Hiding In Plain Sight: Earl Holliman (1928-2024)

The second banana had a husband?  Who knew?  

Photo by Gabi Rona

Not me, and I thought I'd heard most of the whispers about who was gay in old Hollywood. But there it was, the sole mention of Earl Holliman's sexual orientation in a New York Times obituary:  "His death was confirmed by his husband, Craig Curtis, who is his only survivor."  

I must have been around 12 when I saw him (far right) co-star with John Wayne and Dean Martin in The Sons of Katie Elder.  Holliman didn't make much of an impression but he certainly held his own with his macho co-stars.  He is more memorable in the premiere episode of The Twilight Zone, "Where Is Everybody?"  The handsome actor, then around 30 with a Cary Grant dimple in his chin,  appears to be the last man on earth until the twist at the end when he discovers he's been subjected to an isolation experiment that will determine if he can become an astronaut.

More recently, I watched Holliman in Giant playing Rock Hudson's son-in-law even though they were only three years apart in age.  That movie, also starring James Dean and Sal Mineo may have had the gayest cast ever in an Academy Award nominee for Best Picture. (It lost to Around the World in Eighty Days which boasted "48 international stars"!)

In any case, why does Holliman's sexual orientation even matter?  It doesn't except that Guiness World Records should credit the 96-year-old actor for staying in the closet longer than anyone else in Hollywood.  Like his character in The Twilight Zone, he passed a unique and difficult test.