Richard Chamberlain Has Been Married For Twenty Years (To a Guy)

TV Guide ^ | 5-30-03 | Mary Murphy

[dogbyte12]

Richard Chamberlain sure knows how to keep a secret. He's a master at it. In the public eye for over 40 years, he has been defined almost entirely by his roles. On screen he was this devastatingly handsome heartthrob, the star of Dr. Kildare and the dreamy king of such exotic miniseries as Shogun and The Thorn Birds. Yet Chamberlain remained a distant figure whose private life was always off-limits. Until now.

In an interview with TV Guide, Chamberlain admits that he's gay and that almost 20 years ago he wed another man, Martin Rabbett, who is now his manager. They met in 1975 when Chamberlain, then 41, was starring in the Tennessee Williams play The Night of the Iguana. Rabbett was a production assistant 19 years his junior. On the eve of the publication of Shattered Love: A Memoir (ReganBooks), Chamberlain, now 69, talks about his fear that knowledge of his sexual orientation would ruin his career. It is the first time a romantic leading man of his stature has ever outed himself. But in doing so, Chamberlain says he is finally at peace.

When you were on Dr. Kildare, you were a romantic hero — and hiding the fact that you were gay. Were you afraid people would find out?
Desperately afraid. I used to get chased by hot teenage girls. I got 12,000 fan letters a week. And all the fan magazines would ask me about my love life. And I felt somewhat besieged. But I was good at the game. I felt my career depended on a certain image.

Were you ever able to talk to your parents about it? Never once. Not in my whole life.

Anybody in Hollywood?
No. But it was assumed that I was gay. I remember going to see a comedian who worked on our show — maybe he didn't know I was there — and he made a joke about "Dr. Kildare, that blond faygeleh." Whoa. Was I shocked.

After Kildare went off the air, you went into a funk.
I realized I was just another out-of-work actor. So [the musical] Breakfast at Tiffany's came along. I had a great time until we were on Broadway. The audience just hated it. I had a line, "Oh, I'll never sing again." And voices came back, "Good. You can't sing, anyway." And then people would go up the aisles and leave the theater.

Luckily, you found the miniseries. Tell me about Shogun.
The network wanted me, but James Clavell [the author of the novel] didn't. He wanted Sean Connery. So I started taking voice lessons to get a lower tone and I put six T-shirts under my shirt because I wanted to look bulkier [for the first meeting with Clavell]. It was so hot I was sweating like a pig. But I got on with April, Clavell's wife, and Clavell relented and gave me the part.

In your book, you say the character you identify with a great deal is Father Ralph, the priest in The Thorn Birds.
My public image, my private life and then my spiritual concerns made me realize that we had something in common.

In fact, it was after a spiritual retreat that you met Martin.
The minute I saw him, I thought, "There is someone special." But it wasn't until Night of the Iguana played [on Broadway] that we got into a love relationship.

How many years have you been together?
Twenty-six. I can't imagine how Martin had the guts to live with me because my career was everything. There was no one I would have thrown my career over for. And he knew it.

What are you up to now?
I am doing a play this summer, The Stillborn Lover, which Martin is directing at the Berkshire Theatre Festival in Massachusetts.

Can you sum up your career?
I had looks, talent, ambition. And yet I was afraid of relying on myself — Marlon Brando could rely on himself. I didn't want to be seen as even remotely gay. Remember, I grew up in the '30s, '40s and '50s, when being effeminate was verboten. I ingested all of this. I was as homophobic as anyone else.

When did you get over it?
I've only dropped the last vestiges of that, like, three months ago. And I'm practically stepping into my grave.

[freebilly]

Also their most unwatchable, tabloid-trash twit. Who looks gay as hell.

Post your pic, Hank, so's we can get a gander of someone who don't look gay....

[snickeroon]

Oh, sigh....for the good old days when one actually had the class to keep private things private. Truly it is his own business, and I appreciate the fact that he never saw the need to make it a public issue, or, worse.... a public platform as is the current trend.

I've always thought him a gentleman and a multi-faceted actor, and still do. Not so for the in your face "stars" that insist we love them....and their lifestyles, or they will boycott.

WHY do entertainers want to entertain us with their personal OR political preferences? Hopefully, someday the trend for class above crass will return....

In the meantime, do you remember the two or three part Dr. Kildare where he suffers the loss of his "surfer girl..." It was Yvette Mimieux, I think.

[freebilly]

(Dick Gephardt. Before he dicks you.)

