Robert De Niro's 15 Gayest Movies, from "Bloody Mama" to "Dirty Grandpa"

In addition to being one of the most accomplished actors of our time, Robert De Niro is a strong gay ally.  In 2016 he received the GLAAD Excellence in Media Award, for media professionals who have made a significant difference in LGBTQ representation

He has 135 acting, 39 producing, and 2 directed credits listed on the IMDB, but these are the gayest, with gay characters, buddy-bonding subtexts, beefcake, or nudity.

1. Bloody Mama (1970). The 27-year old's first nude scene in an anti-Establishment tale of Ma Barker and her crime family.  Mama gives the squaling Lloyd a bath, and his penis pops out.

2. Mean Streets (1973): buddy-bonding between two Italian-American hoods, De Niro and Harvey Keitel.

3. 1900 (1976): buddy-bonding between two Italian boys, one rich, one poor (De Niro, Gerard Depardieu).  Their three-way encounter with a woman features frontal nudity.

4. Taxi Driver (1976): Travis Bickle becomes a vigilante, and rescues lesbian Jody Foster. Mega beefcake.

5. New York, New York (1977): "Lullaby of Broadway" romance between De Niro and gay fave Liza with a Z.

6. The Deer Hunter (1978): Depressed Vietnam War vets. One of De Niro's first nude scenes.

7. Raging Bull (1980): A self-destructive boxer.  Beefcake.

8. The Mission (1986): buddy-bonding in 18th century South America, between a Jesuit priest and a reformed slave trader (Jeremy Irons, De Niro).

More after the break

Fangbone!: 3rd Grade Barbarian and Boyfriend Fight Monsters

 

Fangbone (2014-2017) features a 9-year old warrior from the land of Skullbania who talks like Conan the Barbarian (and is voiced by Taylor Abrahamse).  He was entrusted with a magical talisman (if you must know, the severed toe of the Venemous Drool) and zapped into our world, where he befriended "weird kid" Bill (Colin Doyle).   Drool sends monsters and tries various psychological tricks to get his toe back, but Fangbone and Bill are always victorious.

You get the premise in the opening credits; the show itself is nonstop buddy-bonding, with almost all of the characteristics of a classic gay subtext: physicality, domesticity, exclusivity, lack of heterosexual interest, and permanence.  

In "The Necktie of Change," Bill is annoyed by Fangbone's barbarian excesses; he forces Bill to wake up three hours early, stabs the toaster, and won't let him enter "the maw of the metal beast" to get to school.  Then a magical photograph transforms him into a preppy who wears a suit and eats with a knife and fork. At first Bill is excited by this new toned-down Fangbone, but then he realizes that it was Fangbone's eccentricity that made him attractive.  Besides, he can't fight monsters as a preppy. Constant grabbing of hands, arms around shoulders, hugging.  Physicality.

In "The Mom of No Return," Bill's Mom discovers that he has been fighting monsters with Fangbone, and forces them to separate.  They are miserable without each other.  Besides, Fangbone can't fight monsters adequately by himself.  Mom finally relents, and Bill rushes in to save the day. Permanence.

Not many episodes involve friends outside the core duo.  I watched "The Pitch of Black," in which Fangbone takes the gang camping (aka "Skullbanian sky-snoring"), to check on their interactions.  He insists on roughing it -- no wifi, no tv, no "phones of smart."  Then shadow-monsters attack!  The friends consist of Dibby, who talks like a robot; Patty, a sarcastic girl; and a chubby eyeglassed person.  They act as a group, leaving the Fangbone-Bill pairing intact.  Exclusivity.

Only one episode mentions a girl or a woman: Fangbone is stressed out being responsible for the fate of two universes, so Bill finds a previous Guardian of the Toe to give him a pep talk: Wargrunt of the Bare-Claw Bear Clan, a giant adult Valkyrie-person.  But she turns out to be evil, hoping to use the power of the One Ring -- um, I mean Toe -- for her own ends.  No heterosexual interest.

All that's missing is domesticity: Fangbone lives by himself. 

Fangbone! is based on a series of books by Michael Rex, who has published many other children's books about monsters and warriors. No indication that the subtext is intentional. 

But no indication that it's not intentional.  Here another of his characters displays heterosexual interest, so why did he ensure that Fangbone and Bill don't?  A suggestion of authorial intent.

