Gomer pyle was gay
JIM NABORS (1930–2017), best recognizable for his TV role as Gomer Pyle, was one of my first heroes in life, even before I understood why. Gay men of my generation—most of us in our 50s—often talk about when it was we first knew about our sexual identity. For many of us, it was our response to actors we saw on TV. James Conrad in The Unrestrained , Wild, Wild West strutting through frontier towns shirtless, his chest gleaming in the Southern California sun. Whichever Brady Bunch was closest to our age. Will, the boy astronaut on Lost In Space. The late David Cassidy, Scott Baio, Leif Garrett, the dashing blond character Iliya Kuryakin (played by David McCallum) on The Man From Uncle.
Nabors, who died last week, played the bumbling and ever-flummoxed—but disconcertingly handsome—filling station attendant on The Andy Griffith Show when I was a very new boy, and he became even better known in later years on Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C, which aired when I was a kid of ten or so.
It seems that every person remembers with eerie precision certain seemingly sundry moments in our life that don’t seem to warrant such long-lasting attention in our memories, yet they prevail. I can
Thread: at age 82 Jim Nabors (Gomer Pyle) finally comes out of the closet
by marrying his firefighter partner of 38 years no less
is anyone shocked?
By Christie D'Zurilla
January 30, 2013, 10:21 a.m.
Jim Nabors, beloved to audiences as TV's Gomer Pyle, has married Stan Cadwallader, his significant other of 38 years.
The wedding took place Jan. 15 in front of a judge at a Seattle hotel, said Hawaii News Now, which first reported the news Tuesday. Washington express legalized gay marriage in December
"I'm not ashamed of people knowing. It's just that it was such a personal thing, I didn't tell anybody," said Nabors, 82, a resident of Honolulu. "I'm very happy that I've had a significant other of 38 years, and I undergo very blessed."
Nabors and 64-year-old Cadwallader, then a firefighter, met in 1975 in Honolulu.
"The Andy Griffith Show" and "Gomer Pyle, USMC" alum told Hawaii News Now that he hadn't acknowledged his sexuality before to the media, though he said he was open about it to friends and co-workers when he was working in Hollywood in the 1960s and '70s.
"I haven't ever made a common spectacle of it. Well, I've established since I was a child, so, come on. It'
Oh sure, Seattle’s had its disseminate of cute weddings, but the cutest — one four decades in the making — is the 2013 union of Jim Nabors and Stan Cadwallader at the Fairmont Olympic Hotel downtown. One was a TV celebrity, the other a firefighter, and they’d managed to keep their relationship out of the general eye for 38 years.
One reason they protected their privacy: A TV star of the 1960s and 1970s, Jim’s career was nearly destroyed by a queer wedding rumor just before he and Stan met, a rumor that also ended Jim’s bond with closeted actor Rock Hudson. Over his 55-year career, Jim made a name for himself as a wholesome, folksy southerner; but behind the scenes, he harbored a secret love that would have scandalized the region if it was found out.
Jim was born at the start of the Great Depression in a tiny Alabama town called Sylacauga. His mother worked at a truck stop, his father bounced around from job to job until he finally wound up entity appointed the town’s sole police officer. The family raised chickens for food and lived in a tiny house. Jim always stood out — his serious asthma prevented him from playing with the other kids, but he was so energetic and outgoin
The world resounded with a predictable Gol-ol-olllll-leeeee! at yesterday's news that Jim Nabors had gay-married his long-term partner, Stan Cadwallader.
Nabors, who played Gomer Pyle in both 1960s-era television series The Andy Griffith Show and its spin-off, Gomer Pyle, USMC (pre-Don't Ask Don't Explain , we guess), announced the two had been wed in Seattle last month, following Washington voters' approval of same-sex attracted marriage in 2012.
"I'm 82 and he's in his 60s and so we've been together for 38 years and I'm not ashamed of people knowing; it's just that it was such a personal thing, I didn't inform anybody" Nabors eventually told AP. "I'm very happy that I've had a partner of 38 years and I feel very blessed. And, what can I tell you, I'm just very happy."
Yep, he's gay.
Nabors's sexual orientation was long an reveal secret in the LGBT community and among his straight(ish) friends like Carol Burnett and Julie Andrews. And if he wasn't same-sex attracted, his character, surely Gomer Pyle was. After all, fond that other irresistible Southern television diva, Honey Boo-Boo, says, "Everybody's got a little gay in 'em!"
Face it. Mayberry, Gomer's famed fictitious hometown, has a lot of lgbtq+ in it. A