When Christopher George posed for Playgirl, in June 1974, he was 43 years old and a Hollywood veteran, famous for Rat Patrol and about 50 gung-ho, "can we win this time?" war and cowboy movies.He reclines, eating watermelon, a little paunchy in middle age, but hirsute, tanned, gold-chained, the sharp phallic knife accentuating his obvious gifts beneath the belt.
IMDB calls him a "solidly built, boyishly handsome leading man." He was born in 1931 to Greek immigrants, and didn't learn English until he was six years old. In high school in Miami, he played football, soccer, and track, drove trucks, and shot alligators.
He was planning to become a Greek Orthodox priest, but in 1948 he dropped out of high school to join the Marines, and got the acting bug. While waiting for his break, he held a variety of macho jobs, like bouncer, private investigator, and owner of a beer bar. He started on the stage, roles in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Mr. Roberts, The Moon is Blue, and Stalag 17.
In 1965, he got a guest spot on Bewitched as George the Warlock, a Hugh Hefner-like playboy with a harem of women. Endora hires to seduce Samantha, but he likes her attractive neighbor more.
He was also cast in In Harm's Way. with John Wayne as a naval officer who wants to beat the Japanese during World War II. The two shared a gung-ho, macho philosophy, and became lifelong friends.Lots of rough, true-grit war and cowboy movies, flag-waving reactions to the pot-smoking, draft-card-burning, "can't tell the boys from the girls" hippies: Massacre Harber, The Thousand Plane Raid, The Devil's 8, Midway, Mayday at 40,000 Feet!
In Project X, 1968, Christopher plays a spy whose memories of a top-secret Commie weapon are being suppressed, so the good guys use advanced technology to extract them. He has sex with the naked lady on the movie poster.
Christopher also did some modeling. That's how he met Lynda Day, who became famous for her work on Mission Impossible and her Playboy centerfold. They were married in 1970.
A heavy drinker and smoker throughout his life, Christopher died of a heart attack on November 28, 1983. He received a Greek Orthodox funeral. In 2009, the Marines flew a flag at the Iwo Jima memorial
Is there any gay potential to such an indefatigably macho, hetero-horny, beefy, boyishly handsome Hugh Hefner?
Answer after the break
Christopher's first starring role on tv was in Rat Patrol (1966-68), about four allied soldiers in North Africa during World War II: Troy (Christopher) was the leader, Moffitt (Gary Raymond) the intellectual, Hitch (Lawrence Casey) the jokester, and Tully (Justin Tarr) the redneck. Lots of buddy-bonding in the desert, and nary a woman in sight.
He also starred in The Immortal (1969-71), about a racecar driver (Christopher) whose blood has amazing regenerative powers, thus making him very attractive to a sick millionaire. I can't even begin to parse out the gay-vampire-predator subtext.
I Escaped from Devil's Island (1973): No women in the French penal colony, just fellow Playgirl centerfold Jim Brown.
On a 1975 episode of SWAT Team, where he played a scuba diving jewel thief partnered with famous gay actor Sal Mineo.
In the 1979 pilot of The Misadventures of Sheriff Lobo, a spin-off of the down-home Dukes of Hazzard, Christopher plays the bad guy, Dandy Jim Brody. I don't know anything about the episode, but his name sounds gay-coded.
Christopher's brother became a fashion designer. Sounds gay-coded again.
Not to mention Playgirl itself, which everybody knew had a huge gay male following.
Left: A new Christopher George, model.
See also: Joseph Cali, nude model before Stonewall
A very handsome leading man and yes the Rat Patrol looks very homoerotic now- one of his last roles is in the slasher movie "Pieces" which has some surprising full frontal nudity but not from him. I loved The Rat Patrol on reruns- specially Lawrence P Casey who was often shirtless and tied up by the bad guys. Casey is in the hysterical " The Gay Deceivers" a political incorrect comedy about two straight guys who pretend to be gay to get out of the army
ReplyDeleteI've heard of "The Gay Deceivers." Wasn't it the first mainstream movie to have identified gay characters?
DeleteNot sure about that- its full of outrageous gay characters- the movie could have been better if it had been brave in the last act - but this was a gay comedy aimed at at mainstream audiences
DeleteWell, not really a gay comedy, a "aren't swishy queens hilarious?" comedy
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