Role models of greatness.

Here you will discover the back stories of kings, titans of industry, stellar athletes, giants of the entertainment field, scientists, politicians, artists and heroes – all of them gay or bisexual men. If their lives can serve as role models to young men who have been bullied or taught to think less of themselves for their sexual orientation, all the better. The sexual orientation of those featured here did not stand in the way of their achievements.

Wednesday, November 13, 2019

Vincent Price

On the set of the film Gods and Monsters, gayness was the subject of lunch discussion among the cast and crew. "Was Vincent Price gay?" someone asked, to which Sir Ian McKellen loudly replied, "Well, he was married to Coral Browne, wasn't he?!"

Vincent Leonard Price, Jr. (1911-1993) was married three times, the last a lavender marriage to lesbian actress Coral Browne. Upon their engagement, the Australian born Browne told critic Bernard Drew: "We've both decided to give up boys". In order to marry, Price converted to Catholicism, and Coral Browne became a U.S. citizen.

Vincent Price was an accomplished art critic and collector, a gourmand, a generous benefactor to those in need, a concerned and active political man, a devoted father – and a celebrated actor (who had a drinking problem). His bisexuality was an open secret to Hollywood insiders, and Scotty Bowers’s recent Hollywood tell-all book, Full Service, mentions that Price used his services to procure men, and Browne to procure women, for sexual gratification. But Price’s sexual predilection was surely the least interesting thing about him.

Price had a “grey” listing by the House Un-American Activities Committee hearings during the McCarthy era, and he made a somewhat shocking deal with them. He was a noted art lecturer in London. Price was involved in the 1959 rigged TV quiz-show hearings for his part in The $64,000 Question. He witnessed the Nazi regime first-hand while living overseas, even attending one of Adolph Hitler's many rallies. He played a young parasitic playboy from Kentucky in the Oscar-winning film Laura (1944, with Clifton Webb and Gene Tierney). Price graduated from Yale, plied the London stage, wrote a cookbook (A Treasury of Great Recipes, 1965), bore a son and a daughter (Victoria, a lesbian who wrote a book about her father), and developed a fine art sales division (1962-1971) for Sears-Roebuck (!). In the late 1960s he played the villain Egghead on ABC’s Batman television series. Back in the 1940s and 50s he was a popular radio actor (The Saint), while decades later Price provided a Sprechstimme “rap” contribution to Michael Jackson’s 1983 Thriller song track and video. He hosted BBC radio and PBS television series. In 1976 he was a featured guest on The Muppet Show. And that’s not the half.

Somewhere in there I forgot to mention the horror movies, his greatest legacy. Price's first venture into the horror genre was the 1939 Boris Karloff film Tower of London. There followed House of Wax (1953), The Fly (1958) and a string of movies based on the writings of Edgar Allan Poe: House of Usher (1960), The Pit and the Pendulum (1961) and The Raven (1963) chief among them.

Not bad for the son of a candy company president from St. Louis (Vincent Leonard Price Sr.). A lifelong smoker, Price died of lung cancer in 1993 at the age of 82, by which time he had packed in enough activity for three or four lifetimes. If you find yourself in the Los Angeles suburb of Monterrey Park, stop by the East Los Angeles College campus to visit the Vincent and Mary Price Gallery and the Vincent Price Art Museum, the repository of Price’s art collection, comprising some 9,000 items valued at more than $5 million.

40 comments:

  1. who cares if he was gay.....who cares if anyone is gay as long as they are secure in themselves and happy with who they are.....

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. As author of this blog, I hope many people care that the men I feature are/were bisexual/gay. I started this blog as a response to the spate of teenagers who committed suicide because of bullying. It is my hope that younger readers will realize that these men can be considered as role models, that it is possible to be successful and gay, and that many of the leaders in various fields of endeavor are gay and bisexual men. That's why I care that they are gay. Comments? E-mail me at b2655@aol.com

      Delete
    2. Please go on, this is a very good task.

      Delete
    3. I look things up like this because there was so much stigma about sexual orientation in the past (and still is to some degree). At times I wonder how many of the famous struggled with whether to stay in the closet or not, and whether they faced rejection when they "came out." I think it is sad that anyone feels the need to stay hidden, and it is sad that so many then, and now have to feel alone or scared in being who they are.

