of Freedom". Slant Magazine. Brooklyn, New York City, New York, United States. Retrieved 2023-09-15. Martin Gottfried's often questionable biography, All His Jazz, states that the frequently noted incident in the film in which Lenny manipulates Honey into bisexual threesomes with other women, was entirely an invention of Fosse and Julian Barry, inspired by Fosse's personal obsession with three-way sex.
^Maslin, Janet (1979-11-07). Kahn, Joseph (ed.). "Film: Bette Midler in The Rose: Music-World Portrait". The New York Times. Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States of America. eISSN1553-8095. ISSN0362-4331. OCLC1645522. Retrieved 2023-09-15. …Once the screenplay begins burying Rose alive. By the time her demurely dressed lesbian lover appears on the scene,…
^Ebert, Roger (1 January 1984). "The Bostonians". RogerEbert.com. Retrieved 22 February 2022.
^Spielberg, Steven (2011-12-02). "Steven Spielberg: The EW interview". Entertainment Weekly (Q&A). Interviewed by Anthony Breznican. Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States: Dotdash Meredith. eISSN1049-0434. OCLC21114137. Retrieved 2023-09-16. There were certain things in the [lesbian] relationship between Shug Avery and Celie that were finely detailed in Alice's book, that I didn't feel could get a [PG-13] rating. And I was shy about it.
^
Abraham, Amelia (2019-10-24). Kamara, Ibrahim (ed.). "What Boys Don't Cry taught us about trans representation". Film & TV (Feature). Dazed. London, England, United Kingdom: Dazed Media. eISSN0961-9704. Retrieved 2023-09-16 – via formerly Dazed & Confused until 2014. Telling the story of the real life murder of Brandon Teena, a trans man murdered in Nebraska in 1993, Boys Don't Cry was an indie film made on a shoestring budget. Its director Kimberly Peirce was barely out of film school, and Hilary Swank, who played Teena, was relatively unknown. She was paid $3,000 for being in the film. When it came out, it debuted in 25 cinemas, before going nationwide, making it all the way to the Oscars, where Swank won an award for Best Actress…for playing a man. But we'll come back to that.
^ ab"Iris (2001)". New South Wales News. Star Observer. Ultimo, New South Wales, Australia: Out Publications. 2008-04-20. ISSN0819-5129. OCLC26727666. Retrieved 2023-09-16. Even though the film focuses on Murdoch's marriage it doesn't shy away from glimpses into her lesbian affairs. '[Iris] was bisexual and had lots of affairs with men and women at the same time,' Winslet recently told an interviewer.
^ ab
Bolton, Lucy (2015). "The Intertextual Stardom of Iris: Winslet, Dench, Murdoch, and Alzheimer's Disease". In Mulvey, Laura; Backman-Rogers, Anna (eds.). Feminisms: Diversity, Difference, and Multiplicity in Contemporary Film Cultures(PDF). Sociology; Film. The Key Debates: Mutations and Appropriations in European Film Studies. Amsterdam, Netherlands: Amsterdam University Press. pp. 70–71. ISBN978-90-485-2363-4. JSTORj.ctt16d6996.10. Retrieved 2023-09-16. ...and taking a shower with her friend, Janet Stone (Wilton)....The film is edited to exacerbate the contrast between the ferociously bright young Iris (Winslet) and the confused and childlike older Iris (Dench), frequently as she is observed by John. Young John (Bonneville) watches Iris kiss another woman in a café...old John (Broadbent) watching Iris struggling to form the word 'puzzled'...
^
Squires, Talia (2017-07-06). "The Unicorn Scale: Frida". Bi.org. Retrieved 2023-09-16. She supports the Mexican Revolution, she dresses in men's clothes, she has premarital sex, and she has one super sexy tango with Tina Modotti (Ashley Judd), that ends in a kiss.
^
Coates, Tyler (2015-09-08). Graham, Mark (ed.). "Was It Good For The Gays?: The Hours". Decider. New York Post. Retrieved 2023-09-16. Virginia Woolf herself was rumored to have had same-sex affairs, although The Hours doesn't spend much time discussing them (it does, of course, open with her infamous suicide).
^
Stinner, Robert (2023-12-02). "The Hours's Queer Chronologies". Bright Wall / Dark Room. Retrieved 2023-09-16. The third is between Virginia Woolf and her sister Vanessa Bell (Miranda Richardson), who Virginia kisses strongly and passionately at the end of a visit. Each disrupts the pacing and tone of the scene it's in—the axis the characters spin on tilts unaccountably.
^
Chernikoff, Leah (2022-09-22). Nasr, Samira (ed.). "Charlize Theron Still Loves Hollywood. She Just Wants It To Be Better". Culture > Features. Harper's Bazaar. Manhattan: Hearst Communications. ISSN0017-7873. Retrieved 2023-09-16. Theron launched her production company, Denver & Delilah, in 2003 when she got the sense, she has said, that some of the financiers behind Monster wanted 'a hot lesbian movie with me and Christina Ricci'. Theron wanted to protect the vision of the film's director, Patty Jenkins, who, at the time, was making her first feature.
^
Ebert, Roger (January 19, 2006). "The woman is father to the boy". Roger Ebert's Official Website. Archived from the original on January 26, 2021. Retrieved February 8, 2021.
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Gilchrist, Tracy E. (25 February 2021). "Bisexual Blues Icon Billie Holiday Rises Up in New Lee Daniels Film". The Advocate. …The film also highlights some of Holiday's romantic entanglements with Jimmy (Trevante Rhodes); her volatile husband and manager, McKay (Rob Morgan); and actress Tallulah Bankhead (Natasha Lyonne).
