Nick Stahl: A career of playing scarred, traumatized teens, with being gay as one of the traumas. Plus zombies, DeKay d*ck, and a gl*ry hole

Link to the n*de photos

In the summer of 2001, everybody in the East Village was talking about Bully, starring 22-year old Nick Stahl.  The South Florida teenager beats up his friend Marty (Brad Renfro), assaults him, and humiliates him by forcing him to become an entertainer in a gay bar. They even make an adult video to sell in gay bookstores.

 Bobby also assaults Marty's girlfriend Ali, while forcing her to watch gay movies and when his own girlfriend Lisa announces that she is pregnant with Marty's child, watch out!  The three friends set out to deadify him, with the help of Ali's new girlfriend (Michael Pitt).

It was not a pretty movie -- girl parts outnumber boy part ten to one, and the gay world is portrayed as unfailingly sordid and decadent.  Nevertheless, every gay magazine -- In Touch, XY, The Advocate -- gave it a favorable review as a cautionary tale about the effects of internalized homophobia.  If only Bobby had the guts to come out...

Nick was born in Harlingen, Texas, in 1979 (Texas...ugh!), moved to L.A. in 1992, and was cast in a few small roles before his big break, playing opposite the then-famous Mel Gibson in The Man Without a Face (1993).  The Man and the boy are both gay in the original novel (but they don't have a s*xual relationship).  They are straight in the movie, of course.

My Son is Innocent (1996), Eye of God (1997), Promised Land (1997), and Disturbing Behavior (1998) cast Nick as scarred, traumatized, victimized, violent teenagers, leading to Bully.  Afterwards he did a horror movie (Taboo, 2002) and a true crime (Bookies, 2003), but found himself being manipulated by older women (in Taboo and In the Bedroom), doing stuff with men but denying being gay (Twist), or murdering young girls (Sin City). Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003) must have come as a welcome relief.

In the Terminator mythos, John Connor manages to save the human world after it is destroyed by a sentient internet, so Arnold Schwarzenegger is sent back in time (n*ked) to kill him.  In T3, he returns (n*ked) as an ally, to protect young adult John and his future wife Kate (who is unfortunately engaged to someone else). 

Nick was the second actor to play John Connor.  There have been several others, including Thomas Dekker (n*de on RG Beefcake and Boyfriends) and Christian Bale.

Carnivale (2023-25) features paranormal beings working in a carnival during the Dust Bowl of Depression-era Oklahoma.  Nick plays Ben Hawkins, a farmer, chain gang fugitive, and healer who joins the carnival and eventually becomes an Avatar of Light.  He's hetero, but one of his girlfriends, Sofie, is a lesbian.

Tim DeKay (left) plays Jonesy, who runs the ferris wheel, and Michael J. Anderson, the backwards-talking dwarf on Twin Peaks, his boss, Samson.

More after the break. 

Nick played Uncle Duncan in the 2011 Locke and Key movie, the pilot for the tv series that eventually aired from 2020 to 2022.  In the graphic novels and the tv series, Duncan is gay. 

I watched Fear the Walking Dead, about the first days of the Walking Dead zombie Apocalypse, until it became unbearably silly, around Season 3.  Nick plays soldier Jason Riley in five episodes of Season 6. Too late for me, but according to the fan wiki, he's hetero.

In Violent Ends (2025), Billy Magnussen (n*de on RG Beefcake and Boyfriends) plays a scarred, traumatized, victimized young man in an Ozark crime family, and Nick his menacing, violent half-brother.  I guess things haven't changed.

Nick has had a scarred, traumatized, victimized adultood, with drug and alcohol dependency, several stays in rehab centers, and frequent "run-ins with the law."

In 2012 he was reported missing when his estranged wife was unable to contact him for several days. Turns out that he was living on Skid Row, a neighborhood east of downtown Los Angeles with a large concentration of homeless and drug-dependent residents.  

Later that year, he was caught "engaging in lewd activities" in one of the booths in an adult video store.  The details are vague, but it appears that he was using the gl*ry hole to score some drug money.  He was arrested,but not charged due to lack of evidence.

Eventually, with the help of some close friends in the entertainment industry, he emerged from Skid Row, checked into a rehab center, and got clean and sober.  In 2019 Nick reported that he had been clean for four years. 

We are currently in "The Renaissance of Nick."  He is busily co-raising his daughter, going to charity events, starring in thrillers like What You Wish for and Klifhaus, and hanging out with guys.

A lot of guys.

He has had several girlfriends, and was married to Rose Murphy from 2009 to 2012. But given his penchant for dark, conflicted, victimized gay characters, I'm going to peg Nick as bi or "mostly straight," the new identity for guys who like girls but wouldn't say no to an occasional dude.

Does he have my number?

See also: "Twin Peaks: The Return": Paranormal weirdness, 25 years later. See if you can figure it out. With Beymer bottom and James' junk

Arnold Schwarzenegger: N*de photos of Trench, Mr. Freeze, the Terminator, Conan the Barbarian, and an Austrian fitness model

The 24 Dead Hunks of "Fear the Walking Dead"

"Locke and Key": Redrum Boy, Hot Brother, and Incessant Stupidity