Friday, August 31, 2012

KNOW Your LGBT History - William 'Billy' Haines and Jimmy Shields



We all know about the openly gay actors of today like Neil Patrick Harris, Jim Parsons, Chris Colfer, etc.

But what about the openly gay actors who came before them? Yes, there were some openly gay actors - AND directors - in Hollywood at a time in which the lgbtq community wasn't as out of the closet as we are now.

Today, I want to focus on William "Billy" Haines, who gave up his career instead of staying in the closet, and the love of his life, Jimmy Shields:

Charles William "Billy" Haines was an American film actor and interior designer. He was a star of the silent era until the 1930s, when Haines' career was cut short by MGM Studios due to his refusal to deny his homosexuality. Haines never returned to film and instead started a successful interior design business with his life partner and was supported by friends in Hollywood.

Haines and his partner, Jimmy Shields, began a successful dual career as interior designers and antique dealers. Among their early clients were friends such as Joan Crawford, Gloria Swanson, Carole Lombard, Marion Davies and George Cukor. Their lives were disrupted in 1936 when members of the Ku Klux Klan dragged the two men from their home and beat them, because a neighbor had accused the two of propositioning his son. Crawford, along with other stars such as Claudette Colbert, George Burns, Gracie Allen, Kay Francis, and Charles Boyer urged the men to report this to the police. Marion Davies asked her lover William Randolph Hearst to use his influence to ensure the neighbors were prosecuted to the full extent of the law, but ultimately Haines and Shields chose not to report the incident.

The couple finally settled into the Hollywood community in Brentwood, and their business prospered until their retirement in the early 1970s, except for a brief interruption when Haines served in World War II. Their long list of clients included Betsy Bloomingdale, Ronald and Nancy Reagan when Reagan was governor of California, and Walter and Leonore Annenberg with their 240-acre (0.97 km2) estate "Sunnylands."

Haines and Shields remained together until Haines' death. Joan Crawford described them as "the happiest married couple in Hollywood."

Haines died from lung cancer in Santa Monica, California at the age of 73, a week short of his 74th birthday, which was on the new year of 1974. Soon afterward, Shields, who suffered from what many believe to be Alzheimer's Disease, put on Haines' pajamas, took an overdose of pills, and crawled into their bed to die. They were interred side by side in Woodlawn Memorial Cemetery.

It's been said that Shields left a short suicide note. It read:

"It's no good without Billy."

So the next time someone tells you about how gays and lesbians don't believe in the concept of  love, remember Billy and Jimmy.


Past Know Your LGBT History posts:


Know Your LGBT History - The Dynamic Superiors

Know Your LGBT History - Jack Fertig (Sister Boom Boom)

Know Your LGBT History - Bugs Bunny

 Know Your LGBT History - The Jeffersons (a repeat)

Know Your LGBT History - Homoeroticism in Fright Night

Know Your LGBT History - New York passes marriage equality law

 Know Your LGBT History - Leonard Matlovich

Know Your LGBT History - Liberace

Know Your LGBT History - A brief history of gay relationships

Know Your LGBT History - Bessie Smith

Know Your LGBT History - Josephine Baker

Know Your LGBT History - Clara Ward and Willie 'Little Axe' Broadnax

 Know Your LGBT History - Venus Xtravaganza

Know Your LGBT History - LGBTs who are changing the world for the better

 Know Your LGBT History - Danitra Vance

Know Your LGBT History - Oliver Sipple

Know Your LGBT History - Gay Rights, Special Rights

Know Your LGBT History - Alan Turing

 Know Your LGBT History - Bayard Rustin

Know Your LGBT History - Billy Preston

Know Your LGBT History - Sylvester

 Know Your LGBT History - Billy Tipton

Know Your LGBT History - Nell Carter

Know Your LGBT History - James Baldwin

 Know Your LBGT History - Paul Winfield

Know Your LGBT History - Barbara Jordan

Know Your LGBT History - Michael Jeter

Know Your LGBT History - All in the Family and Beverly LaSalle

Know Your LGBT History - The Lion in Winter

Know Your LGBT History - Saturday Night Live and 'Schmitts Gay'

 Know Your LGBT History - Brother to Brother

Know Your LGBT History - Shameless

Know Your LGBT History - Car Wash

Know Your LGBT History - The 37th anniversary of 'Flowers of Evil'

Know Your LGBT History - The Best Way To Walk

Know Your LGBT History - The Jackal

Know Your LGBT History - A Cage Without A Key

Know Your LGBT History - In & Out

Know Your LGBT History - 'The Fabulous Gays' of Steambath

Know Your LGBT History - Bound

Know Your LGBT History - Gay characters from children's television show and movies

