While researching other closeted actors from the Golden Age of Hollywood, one name kept coming up - Guy Madison. But there were never any substantiating facts or convincing rumors.
At the most, it was guilt by association - his first agent in Hollywood was the notorious Henry Willson. Willson had a reputation for representing gay actors or requiring special favors from straight actors. Willson’s most famous clients were Rock Hudson and Tab Hunter, who both were revealed to be gay later in life. There were rumors that Madison was sexually involved with Rory Calhoun (another Willson client).
Recently, I came across three different YouTube videos which “out” Gay Madison, one even naming names. I’m still not 100% convinced that the question is settled - Was Guy Madison gay or bisexual? But with others claiming Madison was gay, I thought I’d share his story and let you decide.
Guy Madison was born Robert Ozell Moseley in rural California. In 1944, when Madison was on leave from the Navy, he visited Hollywood, where he caught the eye of talent agent Henry Willson. It was Willson who renamed Robert Moseley as Guy Madison.
His first film role was a bit part in “Since You Went Away” (1944). His good looks caught the eye of moviegoers who demanded to see more of the 22-year-old sailor. Madison’s acting career began in earnest with a starring role in “Till the End of Time” (1946).
Madison’s appeared in over 60 movies and television shows through the 1970s. He starred as the title character in “The Adventures of Wild Bill Hickok” (1951–58). Its producers edited multiple episodes into films shown in theaters as well.
When his career in Hollywood began to fade, Madison moved to Europe, where he starred in a variety of movies, mostly shot in Germany, Italy, and Spain.
So, was Guy Madison bisexual or a closeted homosexual? He was married and divorced twice and was the father of 4 children. But celebrity biographer Darwin Porter wrote in his 2005 book “Howard Hughes: Hell’s Angel” that Guy Madison was one of the many male and female actors that the bisexual tycoon wined, dined, and fucked. And Hollywood biographer Lawrence J. Quirk claimed a known gossip columnist for The Hollywood Reporter in the 1950s bedded Madison in exchange for good reviews.
One of the YouTube posts says that Madison had been lovers with such actors as Ramon Navarro, Tyrone Power, Rock Hudson, and Anthony Perkins (who had also been a lover of Tab Hunter). The video mentions a memoir which Madison was purported to have written before his death due to emphysema in 1996.
But I can’t find any record of Guy Madison’s memoir being published or available online. And the video talks about how inspirational Madison’s career influenced future actors. When I look at Madison’s theatrical resume, it’s mostly westerns and low-budget European films. And he never won any major acting awards. So the video narration sounds like hyperbole. Is the rest of it also exaggeration?
All three of the YouTube videos I found are from different sources, yet they have nearly identical styles and talk about Madison in reverential tones. In our era of AI fakes, I’m suspicious of their authenticity.
Here’s one of those YouTube posts, if you’re interested:
