Queering Oscar: Actors Going Gay Edition

Since we devoted seven pages to actresses who turned in queer Oscar-nominated performances throughout the years, here's a little nod to the boys. Acting heavy hitters like Peter Finch in Sunday Bloody Sunday, Al Pacino in Dog Day Afternoon, William Hurt in The Kiss of the Spider Woman and John Lithgow in The World According to Garp, turned in wrenching performances in the seventies and eighties.

But gay characters first became highly visible in the early 1990s with the arrival of Longtime Companion, The Crying Game and Philadelphia.  Together, the three films garnered 2 Best Actor nominations and 2 Best Supporting noms, with Tom Hanks taking the prize for his heart wrenching depiction of a gay man suffering from AIDS.  

The Crying Game was the first mainstream movie to tackle the topic of transgendered love.  Stephen Rea was nominated for Best Actor that year and Jaye Davidson was recognized for his depiction of Dil, the subject of Rea's affection in the gender-bending psychological thriller. 

Greg Kinnear's Oscar nominated performance in the 1997 romantic comedy As Good As It Gets, placed the Talk Soup alum among the industry's most talked about actors.  Kinnear also received Golden Globe and SAG nominations and he went on to win the National Board of Review Supporting Actor award. 

American Beauty, the Best Picture winner in 1999, put gay issues back on the map with its tragic story line.  The film's main character, Lester Burnham (Kevin Spacey), dies tragically at the hands of his homophobic, sexually confused ex-Marine neighbor.  American Beauty won five Oscars including Best Actor for Kevin Spacey and Best Screenplay for Alan Ball. 

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