Great Performances: Matthew Rhys as Kevin Walker

Brothers and Sisters has not only proved to be a great showcase for some of our favorite TV actresses (Rachel Griffiths, Calista Flockhart, Patricia Wettig and the Emmy Award winning Sally Field), it has also given us a rarity for network television: a well-rounded, realistic gay character.

As portrayed by Matthew Rhys, Kevin Walker has been far from perfect ... but who of us is? Kevin can be curt, insensitive and self-centered at times, but he is never a stereotype, even with his frequent, sarcastically witty one-liners (which are always hilarious). Rhys' performance is multi-layered, but the love Kevin has for his family and new husband Scotty (Luke Macfarlane) is never too far from the surface.

Brothers and Sisters returns tomorrow night with its third season premiere. To catch up on all the goings-on with the Walker clan, watch the ABC "Starter Kit" video and/or this preview clip.

Great Performances: Tergesen as Beecher and Meloni as Keller

There were many unexpected things viewers of the HBO series Oz saw when the series began its six season run ten years ago (in the pre-Sopranos days, mind you). But amongst all the shankings, drug overdoses and gratuitous male nudity, most never expected to see a man-on-man love relationship as tender and complex as the one between Tobias Beecher (Lee Tergesen) and Chris Keller (Christopher Meloni).

Beecher, an alcoholic lawyer, and Keller, a violent sociopath, shared a rocky history on the series, beginning with the second season. Their unconventional love affair was often jeopardized by the machinations of the resident white supramicist Vern Schillinger (an electrifying J.K. Simmons), and the dynamics of this unlikely "love triangle" played out until the ultimate tragedies of the final episode. Nevertheless, even with all the death and drama inherent in a show set in a maximum security prison, the obsessive love between the two characters, as embodied realistically and honestly by Tergesen and Meloni, struck a chord with viewers.

Even now, four years after the series ended, Beecher and Keller still inspire fan fiction, video tributes and even homemade action figures (complete with swastiska tattoo and handy K-Y Jelly accessory, of course).

Click here to buy Ozon DVD from Amazon.com.
Links via Imdb.com, Durfee.net, YouTube.com and ColleenDetroit.com.

Great Performances: Hilary Swank as Brandon Teena

When an actor takes on a challenging role, it is often said of them that they are "brave". Most of the time that is pure hyperbole, but in the case of Hilary Swank's Academy Award-winning performance of Brandon Teena in Boys Don't Cry, truer words could not be spoken.

Swank embodies Teena, a young transgendered male, with a raw spontaneity that is transfixing. There is a charisma about her Brandon that makes the onscreen transformation completely convincing, both in the terms of the true story unfolding for the character and the seamless technique the actress is displaying. You can thoroughly understand how Teena was able to pass as a male, and when his transgendered status is revealed, and the horrific ramifications that followed occur, the ensuing tragedy is gut-wrenching in its verisimilitude.

This post is in honor of Transgender Day of Remembrance (which will recognize its ninth anniversary tomorrow), a day set aside to memorialize those who were killed due to anti-transgender hatred or prejudice. Click here to learn more.

This post is also a part of Queering the Apparatus' Queer Film Blog-A-Thon.

Click here to buy Boys Don't Cryon DVD from Amazon.com.
Links via Wikipedia.org, Imdb.com, Gender.org and QueeringTheApparatus.blogspot.com.

Great Performances: Dylan Fergus as Eddie

When it comes to slasher movies, every one needs to have the "Jamie Lee Curtis" character. That is, the plucky smart one who suspects something is going on while her more superficial, less intelligent girlfriends are knocked off one by one by the resident homicidal maniac.

In the case of the gay horror movie HellBent (directed by Paul Etheredge-Ouzts), "Jamie Lee" is played by actor Dylan Fergus. A hunky police department assistant trying to prove himself, Fergus' Eddie is just as resilient as Curtis' Halloween hero Laurie Strode in this effective throwback to the early days of John Carpenter and his ilk.

However, unlike the virginal Laurie, Eddie manages a little heavy petting action with a swarthy stranger, and you all know what happens when someone in a scary movie has sex. But Eddie has a secret of his own that just may save both their lives when the devilish killer comes calling ... for their heads!

Watch the HellBent trailer here.

Click here to purchase HellBenton DVD from Amazon.com.
Links via Imdb.com and YouTube.com.

Great Performances: Stanley Tucci as Nigel

While it takes no great stretch of the imagination to picture a gay man in the world of high fashion, it does take some deft handling not to turn that character into a screaming stereotype.

