'Cabaret' actor Joel Grey, 82, out as gay man: 'It took time to embrace that other part of who I always was'

Contents:

• JENNIFER GREY ON THE MOMENT HER FATHER JOEL GREY WAS OUTED AS GAY TO HER: 'IT WAS A SNIPER ATTACK'
• JENNIFER GREY REVEALS THE HORRIFIC WAY SHE FIRST LEARNED HER DAD WAS GAY
• JO WILR WAS JOEL GREY'S ONLY WIFE BEFORE HE CONFSED TO BEG GAY
• BROADWAY LEGEND JOEL GREY MEMOIR REVEALS SECRET GAY AFFAIR WH HIS TEMPLE'S NTOR, SEX PLAY AS A CHILD WH
• THEATER LEGEND JOEL GREY REVEALS HE IS GAY
• JOEL GREY COM OUT: 'CABARET' STAR SAYS 'I'M A GAY MAN' AT AGE 82
• AT 82, BROADWAY STAR JOEL GREY OUT AS GAY
• 'CABARET' ACTOR JOEL GREY, 82, OUT AS GAY MAN: 'IT TOOK TIME TO EMBRACE THAT OTHER PART OF WHO I ALWAYS WAS'
• BROADWAY STAR JOEL GREY COM OUT: “IF YOU HAVE TO PUT A LABEL ON IT, I’M A GAY MAN”
• OPN AN ACTOR’S LONG, TROUBLED JOURNEY TO E OUT AS GAY
• BROADWAY STAR JOEL GREY OUT AS GAY AT 82
• JOEL GREY IS NOW THE ONLY OPENLY GAY OSR WNG ACTOR
• ‘CABARET’ LEGEND JOEL GREY COM OUT AS GAY

JENNIFER GREY ON THE MOMENT HER FATHER JOEL GREY WAS OUTED AS GAY TO HER: 'IT WAS A SNIPER ATTACK'

“I don’t like labels, ” says Grey, “but if you have to put a label on , I’m a gay man. “I feel very happy for my dad that he has e to a pot his life where he feels safe and fortable enough to clare himself a public way as a gay man, ” Jennifer tells PEOPLE. (Joel me out as gay to PEOPLE 2015, at the age of 82.

JENNIFER GREY REVEALS THE HORRIFIC WAY SHE FIRST LEARNED HER DAD WAS GAY

And, bis, I thk that sexualy is so much more tertg than gay or straight, bi. " In 2014, at the age of 82, Joel revealed that he was, ed, a gay origated the role of Master of Ceremoni on "Cabaret, " the h Broadway show that starred Lotte Lenya and bagged multiple Tony Awards. After twenty years of marriage, a perd he later told PEOPLE was "the happit of his life, " he me out to Wilr as homosexual and was cheatg on long after the revelatn, Wilr filed for divorce which was falized 1982.

JO WILR WAS JOEL GREY'S ONLY WIFE BEFORE HE CONFSED TO BEG GAY

Playbill asked the actor if his wife had spected he was gay, to which he replied:"None. | Source: Getty ImagJo Wilr's Hband Only Came out as Gay 2014Although his ex-wife and his clost iends knew he was homosexual, would take Joel another three s to e out to the world. The play "The Normal Heart" allowed Joel to speak "I'm gay" for the first time, and he found the experience liberatg.

In 2014, at the age of 82, the actor revealed that he was, ed, a gay man.

BROADWAY LEGEND JOEL GREY MEMOIR REVEALS SECRET GAY AFFAIR WH HIS TEMPLE'S NTOR, SEX PLAY AS A CHILD WH

16 — the 83-year-old actor chronicl what was like to hi his homosexualy durg the '40s, '50s and '60s when beg gay uld get you one of many revealg anecdot, Grey scrib how at the tenr age of jt 10 years old he had his first sexual enunter wh his siarly aged Burton and soon after enjoyed a relatnship wh Jerry, the 16-year-old elevator operator who worked his apartment, as teen Los Angel, Grey had sex wh his girliend's mother and embarked on an affair wh a ntor named Pl at his parent's temple. 'CABARET' ACTOR JOEL GREY, 82, COMES OUT AS GAY MANJoel Grey attends the New York Stage and Film 2014 Wter Gala at The Plaza Hotel New York Cy.

