Potentially Gay, Bisexual, Or Queer Stars Of Golden Era Hollywood

Despite only appearing in three films, the cultural status of James Dean as a disillusioned rebel is just as strong in the 21st century as it was at the height of his popularity. Dean passed in 1955, at age 24. Rumors swirled around his sexuality in his heyday, and persist today. No one knows for sure what how the Rebel Without a Cause star identified. Since the 1970s, several books have attempted to out the Giant actor. For example, in 1975, Jonathan Gilmore, a close friend to Dean, wrote The Real James Dean. In the book, Gilmore claimed he and Dean engaged in intimate encounters.

Two-time Academy Award winner Marlon Brando is largely considered one of the greatest screen actors of all time. The Godfather patriarch was married three times. Many allegations suggest Brando was bisexual. The rumored affair that has been most persistent over the years was a supposed encounter with James Dean. However, Darwin Porter's biography, Brando Unzipped, claims the actor had intimate relationships with Cary Grant, Montgomery Clift, and Sir John Gielgud. In 1976, during an interview with a French journalist, Brando said: "Homosexuality is so much in fashion, it no longer makes news. Like a large number of men, I, too, have had homosexual experiences, and I am not ashamed."

Katharine Hepburn is perhaps the most renowned actress in the history of Hollywood, with four Academy Award wins over a 60-year career. In 1999, she was named the Greatest Female American Screen Legend by the American Film Institute. By several accounts, Hepburn's 25-year relationship with frequent co-star Spencer Tracy was more about friendship than attraction. Screenwriter and gay rights activist Larry Kramer claimed of the famous couple, "Hepburn and Spencer Tracy were both gay. They were publicly paired together by the studio. Everyone in Hollywood knows this is true, but of course I haven't seen it printed anywhere."

Spencer Tracy was one of the biggest movie stars in old Hollywood. During his 40-year career, he was nominated for nine Academy Awards, with two wins. The actor was married with two kids, and even though he became estranged from his wife Louise, they never divorced, which Tracy claimed was because of his Roman Catholic upbringing. Tracy formed a reputation in Hollywood as a hard partying star. He was linked to starlets such as Ingrid Bergman and Hedy Lamarr. Tracy was also rumored to have been involved in a long-term relationship with actor John Derek, and it has been alleged his relationship with Katharine Hepburn was studio-engineered.

Swedish-born Greta Garbo was a Hollywood star in the '20s and '30s, though her status endures; she made AFI's 50 Greatest American Screen Legends, published in 1999. She retired from acting and public life entirely at the age of 36 after 27 films and spent the remaining years of her life in isolation. She never married and never had any children. Garbo has been romantically linked to several female stars. Garbo remained silent about her personal life, which lent an air of mystery to her persona.

Matinee idol and Oscar-nominated actor Rock Hudson was lost to AIDS in 1985 at age 59. Before his illness, the actor concealed his lifestyle throughout his career. However, Hollywood insiders knew, despite his three-year marriage to Phyllis Gates in the 1950s. In fact, it was Gates who confronted Hudson about his orientation. The dialog was tape-recorded by a private investigator named Fred Otash, whom Gates hired to follow Hudson. Gates became suspicious of her husband's sexuality following a Rorschach test he took.

Enigmatic 1950s heartthrob Montgomery Clift was a method actor, and his work earned him four Academy Award nominations. Unlike most of his peers, who lived in Los Angeles, Clift lived in New York. This decision left his dating life out of the scandal papers and kept his personal life very personal. Clift was involved in a seemingly "will they or won't they" relationship with Elizabeth Taylor. Like most of the stars on this list, Hollywood insiders knew of rumors relating to Clift's dual-gendered preferences. Debbie Reynolds wrote in her memoir: "[Liz and Monty] laughed and giggled while making out in the water in front of us all… Even though Monty had boyfriends as well as girlfriends, it was obvious that he and Elizabeth had been intimate. Elizabeth could seduce any man, gay or straight."

Clark Gable was so famous in his heyday he was referred to as "The King Of Hollywood." The Gone with the Wind star won his lone Academy Award for Oscar-sweeping romantic comedy It Happened One Night. Despite being married five times and having two kids, Gable was a notorious ladies man, who often made a point of going after fresh-faced Hollywood starlets. Yet, rumors circulated that Gable was willing to trade encounters with men for career advancement.

Barbara Stanwyck was one of the most ambitious actresses in old Hollywood, appearing in almost 85 films over a 60 year career. She was nominated for four Academy Awards, received an Honorary Oscar in 1982, and was given the Cecil B. DeMille Award in 1986. Stanwyck was married twice and had one adopted son. Stanwyck's status seemed to be an open secret. Actor Clifton Webb called the actress, "My favorite Hollywood lesbian" and the actress's biographer Axel Madsen wrote, "people would swear that she was Hollywood's biggest closeted lesbian."

It's been more than 50 years since Marilyn Monroe passed away unexpectedly in 1962 at age 36. However, the actress still tops any list of blonde bombshells. Monroe was married three times, and two of her marriages were extremely high profile: her second was to New York Yankee Joe DiMaggio and the third to Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Arthur Miller, respectively. The Gentlemen Prefer Blondes star allegedly admitted to having intimate encounters with Joan Crawford and Marlene Dietrich.

Very few actors in the history of Hollywood had the dramatic chops and comic timing of debonair leading man Cary Grant. The Hollywood lothario was married five times and had one daughter. The American Film Institute ranked him second on its Greatest American Screen Legends list (Humphrey Bogart topped it). Grant's preference, however, is a matter of debate. He was roommates with actor Randolph Scott for 12 years. The pair met on the set of Hot Saturday in 1932 and lived together in a mansion nicknamed Bachelor Hall in the Los Feliz neighborhood of Los Angeles. These photos of Grant and Scott suggest they may have been more than just friends.

Joan Crawford was one of Hollywood's biggest movie stars in the 1920s and ranks 10th on AFI's The Greatest American Screen Legends. The Academy Award winning-thespian appeared in more than 80 movies in her 50 year career. She was married four times and adopted five children. For years, rumors swirled about Crawford's insatiable appetite for men and women. The rumors are explored in detail in David Bret's biography Joan Crawford: Hollywood Martyr.

The name Raymond Burr is synonymous with his iconic TV character, defense attorney Perry Mason. He's also well-known for his portrayal of a disabled detective in NBC's hit drama Ironside. Burr married Isabella Ward in 1948, but the marriage only lasted a short time. Burr met fellow actor Robert Benevides on the set of Perry Mason in 1960. They remained together until Burr's passing in 1993. Benevides was usually listed as Burr's business partner. The couple bought land together in the 1980s and started a vineyard in California's Sonoma County.

Best known as Norman Bates in the Psycho films, Anthony Perkins was a married man with two children. However, he also allegedly had several affairs with men, with his longest reported romantic male relationship with actor Tab Hunter. Perkins passed in 1992, at 60, from AIDS-related complications. He was with his wife, Berry Berenson, and two teenage sons at the time of his passing. It came as a shock to his fans because his illness was never disclosed.

In February 2018, Richard Pryor's widow, Jennifer Pryor, released a statement to TMZ stating that her husband had had an intimate affair with Marlon Brando in the '70s. As she told the publication: "It was the '70s....if you did enough cocaine, you'd f*ck a radiator and send it flowers in the morning." This wasn't the first time Pryor's encounter with Brando had been in the news, however. Quincy Jones had also alluded to it in a Vulture interview, in which he said Brando was intimate with numerous high-profile men, including Pryor.