This Is What John Hurt Meant To Me And Millns Of Gay Men

Contents:

• THIS IS WHAT JOHN HURT MEANT TO ME AND MILLNS OF GAY MEN
• IS JOHN HURT GAY?
• NOT NAKED BUT STILL SO CIVIL, JOHN HURT IS BACK AS GAY QUENT CRISP

THIS IS WHAT JOHN HURT MEANT TO ME AND MILLNS OF GAY MEN

John Hurt is stg across the table performg l to me om The Naked Civil voice – that brandy and gravel barone, the same one that 1987 boomed out on AIDS public rmatn adverts on TV warng people not to die om ignorance – reverberat around the is 2014, nearly 40 years sce he played the wrer and "stately homo" Quent Crisp a role that many advised him agast takg. To play an effete homosexual, as the dosrs of the English actg tablishment would have scribed Crisp at the time, was, he was told, to bid farewell to one’s ma his reer. Gay men would often approach him the street to tell him how transformative was for them to watch Crisp alive Technilor, full, brazen mve, sashayg down the street, all srv and rouge, wavg at sailors and givg bigots the middle fact that most gay men are not fabuloly mp was not the pot.

There was nothg for a gay boy at that time to reach out for, nothg to reflect back and affirm to you that you were OK – that is OK, that you will be was no ter, very few out celebri, and equal rights were so lghably pie--the-sky never occurred to anyone that one day we would be able to marry.

I sat on that wobbly stall and watched Hurt as Crisp tell the prim, dim homophob of middle England to get fucked wh such glor pizazz that I knew somehow I uld live.

IS JOHN HURT GAY?

There were few more spised people 1970s Bra than a feme gay man.

“Bee of women’s liberatn and gay liberatn, batterg on your door om to , you thk, Hang on, let me have another look at thgs, and you lift up ston and thk, I suppose that wasn’t a good ia really.

As the eveng unfold and he relled his life and work, his rol, his Quent Crisp, his John Merrick, the dience – young, old, gay, straight – feasted on every word; silence terpted only by warm lghter and loud applse. It's 34 years sce he first played the gay in Jack Gold's film The Naked Civil Servant. One of his favoure rol is Gil De'Ath the adaptatn of Gilbert Adair's Love And Death On Long Island – an ageg gay thor huiatgly obssed wh a young man.

NOT NAKED BUT STILL SO CIVIL, JOHN HURT IS BACK AS GAY QUENT CRISP

The dandy bohemian, who had been regard as a radil an era when homosexualy was still fiercely closeted, to be seen as a reactnary by New York's policised gay muny. In a world where gay men are out and proud and sexually belligerent, Crisp talks of his homosexualy as a curse and Aids as a fad. He's never been que so close to 's funny that, spe all the women his life, he is probably still bt remembered for his portrayal of a gay man.

"Oh y, " he says, "everybody thought I was gay anyway. "To be gay?