In 2015, Grey discsed his sexualy an exclive terview wh PEOPLE, sayg at the time that if he had to put a label on , he intifi as "a gay man. “I don’t like labels, ” he told his terviewer, “but if you have to put a label on , I’m a gay man. When he tells his wife, Jo Wilr, about his past gay experienc epens a void between them that ends their 24-year marriage the early 80s.

THEATER LEGEND JOEL GREY REVEALS HE IS GAY

Grey scrib how important was for them both to see him play a gay man on stage, Larry Kramer’s landmark Aids drama The Normal Heart, to better unrstand their of a flower, shot by Joel Grey. Photograph: Joel GreyOne of Grey’s first film rol (as a smirkg law stunt Come September 1961) was oppose Rock Hudson, who was leadg his own double life as a gay man Hollywood. Broadway legend Joel Grey has publicly announced at age 82 that he is gay.

"I don't like labels, but if you have to put a label on , I'm a gay man, " the Osr- and Tony-wng actor told People was married to actrs Jo Wilr for 24 years and they have two children together: actrs Jennifer Grey and son Jam, a chef. " His dghter also opened up to People, sayg, "I feel very happy for my dad that he has e to a pot his life where he feels safe and fortable enough to clare himself a public way as a gay man. Broadway legend and Osr-wng "Cabaret" star Joel Grey opens up about his sexualy a new terview wh People magaze, tellg the publitn: "I'm a gay man.

Jennifer Grey tells People that she is "very happy" that her father "has e to a pot his life where he feels safe and fortable enough to clare himself a public way as a gay man. “I don’t like labels, ” Grey is quoted as sayg the issue of the magaze to be published on Friday “but if you have to put a label on , I’m a gay man.

JOEL GREY COM OUT: 'CABARET' STAR SAYS 'I'M A GAY MAN' AT AGE 82

”Grey discsed his childhood Cleveland, Oh, and hearg grownups speak about gay men beg jailed for their sexualy. Jennifer Grey, bt known for her role 1987’s “Dirty Dancg” wh Patrick Swayze, told People magaze that she was pleased her father felt fortable and secure enough to publicly clare himself a gay man. Broadway legend Joel Grey no longer has to act a part he's played off-stage all this 82-year-old Tony- and Osr-wner me out as gay an terview wh People magaze.

"I don't like labels, but if you have to put a label on , I'm a gay man, " Grey told the gossip Penn, of "Harold & Kumar" and "Hoe" fame, publilly me out as gay while announcg his engagement to partner Josh after 11 years together.

Set Berl 1931, Cabaret was based on gay scribe Christopher Isherwood’s The Berl Stori, chroniclg the hedonism amidst the cle of the Weimar Republic and rise of the Nazi Party, published 1945. “Of urse we got to the whole thg about the homosexualy, ” York said. “And they sent so many of those homosexuals to the mps.

AT 82, BROADWAY STAR JOEL GREY OUT AS GAY

“Y, the pk triangl, ” York said, referrg to the marker by which the Nazis intified homosexuals.

Four years after Cabaret, Isherwood me out, as were, wh the memoir, Christopher and His Kd, which filled the gay gaps of his life Berl.

“I don’t like labels, but if you have to put a label on , I’m a gay man, ” the actor, 82, tells People magaze. “I feel very happy for my dad that he has e to a pot his life where he feels safe and fortable enough to clare himself a public way as a gay man, ” says Jennifer Grey.

'CABARET' ACTOR JOEL GREY, 82, OUT AS GAY MAN: 'IT TOOK TIME TO EMBRACE THAT OTHER PART OF WHO I ALWAYS WAS'

Charl Kaiser is the thor of “1968 In Ameri, ” “The Gay Metropolis, ” and most recently, “The Cost of Courage. ”Practilly no one realiz what was like to be gay Ameri the 1950s and 1960s — no one except those old enough to have had the experience themselv. In that era of fierce prejudice, beg openly gay barely stck anyone as a practil choice, except for an ocsnal urageo inoclast like Jam Baldw, Allen Gsberg or Christopher latt wdow on the closeted world that nearly all gay men habed is Joel Grey’s newly published tobgraphy, “Master of Ceremoni.

