Saturday, August 11, 2007

What's In a (Gay) Name?

Movie Morlocks, the Turner Classic Movies blog, recently posted a collection of memorable movie character names. It is a compelling and (mostly) comprehensive list, yet, with a few exceptions, it is, well ... pretty straightforward.

I give them the benefit of the doubt though, for their stock and trade is classic films from the studio era, and we all know what kind of representation gay characters received in those times: next to none. And what there was was usually negative; for example, characters generally regarded as queer that did make their list (Mrs. Danvers, Eve Harrington, even the cross-dressing Norman Bates) are all villains.

So to give the gay perspective, here is the Movie Dearest list of memorable GLBT movie character names (including a few more villains). Also, note that I have left off any "real" people (James Whale, Brandon Teena) that were well-known prior to their appearance on film or any characters that are named in the movie's title (Chuck and Buck, Hedwig). See if you can guess what movies they are from (names are in alphabetical order):
  1. Albin, a.k.a. Zaza
  2. Angel & Collins and Maureen & Joanne
  3. Bruno Anthony
  4. Shug Avery
  5. Andrew Beckett
  6. Arnold Beckoff
  7. Vida Boheme, Noxeema Jackson and Chi-Chi Rodriguez
  8. Bree Osbourne
  9. Joel Cairo
  10. Cristal Connors
  11. Corky and Violet
  12. Roger De Bris and Carmen Ghia
  13. Ennis Del Mar and Jack Twist
  14. Dil
  15. Felicia, Mitzi and Bernadette
  16. Dr. Frank-N-Furter
  17. Fuzzy
  18. Gay Perry
  19. Jamie and Ste
  20. Kitten
  21. Rosa Klebb
  22. Waldo Lydecker
  23. Michael, Emory, Harold and Cowboy
  24. Molina
  25. Dolly Pelliker
  26. Plato
  27. Toddy
  28. Catherine Tramell
  29. Sebastian Venable
  30. Zach and Bart

Give your guesses (or add more character names to the list) in the comments section below.

Link via MovieMorlocks.com.

3 comments:

Insideguy said...

I thought I could add a few more to get it up to 50. There are many more. Maybe other will add to these.

1. Rusty Flawless Phillip Seymour Hoffman

2. Charles and Harry
Staircase Rex Harrison
Richard Burton

3. Kasper and Wilmer The Maltese Falcon Sidney Greenstreet
Elisha Cook Jr.

4. Wade Lewis Inside Daisy Clover Robert Redford

5. Aschenbach Death in Venice Dirk Bogarde

6. Martin von Essenbeck
The Damned Helmut Berger

7. Jonathan and Bobby Home at the End of the
World
Dallas Roberts
Colin Farrell

8. Brick Pollitt Cat on a Hot Tin Roof Paul Newman

9. Paul Six Degrees of Separation Will Smith

10. Johnny and Omar
My Beautiful Laundrette Daniel Day Lewis
Gordon Warnecke

11. Jeff Mitchell The Sum of Us Russell Crowe

12. Laurence Faggot
The Magic Christian Leonard Frey

13. Sonny Wortzik Dog Day Afternoon Al Pacino

14. Armand Interview of With the
Vampire
Antonio Banderas

15. Private Williams Reflections in a Golden Eye Robert Forster

16. Myron Myra Breckenridge Rex Reed

17. Michael Caffrey Billy Elliot Stuart Wells

18. June and Alice The Killing of Sister
George
Beryl Reid
Susannah York

19. Jill and Ellen The Fox Sandy Dennis
Anne Heywood

20. Vivian and Cay Desert Hearts Helen Shaver
Patricia Charbonneau

Kirby Holt said...

Wow, great job Robert! And how could I forget Armand!!!

Rachel Benjamin said...

Ok, so I just wanted to add the fact the #20, being Kitten, from Breakfast on Pluto (which was a better book, I personally believe), his name was not quite so tame originally, being P*ssy.

Still, I guess the list was only including movies.