Of course, when you have an actor as talented as Stanley Tucci in the role, you need not worry. Tucci brings more to his performance as Nigel in The Devil Wears Prada then what was on the page, imbuing the character with a quiet dignity and unquestioning (if not misplaced) loyalty to his fashionista mistress, Miranda Priestly. And when that loyalty is ultimately (inevitably?) betrayed, he suffers in silence, yet all the pain and anger is easily visible in his eyes.

Lest we forget that this movie is a comedy, Nigel does manage to toss off a few catty zingers along the way. "Gird your loins", anyone?

Click here to purchase The Devil Wears Pradaon DVD from Amazon.com.
Link via Imdb.com.

Great Performances: Felicity Huffman as Bree Osbourne

Felicity Huffman's brilliant performance as the pre-op male-to-female transsexual Bree Osbourne in Transamerica is a triumph on many levels.

Anyone who has seen Huffman on her television show Desperate Housewives knows that she is a beautiful woman, even with her frazzled working mother exterior. Yet in Transamerica, she is unrecognizable, and it is more then the make-up and frumpy costumes. Huffman physically transformed herself in the role, and is entirely believable as a biological male yearning to be female.

You can feel the aching to achieve what she so desperately wants, to fit in (to "pass") in the way Bree carries herself. Every gesture, every mannerism is controlled to the utmost, for fear someone may detect the masculinity buried deep within.

This control is shaken when her pending sexual reassignment surgery is jeopardized by a ghost from her past: a son she never knew she had. Toby, a scraggly street hustler, enters her life at what she thinks is the worst possible time. However, by getting to know him during their long, event-filled cross-country journey, she comes to realize that meeting him may have been the best thing that ever happened to her.

Huffman won several awards for her performance in Transamerica, including the Golden Globe and the Independent Spirit Award, and was also nominated for the Academy Award.

Click here to purchase Transamericaon DVD from Amazon.com.
Link via Imdb.com.

Great Performances: Tuc Watkins as Sterling Scott

I recently watched the 1997 gay romantic comedy I Think I Do because of Tuc Watkins. He was recently cast on one of "my shows", Desperate Housewives, as one half of the gay couple who moves onto Wisteria Lane this season.

I have seen Watkins many times on one of Big Edie's "shows", One Life to Live, where he plays the lovable cad David Vickers. He is unique among soap actors in that he not only doesn't mind being silly, he appears to relish it, a fact that makes him immensely watchable. That, and he is a total hunk (don't you just love it when they can actually act too?).

Anyway, my previous exposure to him on the daytime sudser added to my appreciation of him in I Think I Do because he plays a soap opera actor in it. And a gloriously vain and self-involved (yet still likeable) one at that. His comedic performance as Sterling Scott (love the name), Alexis Arquette's studly boyfriend, is the highlight of this otherwise well intentioned but typical gay rom com (it is the type of indie where you just know the actors are wearing their own clothes -- not that there's anything wrong with that). Watkins really is a hoot in it, such as when he calls Arquette his "potato bug" or recalls how he wooed him by giving him his headshot.

If you're a fan of Watkins too and want to see him "play gay" before his "househusband" stint this fall, then this movie is worth a look.

Click here to buy I Think I Doon DVD from Amazon.com.
Links via Imdb.com and Televisionista.blogspot.com.

Great Performances: Jesse L. Martin as Collins

When watching Jesse L. Martin in the role of Tom Collins in Rent, one can feel the joy that this man finds in life, even if that life could be cut short at any time by his HIV- status.

Martin brings a warmth, a familiarity to his characterization that is refreshing, even surprising. One can easily see why he has the loyal friends that he does, and why his Angel would fall in love with him so completely, so easily. Their duet, "I'll Cover You", is sexy, even playfull, but ultimately rock solid romantic.

Which makes Collins' solo reprise, after Angel is taken from him, all the more heart breaking. As he stands at the funeral of his beloved, he fights back the pain, yet somehow finds the strength - the love - to lead his "family" through their combined grief.

Marin played Collins in the original Broadway production of Rent, and the time spent in the role shows. His Collins is lived in, and while Wilson Jermaine Heredia's Angel is the heart of the piece, Martin's performance is its soul.

Click here to buy Renton DVD from Amazon.com.
Links via Imdb.com and Ibdb.com.

Great Performances: An Introduction

From award-winning gay representations to scene-stealing supporting characters, here is where you will find the roles (and the actors who portrayed them) that will make you sit up and take notice.