” This lovely memoir by the actor bt known for his role as the emcee the film “Cabaret” is a remr that jt a few s ago, people every profsn believed that beg perceived as straight was an sential prerequise for succs — even actors the ’s secret gay life began 1942 at the age of 10, wh the 16-year-old elevator operator his fancy Cleveland apartment buildg.

BROADWAY STAR JOEL GREY COM OUT: “IF YOU HAVE TO PUT A LABEL ON IT, I’M A GAY MAN”

He saw his first potential role mols a gay uple who acted one of the first theater pani he belonged to. But even the act of intifyg wh that uple ightened him, bee men who loved men were “fairi, homos, limp-wristed perverts, sissi, and fags. "Like virtually all gay men this era, he had been told that his attractn to men was only “a stage.

OPN AN ACTOR’S LONG, TROUBLED JOURNEY TO E OUT AS GAY

”Disgt wh homosexuals was so universal the 1950s, nothg at this stage of his life uld have nvced Whe that there was anythg healthy about his orientatn. “Even if someone had tried to refute my horror of homosexualy I would have stantly rejected his suatg proposals, temptg me to settle for send bt, ” he wrote. ”When I began my own g-out procs the early 1970s, I benefed om the first stirrgs of the gay liberatn movement, igned by the 1969 police raid of a gay club, the Stonewall Inn, Greenwich Village.

BROADWAY STAR JOEL GREY OUT AS GAY AT 82

And so I ntued to sleep wh women ocsnally, until I beme exclively gay my late 20s. I have always believed that no one choos to be gay, but a great many men choose to be — or strive to be — straight.

JOEL GREY IS NOW THE ONLY OPENLY GAY OSR WNG ACTOR

Still, all the time he was wh his wife, he was seeg men on the si, a solutn that remas mon among gay men married to told himself that sleepg wh men wasn’t beg unfahful to his wife.

‘CABARET’ LEGEND JOEL GREY COM OUT AS GAY

”After 20 years of marriage, Grey cid that the time had fally e for him to reveal at least some of his gay secrets to his wife, the mistaken belief that this would strengthen their relatnship. I had done everythg my power not to be homosexual, no matter the st, and now the whole nstct was fallg apart around me. "His new life was vastly plited by the fact that his marriage dissolved jt as the AIDS epimic began, makg gay life even more terrifyg to him.

Eight tim a week, I got to be a gay man, a remarkable gay man, and every night that felt as full, as te, as passnate and as thentic as I ever felt my life. ”The journey out of the closet had the same effect on many gay men of that era.

At the age of 82, wh an Osr and a 24-year marriage unr his belt, he has e out as Broadway star, who won his Amy award -starrg wh Liza Mnelli Cabaret, joed an creasg number of olr people who are takg the opportuny of liberalisg attus on both sis of the Atlantic to clare their rights groups the UK say that societal change areas om equaly legislatn to gay marriage is enuragg a generatn who are more likely to have been adults when homosexualy was still a crimal offence to e Grey, who had two children wh his wife Jo Wilr and scribed the perd of his marriage as “the happit of my life”, said he had not kept his sexualy a secret om his fay but was still a signifint step for him to clare an terview wh People magaze, he said: “I don’t like labels but if you have to put a label on , I’m a gay man. ”They are sentiments that echoed strongly wh Jam Barnard, a Manchter-based former tax nsultant who was himself married for 40 years before he me out followg his wife’s ath a tstee of the Lbian and Gay Foundatn (LGF), Mr Barnard said he had sce seen many olr men - most of them prevly married - e out recent years as part of a mentorg programme n by the Grey (left) pos next to a poster featurg his character the film "Cabaret" (Rters)He said: “I thk olr gay people are far ls reticent about g out bee of changg attus - people generally uld not give a toss now if you are gay. I got married 1963 bee many ways I felt I had no choice - there was no-one to turn to if you were gay.