GAY CELEBRITIES FROM CLASSIC TV: RICHARD DEACON
 | Fawzi Bairre |
| Posted on: | March 19, 2015 |
| Categorized: | Bate Life |
During the 1950’s, 60’s and 70’s, TV actors and entertainers lived within the boundaries of a homophobic and sexually repressive culture. To maintain a career in show business meant constantly weighing the balance of remaining closeted or becoming an outcast, having to choose between personal relationships or professional livelihood because of the hysterical fear of homosexuality within the culture of that time.
Television was the place where traditional roles and moral values became institutionalized in those years. On TV the public was kept from confronting the uncomfortable truths of married life, like sleeping in the same bed or having a navel. A chaste and modest world of order and moral discipline was reinforced by the world on television.
Gay men existed only as punch lines within that world, or as perverts in crime dramas. The notion that such men might actively participate in normal social activities was inconceivable. In those years, your life could be ruined if anyone discovered that you were gay, whether you were actively sexual or not. Sodomy in most places was still illegal, and gay bars were routinely raided by police. There was no LGBTQI liberation on the horizon in the Fifties, no glimmer of hope that society might ever view your sexuality as legitimate much less equal.
Despite these obstacles, a few daring actors openly risked sharing their private lives with colleagues while maintaining successful television and film careers, though the majority remained publicly in the closet to the end.
We want to pay tribute to some of these fine upstanding gentlemen. First up:
RICHARD DEACON
Best known as producer Mel Cooley, the hapless target of vicious baldy jokes on The Dick Van Dyke Show, Richard Deacon had a long and successful career before and after his five years spent as Buddy Sorrell’s follically-challenged victim.
Deacon was an incredibly popular figure in movies and TV during the Fifties and Sixties. He was the go-to guy when casting agents needed an officious and uptight neighbor, doctor, barber, city councilman or otherwise stiffly bureaucratic stuffed shirt. He played that guy in the classic features The Birds, Invasion of the Body Snatchers and Invaders from Mars, and on TV he had a solid presence as a supporting player with bit parts in pretty much everything ever made. He was also perfectly cast as Horace Vandergelder in Hello, Dolly! on Broadway with Phyllis Diller. Man, would I love to have seen that!
A gourmet chef and “lifelong bachelor,” Deacon also authored a series of cookbooks and hosted a Canadian TV show about microwave cooking. Mmmm, gourmet Canadian microwave cooking!
While he has been described by cast members as one of the nicest guys around, Deacon was discrete about his homosexuality, yet most of his colleagues knew. At a time when his career could have been destroyed by scandal, it’s a credit to Deacon’s professional friends and costars that they kept his secret too.
In the book Hollywood Gays by Boze Hadleigh, the author once asked Deacon, “Do you imagine any segment of the public guesses that Richard Deacon is gay?” Deacon answered, “Not even gays. Most would be surprised. Only because what you see on TV is a serious guy in a suit, unsmiling, isn’t how anyone thinks of gay males.”
Deacon also had some scathing thoughts about Paul Lynde.
Somebody get me a clicker…
During the 1950’s, 60’s and 70’s, TV actors and entertainers lived within the boundaries of a homophobic and sexually repressive culture. To maintain a career in show business meant constantly weighing the balance of remaining closeted or becoming an outcast, having to choose between personal relationships or professional livelihood because of the hysterical fear of homosexuality within the culture of that time.
Television was the place where traditional roles and moral values became institutionalized in those years. On TV the public was kept from confronting the uncomfortable truths of married life, like sleeping in the same bed or having a navel. A chaste and modest world of order and moral discipline was reinforced by the world on television.
Gay men existed only as punch lines within that world, or as perverts in crime dramas. The notion that such men might actively participate in normal social activities was inconceivable. In those years, your life could be ruined if anyone discovered that you were gay, whether you were actively sexual or not. Sodomy in most places was still illegal, and gay bars were routinely raided by police. There was no LGBTQI liberation on the horizon in the Fifties, no glimmer of hope that society might ever view your sexuality as legitimate much less equal.
Despite these obstacles, a few daring actors openly risked sharing their private lives with colleagues while maintaining successful television and film careers, though the majority remained publicly in the closet to the end.
We want to pay tribute to some of these fine upstanding gentlemen. First up:
RICHARD DEACON
Best known as producer Mel Cooley, the hapless target of vicious baldy jokes on The Dick Van Dyke Show, Richard Deacon had a long and successful career before and after his five years spent as Buddy Sorrell’s follically-challenged victim.
Deacon was an incredibly popular figure in movies and TV during the Fifties and Sixties. He was the go-to guy when casting agents needed an officious and uptight neighbor, doctor, barber, city councilman or otherwise stiffly bureaucratic stuffed shirt. He played that guy in the classic features The Birds, Invasion of the Body Snatchers and Invaders from Mars, and on TV he had a solid presence as a supporting player with bit parts in pretty much everything ever made. He was also perfectly cast as Horace Vandergelder in Hello, Dolly! on Broadway with Phyllis Diller. Man, would I love to have seen that!
A gourmet chef and “lifelong bachelor,” Deacon also authored a series of cookbooks and hosted a Canadian TV show about microwave cooking. Mmmm, gourmet Canadian microwave cooking!
While he has been described by cast members as one of the nicest guys around, Deacon was discrete about his homosexuality, yet most of his colleagues knew. At a time when his career could have been destroyed by scandal, it’s a credit to Deacon’s professional friends and costars that they kept his secret too.
In the book Hollywood Gays by Boze Hadleigh, the author once asked Deacon, “Do you imagine any segment of the public guesses that Richard Deacon is gay?” Deacon answered, “Not even gays. Most would be surprised. Only because what you see on TV is a serious guy in a suit, unsmiling, isn’t how anyone thinks of gay males.”
Deacon also had some scathing thoughts about Paul Lynde.
Somebody get me a clicker…
8 Responses to “GAY CELEBRITIES FROM CLASSIC TV: RICHARD DEACON”
Leave a Reply Cancel Reply to Tony
This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
This is a great entry and the first time I have seen this kind of column. thank you so much for revealing this. By the way, he was a semi- regular on, “Leave It To Beaver,” on which he played the self-aggrandizing father of Lumpy Rutherford. He was always giving Beaver’s dad unsolicited parenting advice, not realizing, as everyone else did, that he was raising a nearly delinquent dufus everyone called,,”Lumpy.”, actually named Clarence.
Thank you much for this enlightening entry.
I loved him in that role. See my comment above. Thanks.
Some of these guys who didn’t headline movies or TV shows have such interesting stories. I wonder how much support he got from his co-stars. I wonder which of them knew.
That’s a good question. In my original draft of this, I included a sentence about Jerry Mathers mentioning that all the main cast and crew of Leave It To Beaver knew Richard Deacon was gay, because he’d have them all over to his place on the weekend, and Deacon was very open about living with his male partner. But I can’t find the source for the reference, so I deleted it. But it’s out there somewhere lol. For someone at that time whose career could have been destroyed, it really impresses me both that he was so out in Hollywood, and that the professionals around him kept it to themselves.
A very nice piece. I recently finished reading Boz Hadleigh’s book. His interview with Richard Deacon was very interesting. One of the more interesting ones in the book.
Finding out Raymond burr was of that ilk really surprised me too…watch me ..om metv!
I really don’t care if Richard Deacon was gay or staright, he is and actor that made me laugh and he was very entertainig. He had a famous sense of humor.
Thanks Richard Deacon
I Agree With Mark A. Dobuzinsky. I really don’t care if Richard Deacon was gay or staright, he is and actor that made me laugh and he was very entertainig. He had a famous sense of humor.