My Grade: A

Leif Garrett: The teen Idol who out-swished Liberace in the glam 70s

Link to the nude photos

Even in the glam-rock 1970’s, when swishy postures were sexy and the androgynous became superstars, Leif was so absolutely girlish in every word and gesture, polarized so far into the feminine, that only the pronouns of “he” and “him” gave any indication that this person should be taken as male. 

 And, in spite of a recurring role on Family as the “boyfriend” of aggressively masculine tomboy Buddy (Kristy McNichol), it was impossible to imagine Leif ever sleeping with a girl.  

Even the teen magazines made quite a mystery of Leif’s romantic interests. One 1977 article, promising “99 Fax About Leif,” divulged only that he enjoyed playing Monopoly, he preferred being shirtless, and he had never told a girl “I love you.” Perhaps he had told a boy, as they lounged around the house shirtless, playing Monopoly?

Leif seemed conflicted about how epicene his public persona should be. At first he was adamantly, defiantly girlish, but when fans began complaining that parents wouldn’t allow his pinups because he looked too much like a girl, he adopted a new persona, sullen and inarticulate, and, he hoped, masculine. I

Instead he became androgynous, a Caravaggio youth.  The teen magazines did their part: an article in Tiger Beat announced that his first love was skateboarding “next to music and girls, of course,”  and another assured readers that “Leif is a He-Man,” detailing his enthusiasm for jogging, swimming, and horseback riding (still, nary a macho sport in the lot).

Leif released his first album, entitled Leif Garrett, in the fall of 1977, before he was old enough to drive a car; the cover shows him in a maroon shirt, unbuttoned all the way down to his navel, revealing a smooth, firm, but undefined chest, shoulder-length blond hair, and a round androgynous face. The overt eroticism of the cover art belies the romantic innocence of the tracks, mostly covers of rock classics such as “Johnny B. Goode,” “California Girls,” and “Surfin’ USA.” Nevertheless, several tracks manage to avoid the “girl” filler, making Leif a possible successor to gay-friendly Shaun Cassidy

In Feel the Need, released during the summer of 1978, Leif could almost be a drag queen. Now the songs stray far from the heteronormative “Runaround Sue” to “I Was Made or Dancing” and “Without You,” which omit pronouns and girls’ names.

Here he looks like Tim Curry in The Rocky Horror Picture Show.  

 

Leif's teen idol star fell quickly during the 1980s, when glam gave way to cowboy machismo, so he returned to television, with a swishy role in The Outsiders, trying too hard in Cheerleader Camp, and guest spots, sometimes playing himself, on a variety of tv dramas. He continued to tour, as a solo performer and in his new band, Godspeed, performed in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, and in the 2000s, parodied himself in Dickie Roberts, Former Child Star.   He even parodied his various arrests and drug problems on The World's Dumbest Criminals.

No one could possibly have imagined it in the 1970s, but this person who out-swished Liberace was actually straight! It was just  matter of his natural femininity combined with androgynous glam expectations.  In real life, he's had a variety of girlfriends and no hints of boyfriends.  Actually, I'm not aware of any statements indicating awareness that LGBT people exist. 

The nude photos are on RG Beefcake and Boyfriends

See also: Preston Oliver: Teen idol with four tv roles, two boyfriends, and "Ask Me Toney"

Jacob Sartorius: Femme teen idol into heterosexism, cowboys, and frontal nudity

Ten hot/hung photos of Lee Doud, plus anti-Asian discrimination in the gay community

 

Link to the nude photos

 Lee Doud starred in the Doku series I'm Fine, about some twenty-ish friends looking for love in West Hollywood. I lived in West Hollywood for twelve years, sigh.

He also appeared in Good Trouble, Lucifer, and SWAT, and wrote/produced the documentary series OUTLOUD: Raising Voices   

In 2018, Lee  published The Gay Community's Fear and Loathing of Asian Men Must End" in The Advocate, about his experience as a mixed-race Asian/white guy in Hollywood ("you'll get more roles if you downplay the Asian part) and in the gay community ("So, which half of you is white, har har")..  Guys think that he is Hispanic, and actually lose interest when he tells them that he is part-Asian.  Hookup app profiles regularly say "No Asians.  Not racist, just a preference."

Um...it's a preference because they think that all Asian men have traits that they find undesirable, like being femme,anal bottoms, or having small dicks.  On the flip side, some guys like those traits, and fetishize Asian men. That's the definition of racism.

So let's take a look at some photos that highlight Lee's physique.  

Morning mimosas

Halloween at the Pailhouse.  I miss West Hollywood.

More after the break