Charlie Gillespie: Gay Characters? Gay in Real Life? Beefcake? Or Not

I'm not going to let the 2nd Generation debacle dissuade me from researching Charlie Gillespie.  His Superman-cape photo was mega-hot, and I'm pretty sure his character was gay or gay-coded.

Any other beefcake photos?
Any other gay roles?
Gay in real life?

Unfortunately, I couldn't find any biography at all, not even a single line, and every time I search for a shirtless photo, Google Images tries to push a photo of someone else.  Like Austin Mahone.

Charles Melton of Riverdale

Or someone named Gronkowski who I've never heard of.

Social media has proven fruitless.  There are over 100 Charlie Gillespie profiles on Facebook, most elderly, some women,  over 20 Charlie Gillespie instagram pages, and over 15 Charlie Gillespie twitter accounts.  You'd think that the guy with 7,500 followers would be the right one,but no, that's an airplane pilot.

Do you think this might be him? It's a frame capture from a video uploaded to one of the Charlie Gillespie instagram pages.

How about this guy, sticking his tongue out at a girl? (Obviously his girlfriend: they appear arm-in-arm, hugging, or groping each other n 3,543 other photos on the page.)

Well, at least I can go through his film credits, to see if there are any gay roles.

1. Charlie played himself in the documentary Bienvenue chez nous - La gang à Richibouctou Village (2014), about a New Brunswick village (where they speak English) welcoming a film crew.

2. The film is La gang des hors-la-loi (The Outlaw League, 2014), a sort of French Canadian Bad News Bears, where the kids have names like Shogun, Charlemagne, and Pic-pic.

3. In 2015, Charlie appeared as a guest host on Galala, "un concours télévisé de jeunes talents qui s'adresse aux 5 à 15 ans."   They sought out local talent in a different city each week: Edmonton, Saskatoon, St. Boniface, Halifax.  Charlie's town was Dieppe, New Brunswick.

I don't understand why a French-language tv program is auditioning talent in English speaking towns.

4. Fast forward two years to July 2017.  Charlie has a two-episode story arc on Degrassi: Next Class, a teen soap about students in a fictional Toronto high school.   He plays Oliver, hospital roommate of gay kid Tristan (Lyle Lettau).  But Oliver is straight.

Only two years ago, and Charlie looks a little chunky.  That might explain the lack of beefcake photos.

5. Another guest shot, on a November 2017 episode of The Next Step, about a teen dance troup in Toronto.  Charlie plays Marcus, a member of the math team who becomes captain when Zara leaves.

6. Next comes the 6 horrible episodes of 2nd Generation (2018), which required long hair for the androgynous effect. I think his character is gay-coded,but I can't be sure; that would require watching the tv series.

7. Speed Kills (2018) starred John Travolta as an aging speedboat racer (based on real-life speedboat champion Don Aronoff).   Charlie played his son, Andrew.  Since Travolta is 65 years old, his son must be in his 30s.

8.  A two-episode story in October 2018 on the new Charmed: he plays a college student who is dating Maggie until she dumps him.  When he's possessed by a demon, she saves him, but they still don't get back together.  There's a lot of kissing going on.

9. In January 2019, he appeared in the 6-episode miniseries I Am the Night, something about the Black Dahlia murder case in modern L.A.  Charlie appears only in the pilot as "Surfer Hank."  You can probably figure out what he's doing.

I'm sorry I started this research.  Not many beefcake photos, not gay in real life (if the tongue-wagger is the right Charlie), only one gay-coded role.

And I had such high hopes. The 2nd Generation  bait-and-switch strikes again.


See also: 2nd Generation: the Worst TV Series I Have Ever Seen

Daniel Clark: Brother for Life

Speaking of Robert Clark, if you watched any children's tv during the early 2000s, you probably saw his older brother Daniel (born in 1985) in a series of buddy-bonding roles.

On Eerie, Indiana: The Other Dimension (1998), a spinoff of the homoromantic subtext classic that paired Stanley Hope (Daniel) and Mitchell Taylor (Bill Switzer) as teenage paranormal investigators in an alternate universe.

On I Was a Sixth Grade Alien (1999) as Tim Thompkins, who buddy-bonds with the purple-skinned alien boy (played by Ryan Cooley).

In Model Behavior (2000), as the little brother of a girl involved in a Prince and the Pauper-style switch.

Plus Are You Afraid of the Dark, Goosebumps, The Zack Files, and Darcy's Wild Life.