 Know Your LGBT History - Gay documentaries, past and present

Know Your LGBT History - The Hotel New Hampshire

Know Your LGBT History - The Crying Game

Know Your LGBT History - Set It Off

Know Your LGBT History - The Wedding Banquet

Know Your LGBT History - Bachelor Party

Know Your LGBT History - Starsky and Hutch

Know Your LGBT History - The Naked Civil Servant

 Know your LGBT History - Partners

 Know Your LGBT History - All in the Family: Cousin Liz

Know Your LGBT History - Rebecca

Know Your LGBT History - urban African-American movies

Know Your LGBT History - Charles Pierce

 Know Your LGBT History - Torch Song Trilogy

The Best of Know Your LGBT History

Know Your LGBT History - Masters of Horror - Sick Girl

 Know Your LGBT History - MadTV

 Know Your LGBT History - Gimme A Break

Know Your LGBT History - Not Another Gay Movie

Know Your LGBT History - My Beautiful Laundrette

Know Your LGBT History - The Rocky Horror Picture Show

Know Your LGBT History - I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry

Know Your LGBT History - The Gay Deceivers

 Know Your LGBT History - Reflections in a Golden Eye

Know Your LGBT History - Dynasty

 Know Your LGBT History - Milk

 Know Your LGBT History - Black Shampoo

Know Your LGBT History - Never Too Young To Die

 Know Your LGBT History - All About Eve

Know Your LGBT History - Hotel

Know Your LGBT History - The Streets of San Francisco

Know Your LGBT History - Two looks at transgender characters in films

Know Your LGBT History - Flawless

Know Your LGBT History - Mahogany

Know Your LGBT History - Beverly Hills Cop

Know Your LGBT History - Some Like It Hot

Know Your LGBT History - Bring Me The Head of Alfredo Garcia 

Know Your LGBT History - Dirty Laundry

Know Your LGBT History - The Willie Witch Project

Know Your LGBT History - Spartacus

Know Your LGBT History - Caged

Know Your LGBT History - The Birdcage

Know Your LGBT History - Maude

Know Your LGBT History - That Certain Summer

Know Your LGBT History - Boat Trip

Know Your LGBT History - Staircase

Know Your LGBT History - Beautiful Thing

Know Your LGBT History - Armed and Dangerous

Know Your LGBT History - The Proud Family

Know Your LGBT History - Suddenly Last Summer

Know Your LGBT History - Gay TV Now

Know Your LGBT History - Stewardess School

Know Your LGBT History - Up the Academy

Know Your LGBT History - Don't be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood

Know Your LGBT History - A Different Story

Know Your LGBT History - Victim

Know Your LGBT History - The Color Purple

Know Your LGBT History - Making Love

Know Your LGBT History - A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 2: Freddy's Revenge

Know Your LGBT History - Noah's Arc

Know Your LGBT History - Adorable Adrian Adonis

Know Your LGBT History - The Night Strangler

Know Your LGBT History - All in the Family

Know Your LGBT History - Tongues Untied

Know Your LGBT History - The Celluloid Closet

Know Your LGBT History - Querelle

Know Your LGBT History - Theatre of Blood

Know Your LGBT History - Strange Fruit

Know Your LGBT History - Designing Women

Know Your LGBT History - The Children's Hour

Know Your LGBT History - Sylvester

Know Your LGBT History - Once Bitten

Know Your LGBT History - The Boys in the Band

Know Your LGBT History - Christopher Morley, the crossdressing assassin

Know Your LGBT History - Midnight Cowboy

Know Your LGBT History - Dracula's Daughter

Know Your LGBT History - Blacula

Know Your LGBT History - 3 Strikes

Know Your LGBT History - Paris Is Burning

Know Your LGBT History - The Women

Know your LGBT History - Soul Plane

Know Your LGBT History - The Player's Club

Special Know Your LGBT History - Fame

Know Your LGBT History - Welcome Home, Bobby

Know Your LGBT History - Barney Miller

Know your lgbt history - The Jerry Springer Show

Know your lgbt history - Martin Lawrence and that 'gay guy' on his show

Know your lgbt history - The Ricki Lake Show

Know your lgbt history - Which Way Is Up

Know your lgbt history - Gays in Primetime Soaps

Know your lgbt history - Boys Beware

Know your lgbt history - The Boondocks

Know your lgbt history - Mannequin

Know your lgbt history - The Warriors

Know Your LGBT History - New York Undercover

Know Your LGBT History - Low Down Dirty Shame

Know Your LGBT History - Fortune and Men's Eyes

Know your lgbt history - California Suite

Know your lgbt history - Taxi (Elaine's Strange Triangle)

Know your lgbt history - Come Back Charleston Blue

Know your lgbt history - James Bond goes gay

Know your lgbt history - Windows

Know your lgbt history - To Wong Foo and Priscilla

Know your lgbt history - Blazing Saddles

Know your lgbt history - Sanford and Son

Know your lgbt history - In Living Color

Know your lgbt history - Cleopatra Jones and her lesbian drug lords

Know your lgbt history - Norman, Is That You?

Know your lgbt history - The 'Exotic' Adrian Street

Know your lgbt history - The Choirboys

Know your lgbt history - Eddie Murphy

Know your lgbt history - The Killing of Sister George

Know your lgbt history - Hanna-Barbera cartoons pushes the 'gay agenda

'Know your lgbt history - Cruising

Know your lgbt history - Foxy Brown and Cleopatra Jones

Know your lgbt history - I Got Da Hook Up

Know your lgbt history - Fright Night

Know your lgbt history - Flowers of Evil

The Jeffersons and the transgender community    
 


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