      Delete
    4. I see no need to question or exploit his Sexual Orientation as he was by far one of the greatest talents to hit the Stage and Screen.

      Delete
    5. This is by far not a Judgement on this Man's Sexual orientation. He was by far the greatest talent to ever grace both the screen and Stage.

      Delete
    6. Role models matter. It's nice - even today, in fact - to have public figures who are gay/bi to look up to, and say you can become what you want to become, even if you're gay/bi.

      Delete
    7. I find people who always say “it doesn’t matter if they're gay” usually then shut the conversation down, as if embarrassed. It does matter.

      Delete
    8. Doesn't matter. Like, at all.

      Delete
  2. I care.....because Ive had a life long man crush on Vincent.

    ReplyDelete
  3. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Very interesting article, Vincent was a very good role model.He is a man to be admired. Being a straight male I don't see him as sexy but you have to respect a man with his kind of good will and integrity. When I was a boy in the 60's my friends and I would stay up late on Friday nights watching his movies. They were awesome. Very good childhood memories.

    ReplyDelete
  5. You might also want to mention (since you brought it up in your post) that Vincent Price definitely renounced his Nazi views when he matured (& I use the word deliberately). While it's an old chestnut to say "some of my beat friends are Jewish", he really did have actual friends who were Jewish later in life (not the phony friendships bigots claim to have to cover their hatred). His daughter wrote all about it in her biography.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I met and worked with Vincent Price on the Sears art show which toured Canada in the early to mid 60's. He was the first 'Star' I had ever met and I was infatuated (though not sexually) with his generosity, his warmth, and his knowledge of art. He was absolutely intriguing. I watched as he met all of the visitors and staff at the show. I learned so much from him and treasure those memories of a summer now long gone. Of all my travels and visits to art galleries around the world, I still remember his descriptions of fine art. Thanks Mr. Price!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Come to find out (with allot of research) Vincent Price is my great great great uncle. I found that very fascinating

    ReplyDelete
  8. I came to this site after seeing Vincent on an episode of Have Gun Will Travel.He was playing an actor and it crossed my mind," I didn't know he was gay!"Being born and raised in San Francisco I usually know gay people by being around them all my life.For some reason I wanted to know if I was right or not.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Didn't know he was gay? Hell, he made Liberace look macho! Haaa., I say that with love, as being a young model & budding actor in the 60's I was invited to a party @ Vincent Price's house, right out of a var, by a friend of Vincent Price & I didn't know what gay was, but when I met Mr. Price, I knew that was GAY, if I never net another gay person in my life! Haaa. He threw great parties indeed, but, I won't mention names, but, good thing I ran track in High School & could move fast! Henry Wilson was my agent, need I say more? But, there is one thing I can say about Hollyweird in the 60's, it wasn't dull!

      Delete
  9. He also liked young underaged men. In the late 1960's. Price was investigated and never indicted because of the age of victimsby the LA District Attorney. I was an investigator in the Juvenile Diversion Program 1968-1973.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. He came out in a lot of the movies Elvira Mistress of the Dark shared. I loved watching his movies with my mom when I was a kid. I admire his talent but have no respect for him luring young boys for sexual gratification. I read that he married a lesbian and she lured young woman too.

      Delete
    2. Not suprised in the least.

      Delete
  10. You forgot to mention he did "Welcome to My Nightmare" (show, TV special, album) with Alice Cooper. I love them both.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Vincent Price also played in a 1955 Reader's Digest TV Episode: The Brainwashing of John Hayes. John Hayes was a missionary, charged with being the Southwest Section Chief for the CIA and held in Chinese Prison Camp for almost a year.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7TlcCkbfYA

    ReplyDelete
  12. A class act & indeed sexy sexy sexy! We could certainly use more like him -his talent,generosity,& has sense of humor. All who were close to him were indeed blessed.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Love him and his natural mascufemininity. I am the same way, a nice, classy mix of both, Anna Madrigal: A Man and a Girl. I, too harbored a lifelong mancrush.

    ReplyDelete
  14. What a versatile actor, and accomplished human being!

