Apr 30, 2026

Andrew Stevens: Teen idol gave us queer codes in "The Fury," took off his shirt a lot, but never played a gay guy again


Nazarenes weren't allowed to go to movie theaters, so during my senior year in high school, I began telling my parents I was heading to the library or a friend's house, and sneaking out to the Showcase Cinemas to see The Chicken Chronicles (Steve Guttenberg, sigh), Close Encounters of the Third Kind, High Anxiety, Coma, The End, Big Wednesday, and in March 1978, The Fury:  Robin (Andrew Stevens, top), who has psychic powers, is kidnapped, so his Dad, former CIA agent Peter (Kirk Douglas, bottom) enlists a girl with psychic powers to find him.  


Everyone is heterosexual, and the guys both die at the end, which would be a major red flag today, but as a high schooler a few months away from recognizing that I was gay, I found many queer codes and a lot of beefcake. 












I had some idea that Andrew became a member of the Brat Pack in the 1980s, starred in some buddy-bonding angst dramas, and was called a "f*g" by Molly Ringwald (who would go on to play a pro-gay Mom in Stranger Things).  But that turns out to be Andrew McCarthy.  I haven't seen Andrew Stevens in anything else.  Here's why.



Born in 1955 in Memphis, Andrew started his career as a cute teenager, subtly muscular, with shaggy hair and a goofy smile, for "heartwarming" roles as cute or wounded kids in tv series like Apple's Way (1974), Police Story (1975), and Shazam! (1976).  I didn't like heartwarming.












In the 1980s, hair straightened, muscles bulging, tanned, Andrew began playing  suave playboys or con artists in the tv soaps Emerald Point N.A.S , Dallas, and Hotel.

Soap operas?  No way!



















More after the break



In the 1990s, he moved into a lot of softcore movies like Illicit Dreams, Body Chemistry 4, and Scorned 2,  which required him to show his backside while enthusiastically heterosexualizing.

Obviously I never saw any of them.












Andrew continued to act on occasion through the 2020s, but he moved into writing, directing, and producing as president of Andrew Stevens Entertainment.

15 writing credits, including Night Eyes, Half Past Dead, Tommy and the Cool Mule, and Abner the Invisible Dog

He directed some of those, plus The Skateboard Kid, Scorned, Subliminal Seduction, and Illicit Dreams.

Either goofy kids' movies or softcore.  Ugh. 




Producer: Over 170 movies that I've never heard of, with stars I've never heard of: Night Eyes, Point of Seduction, Victim of Desire, Subliminal Seduction, My Ghost Dad, Invisible Dog, The Boy Who Saved Christmas, Mongolian Death Worm...



















Wait -- I've heard of the star of Mongolian Death Worm, Sean Patrick Flanery.

Andrew's first production company went bankrupt in 2004, but he keeps churning them out under Andrew Stevens Entertainment. 

I'm not entertained.  There's no indication that Andrew has ever played, written, directed, or produced a gay character. Why did I start this profile in the first place?  












Oh, right.  Because the dude gave me some accidental queer codes when I was a few months away from figuring it out.  




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