Jim neighbors was gay
Jim Nabors remained closeted for over 5 decades as he became a familiar name on TV. LGBTQ historian Matt Baume takes a deep dive into the actor and singer’s Hollywood career (and scandals).
Over his 55-year career, Jim Nabors cultivated a wholesome, folksy persona, from playing Gomer Pyle on multiple sitcoms to appearing as himself on variety shows to singing every year at the start of the Indianapolis 500.
But behind the scenes, Jim Nabors harbored a covert that would have scandalized the country and destroyed his career if it was ever found out — and in evidence, it nearly did when rumors spread about his relationship with another closeted actor.
One of the big scandals that impacted Nabors’s career was an untrue rumor that he and Rock Hudson were secret lovers. Both were secretly gay, and were friends – not lovers. But the tabloid tales forced the two men to nearly end their friendship.
Just one little tidbit from Matt: In 1971, CBS had a whole slate of rural/country-themed TV shows. Afraid of looking behind the times, all of them – including The Jim Nabors Hour, Petticoat Junction, The Andy Griffith Show, Beverly Hillbillies, Green Acres
Oh sure, Seattle’s had its share 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 star, the other a firefighter, and they’d managed to keep their affair out of the public 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 same-sex wedding rumor just before he and Stan met, a rumor that also ended Jim’s relationship with closeted actor Rock Hudson. Over his 55-year career, Jim made a specify for himself as a wholesome, folksy southerner; but behind the scenes, he harbored a confidential love that would have scandalized the country 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 position until he finally wound up creature appointed the town’s sole police officer. The family raised chickens for diet and lived in a tiny home. Jim always stood out — his severe asthma prevented him from playing with the other kids, but he was so vigorous 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 lgbtq+ 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 say 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 homosexual, his character, surely Gomer Pyle was. After all, prefer 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 queer in it. A
JIM NABORS (1930–2017), best known for his TV role as Gomer Pyle, was one of my first heroes in life, even before I understood why. Male lover men of my generation—most of us in our 50s—often discuss 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 Wild, Unrestrained , 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 belated David Cassidy, Scott Baio, Leif Garrett, the dashing blond personality 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 young 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 being that don’t seem to warrant such long-lasting attention in our memories, yet they prevail. I can