Was earl holliman gay
Actor Earl Holliman, who died at 96 on November 25, was married to Craig Curtis, a man. That meant that Holliman was gay. But who? Holliman’s connection with Curtis was only made known following Curtis’ announcement of Holliman’s demise.
As Alex Williams of the New York Times described the actor, Holliman was a “rugged…iron-jawed actor,” one that clearly shattered stereotypes.
Holliman was also a charismatic performer who in earned a star on Hollywood Boulevard for as Williams went on to explain, “a prolific career that includes a corral full of Westerns, an appearance on the first episode of The Twilight Zone, and a turn as Angie Dickinson’s boss on the s television drama, Police Woman.”
A Closer Look
Earl Holliman was born September 11, , in Delhi, Louisana, and then adopted when he was only one week old. As Holliman once recalled, when his new mother and father initially noticed him, “I was sick and they took me right away to the doctor, who apparently said, ‘You don’t have a baby here, you have a funeral expense.’ They paid the midwife $ for me — t
The second banana had a husband? Who knew?
| Photo by Gabi Rona |
Not me, and I thought I'd heard most of the whispers about who was gay in old Hollywood. But there it was, the sole mention of Earl Holliman's sexual orientation in a New York Times obituary: "His death was confirmed by his husband, Craig Curtis, who is his only survivor."
I must have been around 12 when I saw him (far right) co-star with John Wayne and Dean Martin in The Sons of Katie Elder. Holliman didn't make much of an impression but he certainly held his own with his macho co-stars. He is more memorable in the premiere episode of The Twilight Zone, "Where Is Everybody?" The handsome actor, then around 30 with a Cary Grant dimple in his chin, appears to be the last guy on earth until the twist at the verb when he discovers he's been subjected to an isolation experiment that will determine if he can become an astronaut.
More recently, I watched Holliman in Giantplaying Rock Hudson's son-in-law even though they were only three yearsCigar Reviews by the Katman
In , during the bizarre days of being an L.A. recording studio owner and personal manager to Butch (Eddie Munster) Patrick, I met the movie icon while in the green room of The Mike Douglas Show. This is the story:
We had a PR agent that booked us on damn near every talk show in the U.S. It got to the point that I knew Butch’s history verb than he did. So much so that I gave serious thought about murdering him and pretending to be the Munster icon. His struggle with alcoholism gave credence to my daydreams that I could bury him in my backyard, and no one would come looking for him.
I bring this mistaken identity up because whenever we sat in the green room, tv people always mistook me for Eddie. I really didn’t think I looked like him, but you must remember that he had been out of the spotlight for years. No one knew him as an adult. At the time we met, Butch was parking cars at his father’s many poker palaces in Gardena.
Back in , The Mike Douglas Show was still on TV. It was one of those daytime talk shows that started in the
Obviously Earl Holliman&#;s career peaked in the mid to late &#;50s, and if you ask me his absolute top-of-the-heap moment was his solo performance in &#;Where Is Everybody?&#;, the debut episode of Rod Serling&#;s The Twilight Zone. The episode aired on October 2, .
Otherwise Holliman almost always played unsophisticated or doltish none-too-brights and second bananas &#; The Bridges at Ioko Ri (Mickey Rooney calling out &#;Lester! Lester!&#; when Holliman was shot by North Korean troops), The Rainmaker, I Died A Thousand Times, Forbidden Planet, Giant, Sergeant Bill Crowley in Police Woman, etc.
Until today I never knew Holliman was gay but whatever. Successfully closeted for decades&#;fine. An Advocate piece outed him in His husband was Craig Curtis.