Farley Granger

Farley Granger will never be counted among the greats like Cary Grant, Gregory Peck, or Jimmy Stewart, but he was a successful actor from the golden age of Hollywood nevertheless.

Love the smile.

His best known works are two Alfred Hitchcock films: Rope and Strangers On A Train.  Each one had underlying homosexual themes to them, themes that weren't able to play out as Hitchcock would've liked thanks to the censors of the day.

What is most interesting about Granger is that he was bisexual and was very open about it all of his life.  He had his first sexual experiences with both women and men on the same night during a stint with the Navy while stationed in Hawai`i.  In my opinion, Granger was one lucky devil for having such adventures all in one night.

Gratuitous shirtless photo.

He writes in his autobiography Include Me Out, "I finally came to the conclusion that for me, everything I had done that night was as natural and as good as it felt . . . I never have felt the need to belong to any exclusive, self-defining, or special group . . . I was never ashamed, and I never felt the need to explain or apologize for my relationships to anyone . . . I have loved men.  I have loved women."

Sexy, serious shot.

He had steamy affairs with different women in Hollywood, and indulged with men too.  Eventually, he became partners with Robert Calhoun, a theatre production supervisor, who he met after transferring much of his acting life to Broadway.  The two were partners from 1968 until 2008, when Calhoun died of cancer.

I love that he had his ear pierced during his older years.  Rock on Farley Granger, rock on.

Granger himself died a little over a year ago on 27 March 2011, at the age of 85.  His memoir, Include Me Out, is a very frank account of his career and personal life, and the book was published in 2007.