    Speedorex

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I was 9 years old and I went to the movies and saw the fly. I was petrified of Vincent Price. Later as a teenager I saw him on a cooking show on television. What a lovely man he was.

      Delete
  15. I just saw him in the Whales of August. He was good at the part.

    ReplyDelete
  16. I enjoy your blog enormously, but I do think some of your statements are, shall we say, more rooted in the tendency of some gay men to believe everyone shares our sexuality, than in fact. Coral Browne was my client for several years in the late 80s, and my partner and l socialised with her as well, though we never did get to meet Vincent. I was a lifelong fan of both, and Coral was a delight. Indo think we gay men sometimes have a tendency to think people who may (or may not) have even been actively bisexual were gay. Certainly a scurrilous piece of nonsense such as Scotty Bowers' memoirs cannot be taken as gospel. I personally believe both were probably bisexual, but there is no proof that either was or was not. Neither the brilliant lesbian entertainer, biographer, and historian, Rose Collis, in her briiant biography of Coral, "This Effing Lady," nor Barbara Angell, in her book, "The Coral Browne Story," concluded that she was primarily lesbian. Nor does Victoria Price, herself a lesbian, suggest that either her father, or Coral, was more than bi-sexual. I gave no doubt of this myself, but to describe both as gay is ludicrous.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Exactly. Both Vincent Price and Coral were bisexual. Even Price's daughter says her father is bisexual.

      Delete
  17. From your blogger. Perhaps you are referring to the comments here, and not my blog post. I just re-read my post, and no where at all did I say that either Mr. Price or Ms. Brown was gay. If you find otherwise, please point it out to me.

    ReplyDelete
  18. I highly enjoyed the exchange between Vincent and Boy George on the Russell Harty show. Look it up and tell me what you think

    ReplyDelete
  19. Back in the 80s when I was working in Back Bay, Boston, as I stood & blabbed with the baker at DeLuca's Market, we were interrupted by a woman asking, "Do you have any bah-nah-nahs?" I turned my head and there was Coral Browne! I was too young & tongue-tied to say much, though I did shreik. The fact that I knew who she was pleased her immensely. She was in search of fruit for Vincent's cereal, they were staying at the Copley Plaza. VP was recording promos for a PBS program. I happened to be wearing my favorite t-shirt adorned with Peewee Herman which she commented on. And yes, I wondered why room service didn't supply Coral with a banana- maybe the stipend from PBS didn't allow for such luxuries?

    ReplyDelete
  20. At age 10 watching "The Fly" at a Dearborn, Michigan drive-in with my brothers & our parents, my first impression of Vincent Price was that he was the least frightening part of that movie! By age 13, as a threesome of girlfriends in Plainfield, New Jersey, allowed to go without parents to see a Saturday afternoon movie, we watched "The Pit & The Pendulum" & I realized, oh no, he's the bad guy! Flash forward to Saturday night, May 24, 1980: My Dad was working with Ford of Europe, living in London, England. My husband & I were visiting & my Dad treated us to supper that night at The White Elephant Club. We were in a high-backed booth area, couldn't see who took seats behind us, but soon aware of That Voice, oh my, could it be I'm sitting back-to-back with ... "excuse me" to my Dad & husband then pretended to look for the ladies room ... but with only the desire to see if that was truly the voice of Vincent Price? I did find the ladies room, stayed a few moments to check the mirror, then walked bravely back & be still my heart, Vincent Price & I smiled at each other! Feeling thrilled even as I write this after 40 years!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Omg!!! What a brilliant experience. I can imagine it perfectly. Absolutely thrilling.

      Delete
  21. Excellent actor on stage and film. I was scared of his movies as a little girl.

    ReplyDelete
  22. Great actor and art lover. Especially a fan of his campy horror films like the Tingler. It’s a shame that so many great people have had to hide their LGBT+ lives and relationships. Heterosexuals have no real context to understand why that is not only inconvenient but also oppressive and inequitable. Now there is a movement to not only push us back into closets, but also to strip us once again of some of our civil rights we’ve waited so long to attain. If more LGBT+ people, especially those well known, successful and admired folks in the public eye, came forth and spoke out, it might help all those living lives of fear, secrecy and dread. Thank you for sharing the truths of others’ lives to help those struggling today against great odds.

    ReplyDelete