As an adult, Daniel played a jerk in Juno (2007) and buffed bad boy-turned-hero Sean Cameron on the Canadian teen soap Degrassi: The Next Generation (2001-2008).  He's assumed to be homophobic after he pushes the gay kid Marco, but he insists that he's not.  At least he managed to display his increasingly buffed physique, with semi-nude and underwear shots nearly as impressive as those of his brother.

Daniel also managed to do some teen buddy-bonding, in the Australian slasher flick Left for Dead (also released as Devil's Night). 

He retired from acting to go to college, where he majored in Political Communication.  He's currently working as a news associate for ABC, and he's involved with environmental causes.

Shannon Kook-Chun: The Gay Footballer from Degrassi

Do you think the muscular Asian guy on the left is gay?

Nope, heterosexual.

No, really.  I can prove it.  You wouldn't believe what I erased from this photo of him and a few friends doing tequila shots.

He's Shannon Kook-Chun, a Canadian actor of Chinese and South African ancestry.  Millions of teens know him as Zane Park, one of the gay students on Degrassi: The Next Generation (2010-2011) a footballer in a relationship with Riley Stavros (Argirris Karras).

Before Degrassi, he had recurring roles on the Canadian tv series Baxter and Durham County.

And in the short film Verona (2010), a gay Romeo-and-Juliet story set in a contemporary college.  Two members of rival fraternities (Shannon, John Bregar) fall in love.

Look for Shanon in Hunting Season (2013), about five friends who "must fight for survival, salvation, and sanity" while being hunted in the Canadian northwoods. I haven't seen it, but there's bound to be some gay subtexts, if not a "real" gay character.

He's playing a heterosexual character in Home Again (2013), and most likely in Dirty Singles (2013), but he had a good run.

More Gay Plotlines at Degrassi High

If you were a fan of Degrassi Junior High in the 1980s or Degrassi: The Next Generation in the 2000s, you will be interested in knowing that the Toronto high school full of teen drama is going strong on Nickelodeon's subsidiary Teen Nick. The latest generation includes
Good guy with a mysterious past Drew Torres (Luke Bilyik), and his bff Jake (Justin Kelly)

Class clown Zig Novak (Ricardo Hoyos)

Zane (Shannon Kook-Chun, right), a gay athlete, and his bff, artistic intellectual Eli (Munro Chambers, left).

 Dave (Jahmil French), who is cast as a gay Romeo in the school play, and doesn't think he can pull it off, until he gets lessons from Eli.

Flaming Kurt lookalike Tristran (Lyle O'Donohoe), who is teased about his weight, until his brother, hockey player Owen (Daniel Kelly), comes to his defense.

There's as much angst as ever, and the drama is not to everyone's taste, especially after a diet of giggly teencoms.  But since no American program aimed at a juvenile audience has ever yet featured a gay character or even used the word "gay," I'll take what I can get.

Degrassi Junior High

During its early years, Nickelodeon aired several Canadian programs, such as You Can't Do That on Television and Rin Tin Tin: Canine Cop.  Degrassi Junior High (1987-89) was a teen angst drama set in an urban high school on De Grassi Street in Toronto. After three seasons, it became Degrassi High (1989-91), and then, after a 10-year hiatus, Degrassi: The Next Generation (2001-2009) The teens have more problems than any daytime soap opera: alcoholism, drugs, child abuse, domestic abuse, teen pregnancy, sexual harassment, stalking, HIV, suicide, disease, death, plus the usual dating triangles. Not quite as scandalous as Beverly Hills 90210, but for the children and teenagers used to squeaky-clean teencoms like My Secret Identity and Out of this World, it was a revelation.

Gay people appeared twice in the original series, but not among the teenagers: a teacher is rumored to be a lesbian, and one of their older brothers announces that he is gay.  Both episodes received howls of outrage from homophobic watchdog groups, and were not aired in the U.S. until later.

There was a huge cast of characters, including a number of hunks for the straight girls and gay boys to swoon over, often with underwear or swimsuit shots.  The casual nudity was quite risque by American standards.

The main focus of the original series was on Joey Jeremiah (Pat Mastroianni), a quick-witted, impertinent slacker who always wore a signature fedora (usually on his head).  In Next Generation, he returned as a used car salesman and mentor to the new generation of kids with problems (including Ryan Cooley, Jake Epstein, and Daniel Clark).

Joey had two close friends, Snake (Stefan Brogren) and Wheels (Neil Hope, left), but his strongest bond was with Wheels.  Though each dated and had relationships with girls, as they helped each other through various crises, broke up and reconciled, got jealous over each others' outside friendships, they came arguably close to the passion and heat of a homoromance.