Was will gear gay

On-screen, Ellen Corby and Will Geer played Grandma and Grandpa Walton, but both were actually gay, with Ellen Corby gay in real life, protecting their careers. Will Geer (born William Aughe Ghere; March 9, – April 22, ) was an American actor, musician, and social activist who was active in labor organizing and communist movements in New York City and Southern California in the s and s.

[2][3] In California, he befriended rising singer Woody Guthrie. Meanwhile, she lived a similar life to her long-time co-star Geer, "Will Geer, who got blacklisted during the anti-communist witch hunts, had a male lover." His partner was Harry Hay, a gay rights activist, but their relationship later ended.

While his role as the warm, loving grandfather endeared him to millions, off-screen, Geer lived a much more complex and secretive life, one that involved political activism, a hidden relationship with a pioneer of gay rights, and a carefully guarded sexuality. Gear’s personal life was equally intricate.

He married actress Herta Ware in , with whom he had three children, but he also maintained a romantic relationship with Harry Hay, a prominent gay rights activist. What a feast of riches it is acquainting oneself with the life and career of Will Geer William Aughe Ghere, : actor, folksinger, political activist, and — wait for it — horticulturist.

Like most Americans, I adored him during his late career Renaissance when he played Grandpa on The Waltons and appeared in movies like Jeremiah Johnson He seemed the very soul of rural America, in particular the good parts. He was kindly, gentle, wise, funny. And he was eccentric: with his long white hair, droopy mustache and penchant for wearing his overalls with only one strap buttoned. Onstage he had played Walt Whitman and Mark Twain ; he clearly channeled those guys into his late career persona.

What was not much publicized at the time even though it was the hippy-dippy s was that he was bisexual and, for a time, a communist. I reiterate, because this is important and it needs to be heard and digested: Will Geer was simultaneously queer, communist and as American as apple pie. Indiana, Illinois, Pennsylvania. At any rate, Geer simplified the spelling when he went into show business.

He was born onto a farm in Frankfort, Indiana, but then his father went to work for a railroad, so he spent much of his childhood shuffling between Kentucky, Georgia, and Tennessee. He took a degree in horticulture from the University of Chicago, and a masters at Columbia.

was grandpa walton a communist

Even over many decades as a successful performing artist, Geer never abandoned this part of his life. Geer began performing during summer hiatuses in his college years, acting in tent shows and on show boats on the Ohio River. Otis Skinner played Falstaff. Fiske died in , cutting Geer loose in the depths of the Great Depression. He worked on ships for a time, and became involved with the maritime union.

While he had previously been sympathetic to union causes, and sung folk songs with his fellow troupers, this experience seems to mark a new phase. At all events, after this whirlwind period things become more digestible again. He was in the Depression era revue Sing Out the New In he narrated the short documentary Men and Dust, about Oklahoma coal miners,. Geer also acted on radio.

Most of these films were westerns. Then, disaster: called to testify before the House Un-American Committee, he took the Fifth, and was blacklisted. In Geer was forced to sell his ritzy Santa Monica home and purchase land in nearby Topanga Canyon. In time it became a sort of Shangri-La, an arts colony Woody Guthrie had a shack on the place!

The history is a little convoluted. The Geers divorced in but remained friends. The place has been going continuously since Geer returned to the stage in the mid s, appearing in ten Broadway plays between and He also appeared for many seasons with Stratford Shakespeare Festival in Connecticut. Then came the blockbuster success of The Waltons.

Geer, who oddly resembled Bergen both in face and voice, was hired to replace him…and how lucky we were on account of that!