^ ab
Kyzar, Kai (May 31, 2023). "Rebel Without a Cause: America's Queer Classic". The Observer (Central Washington University). Retrieved September 3, 2023. After accepting Jim's jacket, Plato not only tenderly cradles it, but even holds it up to his face and sniffs it.
^ ab
Howell, Peter (June 20, 2014). "Why Rebel Without a Cause was a milestone for gay rights". Toronto Star. Retrieved September 3, 2023. [Director Nicholas Ray and James] Dean knew what was going on. Prior to filming the intense encounter with Mineo in the abandoned Getty Mansion, he told him, "Look at me the way I look at Natalie."
^ abSchnakenberg, Robert (2008). "Bisexuality". Christopher Walken A to Z: The Man, the Movies, the Legend. Quirk Books. ISBN978-1-59474-775-5. Retrieved 2023-06-11.
^
Frontai, Raymond–Jean (2013). "James Coco (1930-1987)"(PDF). glbtqarchive.com. Archived(PDF) from the original on January 12, 2017. Retrieved June 17, 2022.
^"Howard Rollins". National Black Justice Coalition. October 17, 2017.
^
Galvin, Peter (March 5, 1996). "Books: Wild thing". The Advocate. Retrieved February 21, 2018.
^White, Armond (2016-07-15). Reynolds, Daniel (ed.). "Decoding the Gay Subtext in the Hollywood Classic, The Maltese Falcon". Out Magazine. Joe Landry. Retrieved 2023-09-13. The Maltese Falcon's gay squad constitute the glory of the studio era's character-actor legacy. Among the Falcon chasers: Papa bear Kasper Gutman, a part that won Sydney Greenstreet an Oscar nomination,
^
Cusumano, Michael (2013-06-29). "Great Moments in Gayness: Smells Like "Gardenia"". The Film Experience. Retrieved 2023-09-11. ...disguises the glaring truth, which is that The Maltese Falcon can be accurately described as the story of a group of gay men who went on an antiquing trip that got out of hand.
^
Celada, Antonio R.; Pastor García, Daniel; González De La Aleja, Manuel (2001). Power and Culture in America: Forms of Interaction and Renewal (Ediciones Almar ed.). Salamanca: SAAS (Spanish Association for American Studies). p. 265. ISBN84-7455-076-9. For Caspar Gutman, similar direct textual evidence is lacking, but he is largely thought to be homosexual because he is the older man who "keeps" the young Wilmer Cook.
^
Piatkowski, Peter (October 21, 2019). "On The Crying Game and That Scene". Bright Wall/Dark Room. Archived from the original on November 13, 2020. Retrieved February 8, 2021.
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Brod, Harry (2007). "They're Bi Shepherds, Not Gay Cowboys: The Misframing of Brokeback Mountain". The Journal of Men's Studies. 14 (2): 252–253. doi:10.1177/106082650601400202. ISSN1933-0251. OCLC818988257. S2CID147082003.
^Tomlin, in
Shulman, Randy (April 27, 2006). "Lily Tomlin". Metro Weekly. Washington, D.C. Retrieved January 7, 2014.
^Tomlin in
Radosta, Jim (May 30, 2008). "Lily Tomlin Interview". Just Out. Not online. Quote referenced in sources including
Kaye, Frank (February 16, 2012). "Lily Tomlin Graces the Stage". Baltimore Gay Life. Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Community Center of Baltimore and Central Maryland. Retrieved January 7, 2014.
^"Linda Hunt". Fatctoidz. Archived from the original on January 9, 2012. Retrieved November 2, 2011.
^
Ocamb, Karen (August 10, 2008). "WeHo Marriages Go On". The BILERICO Project. Archived from the original on January 14, 2016. Retrieved October 13, 2011.
^
Berenstein, Rhona J. (Spring 1998). "Adaptation, Censorship, and Audiences of Questionable Type: Lesbian Sightings in Rebecca (1940) and The Uninvited (1944)". Cinema Journal. 37 (3): 16–37. doi:10.2307/1225825. ISSN0009-7101. JSTOR1225825.
^ abcde
Jorgensen, Jay; Scoggins, Donald (2015). Creating the Illusion: A Fashionable History of Hollywood Costume Designers. Running Press. ISBN978-0762456611.
^
O'Hara, Maureen; John Nicoletti (2005). 'Tis Herself: An Autobiography. Simon & Schuster. p. 190. ISBN978-0-7432-6916-2.
^
Jensen, Richard Douglas (March 7, 2017). To Pappy-- Love Duke: John Wayne, John Ford and Homosexual Obsession. Raymond Street Publishers. p. 157. ISBN978-0988803763. {{cite book}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)
^ abc
Elton, Charles (2022). Cimino: The Deer Hunter, Heaven's Gate, and the Price of a Vision. New York, NY: Harry N. Abrams. p. 352. ISBN978-1419747113.
^
Kashner, Sam (March 2005). "Dangerous Talents". Vanity Fair. Retrieved February 1, 2017.
^
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. "About Academy Awards: Honorary Award". Official Academy Award Website. Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Oscars.org. Archived from the original(Web) on 2008-04-09. Retrieved 2008-08-01. "The Honorary Award is not called a lifetime achievement award by the Academy, but it is often given for a life's work in filmmaking – to Polish director Andrzej Wajda in 1999, for example, and to Elia Kazan the previous year [1998].... The Honorary Award also may be given for outstanding service to the Academy. The last time this happened, however, was in 1979, when an Oscar statuette was presented to Academy Governor Hal Elias, who had served more than a quarter century on the Board of Governors.
^Following the searchable Official Academy Award Database (a primary source for this list), years listed are the years of the Academy Awards ceremony when the award was presented (with the annual award ceremony following within parentheses, as documented in the Official Academy Award Database).
