Cliff Gorman

Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Email
AMG AllMovie Guide:

Cliff Gorman

Top

Biography

The world was a different place in 1968, the year that actor Cliff Gorman created a sensation with his all-stops-out portrayal of "screaming queen" Emory in the off-Broadway hit The Boys in the Band. At that time, Gorman's agents found it expedient to assure playgoers that their client was not the sashaying homosexual he played in Band and to that end commissioned newspaper and magazine pieces detailing Gorman's previous manly-man jobs as trucker, ambulance driver and probation officer; there were also photos aplenty of Gorman's wife and children. The same protecting-our-investment publicity blitz occurred when Gorman repeated his Emory characterization for the 1970 film version of Band. By the time Gorman won his Tony award for his virtuoso portrayal of Lenny Bruce in the 1972 Broadway production Lenny, however, no one really cared about his sexual orientation; it was enough to know that Gorman was one of the finest young actors working in America. Cliff Gorman's subsequent big-screen work has included Cops and Robbers (1973), All That Jazz (1979) and Angel (1984); his television credits include the role of Joseph Goebbels in The Bunker (1982) and his periodic appearances as detective Aaron Greenberg in the TV-movie adaptations of the crime novels of William Bayer (Doubletake, Murder Times Seven etc.) ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
Top
Cliff Gorman
Born October 13, 1936(1936-10-13)
Queens, New York, U.S.
Died September 5, 2002(2002-09-05) (aged 65)
New York City, New York, U.S.
Occupation Actor
Years active 1968–2002
Spouse Gayle Gorman (1963-2002)

Cliff Gorman (October 13, 1936 – September 5, 2002) was an American stage and screen actor. He won an Obie award in 1968 for the stage presentation of The Boys in the Band, and went on to reprise his role in the 1970 film version.

Life and career

Gorman was born in New York City, New York, the son of Ethel (née Kaplan) and Samuel Gorman.[1] He was raised Jewish.[2]

Gorman won a Tony Award in 1972 for playing Lenny Bruce in the play Lenny. Although the film version, directed by Bob Fosse, featured Dustin Hoffman, Gorman was recruited to portray a Lenny-like character in a side-story in Fosse's film All That Jazz. In 1984 he co-starred as Lt. Andrews in the film Angel. Noteworthy are his roles in movies like An Unmarried Woman with Jill Clayburgh, Hoffa with Jack Nicholson and Danny De Vito and Night and the City with Robert De Niro. His TV work included performances in series like Law and Order, Murder, She Wrote and the 1970's drama Police Story, written by former LAPD Detective Sergeant Joseph Wambaugh.

Gorman and his wife cared for his fellow Boys in the Band performer Robert La Tourneaux in the last few months of his battle against AIDS, until La Tourneaux's death on June 3, 1986.

Gorman died of leukemia in 2002, aged 65, although his final film, Kill the Poor, was not released until 2006. He was survived by his wife, Gayle Gorman.

References

External links


Post a question - any question - to the WikiAnswers community:

Copyrights:

Mentioned in

Class of '63 (1973 Drama Film)
Cops and Robbers (1973 Comedy Film)
Night of the Juggler (1980 Drama Film)