Will Geer (March 9, 1902 β April 22, 1978) who played grandpa on The Waltons, was as gay as a picnic basket.
WIKI: Geer married actress Herta Ware in 1934; they had three children, Kate Geer, Thad Geer, and actress Ellen Geer. Ware also had a daughter, Melora Marshall, who was an actress, from another marriage. Although he and Ware divorced in 1954, they remained close for the rest of their lives.
In 1932, Geer met Harry Hay at the Tony Pastor Theatre where Geer was working as an actor. They soon became lovers.
Harry Hay, April 1996, Anza-Borrego Desert, Radical Faeries Campout
Born Henry Hay Jr.
April 7, 1912
Worthing, Sussex, England
Died October 24, 2002 (aged 90)
San Francisco, California, U.S.
Nationality American
Movement
LGBT rightssocialismcommunism[1]
Spouse Anita Platky
β
β(m. 1938; ***. 1951)β
Partner(s) Will Geer (1932-1934)[2]
Rudi Gernreich (1950β1952)
Jorn Kamgren (1952β1962)
John Burnside (1963β2002)
Children 2
While working on a play, Hay met actor Will Geer, with whom he entered into a relationship. Geer was a committed leftist, with Hay later describing him as his political mentor.[67][68][69] Geer introduced Hay to Los Angeles' leftist community, and together they took part in activism, joining demonstrations for laborers' rights and the unemployed, and on one occasion handcuffed themselves to lamposts outside UCLA to hand out leaflets for the American League Against War and Fascism.[67] Other groups whose activities he joined in with included End Poverty in California, Hollywood Anti-**** League, the Mobilization for Democracy, and Workers' Alliance of America.[70] Hay and Geer spent a weekend in San Francisco during the city's 1934 General Strike, where they witnessed police open fire on protesters, killing two; this event further committed Hay to societal change.[71][63] Hay joined an agitprop theatre group that entertained at strikes and demonstrations; their performance of Waiting for Lefty in 1935 led to attacks from the fascist Friends of New Germany group.[72]