Actor Leonard Frey was on Dick Cavett (circa 1970) a few nights ago, and I thought he was really cute, personable, smart, funny, easy and relaxed. He was in the original The Boys in the Band and Fiddler on the Roof movies, he died of AIDS in 1988, I was sad to hear that. I'm looking for personal stories if there are any out there, he seems genuinr and sincere...
| by Anonymous | reply 22 | May 6, 2022 8:05 PM |
He's on some of those Match Game combo Hollywood Squares shows, and he's very charming, funny and witty indeed. I could have done without the makeup he had on with pockmarks in "Boys in the Band" as he was rather cute as himself. He's also wonderful in "Fiddler" movie as Motel and was Oscar nominated. He reminded me of a wittier Rene Auberjonois.
| by Anonymous | reply 1 | May 6, 2022 5:39 PM |
I first saw him in a short-lived show called "Best of the West" and I had such a crush on him, and remember trying to hide it by saying I thought the wife on the show was very pretty. I'd complain that the star of the show, Joel Higgins, "wanted to be Gil Gerard but wasn't!" In retrospect, I'm not sure I was very convincing.
| by Anonymous | reply 2 | May 6, 2022 5:45 PM |
He was in the ensemble of the original Fiddler as well, playing the role of the rabbi's son. Outside those two movies, I've never seen him in anything else. He was probably Austin Pendleton's understudy.
| by Anonymous | reply 3 | May 6, 2022 5:46 PM |
His last feature film was "The Sound of Murder" (1984), an adaptation of an old William Fairchild play. The cast also includes Michael Moriarty, Joanna Miles, and Pippa Scott. I've never been able to find it on a streaming service. Any leads?
| by Anonymous | reply 4 | May 6, 2022 5:50 PM |
He was on Murder She Wrote! He was on Moonlighting, and Quincy! He dated Mary in an episode of MTM and was not even the teeniest, tiniest bit convincing as a noted heterosexualist!
| by Anonymous | reply 5 | May 6, 2022 5:51 PM |
It's on Cinemageddon, r4.
| by Anonymous | reply 6 | May 6, 2022 5:53 PM |
Best of the West also had Tom Ewell, so two homosexualists in that cast.
| by Anonymous | reply 7 | May 6, 2022 5:54 PM |
So perfect as Harold. Unforgettable. PERFECT.
| by Anonymous | reply 8 | May 6, 2022 5:56 PM |
"What I am Michael is a 32 year-old, ugly, pock marked Jew fairy, and if it takes me a little while to pull myself together, and if I smoke a little grass before I get up the nerve to show my face to the world, it's nobody's god damned business but my own. And how are you this evening?"
| by Anonymous | reply 9 | May 6, 2022 5:58 PM |
I once saw him, accompanied by a man, in the audience as he was leaving a Broadway play. He was very tanned, and was wearing a knee-length black evening cape.
| by Anonymous | reply 10 | May 6, 2022 6:00 PM |
Thanks for that quote, R9. I could hear him saying it in my head.
| by Anonymous | reply 11 | May 6, 2022 6:01 PM |
You're a sad and pathetic man. You're a homosexual and you don't want to be, but there's nothing you can do to change it. Not all the prayers to your god, not all the analysis you can buy in all the years you've go left to live. You may one day be able to know a heterosexual life if you want it desperately enough. If you pursue it with the fervor with which you annihilate. But you'll always be homosexual as well. Always Michael. Always. Until the day you die.
| by Anonymous | reply 12 | May 6, 2022 6:01 PM |
[quote] He reminded me of a wittier Rene Auberjonois.
r1 I quite agree and I love Rene. In 1969, he earned a Tony Award for his performance as Sebastian Baye alongside Katharine Hepburn in Coco. He always seemed like the gay side-kick type in his work. However, Rene was married to Judith Mihalyi from 1963 until his death in 2019. They had two children, Tessa and Remy. Never heard his real story.
| by Anonymous | reply 13 | May 6, 2022 6:02 PM |
Like Frey many in the cast of The Boys in the Band died of AIDS or AIDS related illness in the 80s and 90s. Kenneth Nelson, Keith Prentice, Frederick Combs and Robert La Tourneaux
| by Anonymous | reply 14 | May 6, 2022 6:07 PM |
I saw him in The Man Who Came to Dinner and he was very funny. I too have had a crush on him since the film of Fiddler which I saw as a boy. He and Rosiland Harris were the best things about that movie.
I just wrote this but it's a good place to repeat it. I went to see the doc on the making of the film solely because Rosiland Harris would be there. She was charming warm and funny as I hoped she would be. Would have loved to talk to her but so many people wanted to do the same. She said the first few times she would see Leonard she would open her arms and call out his name. She saw that he would back away clearly disconcerted. Somebody then told her he was gay. She was nonplussed. Anyway they are wonderful together on screen.
| by Anonymous | reply 15 | May 6, 2022 6:07 PM |
[quote]He was probably Austin Pendleton's understudy
Yes, r3, he was. As well as Perchik's...
| by Anonymous | reply 16 | May 6, 2022 6:07 PM |
You're welcome R11. That's exactly what happens to me, too. And thanks for the other infamous quote R12.
Despite the camp and cattiness, I keep forgetting how caustic the original Boys in the Band is until I watch it again. It reminds me of a few gatherings I had been to as young adult. So I tuck it away until I forget again.
| by Anonymous | reply 17 | May 6, 2022 6:15 PM |
Oh wow, I appreciate all the posts... Nice to know he made such an impression. Thanks :-)
| by Anonymous | reply 18 | May 6, 2022 6:19 PM |
r17, I watch every decade or so just to remind me how far we've come (and how precious those advancements are). I haven't seen the recent remake, the casting just seems...wrong.
| by Anonymous | reply 19 | May 6, 2022 6:22 PM |
OP...how the fuck can you *not* mention Ginger and Ruby???
| by Anonymous | reply 20 | May 6, 2022 6:24 PM |
R20, that's the DC episode! Only Dick Cavett and Leonard Frey impressed me. :-)
| by Anonymous | reply 21 | May 6, 2022 8:03 PM |
Ginger was Ginger, r21 and Ruby...had a show to run off to.
| by Anonymous | reply 22 | May 6, 2022 8:05 PM |
