I remember seeing a Jimmy Cagney movie years ago in which a character was pretty obviously gay, but I can't remember which movie it was (maybe "The Public Enemy"?).
I do remember that the gay character was an enemy henchman who came over to Cagney's place to intimidate him or something, and Cagney said something like "You fellas want something to eat? I know you (indicating the gay guy) would probably like some fruit, but how about the rest of ya?"
www.imdb.com The Internet Movie Database. Everything you need to know you can find here.
In, "Some Like It Hot" is an American comedy film, made in 1958 and released in 1959. The characters themselves were just cross dressers, the men weren't really gay so not sure if that counts.
Then there was, Ms Divine (October 19, 1945 – March 7, 1988), born Harris Glenn Milstead, was an American actor, singer and drag queen.
There was a lot of actors in the 40's and 50's that didn't come out of the closet till later on.
Rudolph Valentino (May 6, 1895 – August 23, 1926) was an Italian actor, and early pop icon. A sexual symbol of the 1920s, Valentino was known as the "Latin Lover".[1] He starred in several well-known silent films including The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, The Sheik, Blood and Sand, The Eagle and Son of the Sheik.
I would go with valentino because he was such a strong sex symbol for girls and influenced so many people, later on in like it was said that he was infact gay.. but no he wasn't open about it during those times.
One could argue that a lot of actors/artist were gay but were secretly gay and did not come out of the closet because it was to dangerous. It is my belief that, Burt Lancaster was infact gay, all the wives he divorced and then later on in life he would support gay rights", either he did it for a loved one or he did it for himself.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBT_history
heres a link to LGBT History.
Gay character? HOkay then. No leads, just some gang bosses thinking they were being funny. Like the Cagney fruit joke. There's a lot of innuendo like this throughout the Golden Age. Katharine Hepburn played a part where she was a boxer and Spencer Tracy was her coach - probably was innuendo, but actually coming out gay? No.
The 70's had the idea of someone being gay - Three's Company. I wonder if HAIR had a gay character... I don't think so... EVerything else, but not homosexual.
God, that's a good question. I can't think of anything from the 60's...
Even in Will and Grace they wouldn't show a gay kiss... That had to wait until "Glee," which probably has the most break-thrus - gay kissing, and lesbian kissing, and a popular person [or many popular people : Santana, Brittany].
I Dream of Genie and Bewitched - an obviously homosexual lady and a married woman with children. [but there were a whole 'lotta jokes about the two guys being gay from their superior...