CONTACTStaffCAREER OPPORTUNITIESADVERTISE WITH USPRIVACY POLICYPRIVACY PREFERENCESTERMS OF USELEGAL NOTICE
© 2024 Pride Publishing Inc.
All Rights reserved
All Rights reserved
By continuing to use our site, you agree to our Private Policy and Terms of Use.
"He didn't have sex with James Dean, and his murder wasn't the result of a homosexual tryst gone wrong," says Michael Gregg Michaud, author of Sal Mineo (Crown Archetype, $25.99), of misconceptions about the late actor. Michaud, a fan since seeing Mineo's career-defining performance as Plato, the lonely boy smitten with Dean's character in 1955's Rebel Without a Cause, spent a decade researching and writing about the actor. Michaud recalls being haunted by Mineo's death in 1976. "I was very excited that Sal was going to do a play at the Westwood Playhouse," he says. "Just days after I bought the ticket he was murdered."
Mineo's rise to fame reads like the archetypal Cinderella story, minus the happy ending. His mother sent him to dancing and acting classes to keep him out of trouble on the mean streets of the Bronx. Mineo was acting on Broadway before he was a teenager. Rebel earned him an Academy Award nomination and made him a sought-after teen idol -- due largely to his chemistry with the bisexual Dean, who died just weeks before the film's release. By the 1960s, Mineo was so identified with the more innocent '50s that he was considered passe. "As he became an adult he still looked like a kid," Michaud says. "It was hard to find work as a leading man."
Despite the career setbacks, Mineo comes across as jovial in Michaud's book. "The guy was so damn charming," Michaud says. "Of all the people I interviewed, there wasn't one person who had an unkind word to say about him." Among those interviewed are Jill Haworth and Courtney Burr III-- female and male Mineo lovers, respectively--who hadn't previously spoken so candidly on record. Haworth drops one of the book's biggest bombshells--an affair she says Mineo had with '60s teen idol Bobby Sherman.
Eager to be relevant again, Mineo began seeking darker projects. In 1969 he became the first well-known actor to appear fully nude onstage--in a production of the play Fortune and Men's Eyes. "It was the talk of the town," Michaud says. But what looked like a career resurgence was undone by too many provocative interviews with gay media.
Still, it's primarily Mineo's mystery-shrouded death that has tainted his reputation. Returning from rehearsal, the actor was fatally stabbed in the heart outside his West Hollywood apartment. "The police found his copy of the gay Kama Sutra and saw a pair of leather pants hanging in his closet, and they jumped to ridiculous conclusions that it was an S/M thing," Michaud says. The killer, Lionel Williams, was eventually convicted and sentenced in 1979. "People have a hard time believing that something random and horrible can happen to a famous person without a mysterious plot behind it," Michaud says. "There's a dark cloud that hovers over Sal as a result of it."
Want more breaking equality news & trending entertainment stories?
Check out our NEW 24/7 streaming service: the Advocate Channel!
Download the Advocate Channel App for your mobile phone and your favorite streaming device!
From our Sponsors
Most Popular
Here Are Our 2024 Election Predictions. Will They Come True?
November 07 2023 1:46 PM
Meet all 37 of the queer women in this season's WNBA
April 17 2024 11:24 AM
17 Celebs Who Are Out & Proud of Their Trans & Nonbinary Kids
November 30 2023 10:41 AM
Here Are the 15 Most LGBTQ-Friendly Cities in the U.S.
November 01 2023 5:09 PM
Which State Is the Queerest? These Are the States With the Most LGBTQ+ People
December 11 2023 10:00 AM
These 27 Senate Hearing Room Gay Sex Jokes Are Truly Exquisite
December 17 2023 3:33 PM
10 Cheeky and Homoerotic Photos From Bob Mizer's Nude Films
November 18 2023 10:05 PM
42 Flaming Hot Photos From 2024's Australian Firefighters Calendar
November 10 2023 6:08 PM
These Are the 5 States With the Smallest Percentage of LGBTQ+ People
December 13 2023 9:15 AM
Here are the 15 gayest travel destinations in the world: report
March 26 2024 9:23 AM
Watch Now: The Daily
Trending stories from our video partner Advocate Channel.
For more videos and shows go to advocatechannel.com.
Trending stories from our video partner Advocate Channel.
For more videos and shows go to advocatechannel.com.
Latest Stories
How a lesbian's triumph on the Portland Timbers billboard broke barriers
April 24 2024 4:52 PM
‘Faces of Gun Violence’ exhibit unveiled at inaugural survivors’ summit
April 24 2024 4:46 PM
Trans woman Andrea Doria Dos Passos beaten to death in Miami Beach; arrest made
April 24 2024 4:36 PM
TikTok may be banned in the U.S. after Biden signs new law — Why?
April 24 2024 3:43 PM
Serial killer of gay men in New Orleans released after 46 years in prison
April 24 2024 2:16 PM
The 'largest bi+ event in the world' is happening this year. Here's when and where
April 24 2024 12:42 PM
What happens if Donald Trump is jailed for criminal contempt?
April 24 2024 12:22 PM
Megan Rapinoe, Sue Bird, and more urge NCAA to stand up for trans inclusion
April 24 2024 8:00 AM
Over 90% of trans youth live in states pushing anti-trans legislation: report
April 23 2024 10:08 PM