LOL! That's your tagline and you're saying Shep Smith LOOKS gay!

Course, screwing a Democrat ain't a homosexual act. It's more like bestiality (though intercourse with Algore might qualify as masturbation)....

[MeekMom]

LOL
First of all, I did enjoy his miniseries.
Second of all, I always knew he was gay; most people did.
And thirdly, he says he's at peace and is in love with this Rabbet guy.
Okay, when he's in hell for his life of sodomy, I doubt very highly peace will be his judgment. And as far as any sodomite professing love for the same sex; that's not love, that's lust. Love is not evil. God says sodomy is abhorant to Him. End of story.

[Spyder]

And as far as any sodomite professing love for the same sex; that's not love, that's lust.

I challenge you to watch the agony of a gay lover at the bedside of someone's he's spent his life with and call it lust. God abhors all sin, and who's to say loving someone is a worse sin than cheating your neighbor or making death threats to wiccans (like some of the die-hard so-called Christians at Ft. Hood TX did a few years back).

[Spyder]

Amend that to say "at the bedside of someone dying of AIDS or any other terminal illness"

[MeekMom]

Yes, all sin is evil, Spyder. And please don't give us the sob story of someone's agonizing death because of the sinful life they chose to live. A sodomite chooses to sin. No one forces them to sin. And yes, all sins are equal to God.
Chamberlain, like any other sodomite will have no peace eternally.
How do I know this? Because God's Word speaks plain and simple in both the Old and New Testaments on this particular sin.

[Calvin Locke]

IIRC, Blackthorne wasn't taking advantage of the women sent to him.

Probably the book, but the Japanese attending/guarding him suggested offering him a duck or a young boy instead.

Maybe the series. Been a while.

[jde1953]

"And yes, all sins are equal to God."

Lucky they aren't all equal in the courts. Otherwise, shoplifting and murder one would carry equal penalties. Not a pleasant thought, is it?

"Chamberlain, like any other sodomite will have no peace eternally. How do I know this? Because God's Word speaks plain and simple in both the Old and New Testaments on this particular sin."

Well, that's according to the supernatural entity you choose to worship. Is there an objective reason that I should give its opinions precedence over those of the native americans' great spirit or the wiccans' goddess, or any other unprovable supernatural entity?

[Calvin Locke]

...is that Shepard Smith is gay....

Heard a caller claiming to be a tv cameraman who once worked at a FL tv station when Shep was there. This guy said it was
"common" knowledge at the station.

FWIW.

[longtermmemmory]

is shepard smit a homosexual? not rumor. Has he been asked this directly? it matters.

[longtermmemmory]

Blackthord reacted with outrage and indignation at the mere notion that he would be a "damn soddomite"

[Dr. Eckleburg]

"To be an actor, a man must be less than a man; to be an actress, a woman must be more than a woman." Bette Davis

[Gigantor]

Sorry - he couldn't hold a candle next to TV's he-man doctor: Ben Casey.

[Technogeeb]

And that begs the question, why would anyone listen to someone who blew his brains out because he didn't have the courage to live?

Not that it justifies Kurt Cobain's bogus philosophies in any way, but he probably didn't commit suicide. He had so much heroin in his bloodstream (much more than the lethal limit according to the autopsy) that he couldn't have been conscious, let alone conscious enough to use a shotgun. The most common solution to this enigma is the belief that his wife had him murdered.

[Pro-Bush]

I challenge you to watch the agony of a gay lover at the bedside of someone's he's spent his life with...

Disgusting! Very immoral.

[stylin19a]

um...am I reading the article right ? Is he intimating that Brando is gay ?

[MeekMom]

Read the first few words of Genesis 1:1
...nuff said.

[dsutah]

You know, another movie he played in years ago, when he was quite young, was "Julius Caesar" in 1960. I suddenly remembered that. He played young "Augustus Caesar", the future emperor at that time. He wore his hair blond, or wore a wig. Aug. Caesar was Caesar's nephew, and Caesar was said to be blond also. He was one in a group of men, including Mark Antony, who were hunting down Caesar's assasins in parts of the movie.

I do remember that Charleton Heston said something once, that he had worked with, and was friendly with many gifted and talented people who were gay. He played in that movie too. I'm wondering if R.C. was one of those 'gays' he was referring to?

[PLMerite]

I understand. Some of the actresses I think are pretty are munchers. I figure it doesn't matter since even if they were straight they wouldn't have anything to do with me.