While Richard Chamberlain and John Travolta might agree that Hollywood is still not a safe place for leading men and women to be open about their sexuality, the entertainment industry has embraced and rewarded the heterosexual men and women willing to play gay on-screen. The latest example is Mickey Rourke, who has confirmed that he too will join that bandwagon by playing Welsh rugby star Gareth Thomas (who announced that he was gay just last December) in an upcoming biopic. In honor of this role -- which, hell, might win Rourke the Oscar that evaded him for The Wrestler, when he lost to someone on this very list -- Movieline reviews which hetero actors have gone gay or transsexual for a role, and which were awarded Academy Awards along the way.
· Robert Redford, Inside Daisy Clover (1965)
Redford received a Golden Globe nomination for playing a closeted homosexual married to a recording star (Natalie Wood) in this box office failure from Robert Mulligan.
· Marlon Brando, Reflections in a Golden Eye (1967)
This John Huston film featured Brando as a repressed homosexual (married to Elizabeth Taylor's character) on an Army base in the 1940s. Although this movie failed to win Brando any Oscar nominations, footage of his character was later recycled in Apocalypse Now for Young Kurtz. Fun fact!
· Al Pacino, Cruising (1980)
A critical disaster from William Friedkin, Cruising was based on a novel about a NYC serial killer who targeted gay men involved in the 70's S&M scene. Pacino's character is a cop who goes deep undercover to investigate.
· William Hurt, Kiss of the Spider Woman (1985)
Héctor Babenco's adaptation of the Manuel Puig novel won William Hurt an Oscar for playing a pedophile who falls in love with his South American cell mate (Raúl Juliá).
· River Phoenix, My Own Private Idaho (1991)
This Gus Van Sant indie featured Phoenix as a narcoleptic gay street hustler who travels with his best friend (Keanu Reeves) back to his hometown in Idaho.
· Forest Whitaker, The Crying Game (1992)
As a British soldier in this psychological thriller, Whitaker's character convinces an IRA soldier (Stephen Rea) to check on his girlfriend back home -- only for the soldier to realize that the girlfriend is actually a foxy transsexual.
· Tom Hanks, Philadelphia (1993)
This pivotal role in Hanks's career -- as a closeted homosexual lawyer who contracts HIV and is consequently fired -- won him an Oscar and a Golden Globe.
· Will Smith, Six Degrees of Separation (1993)
Legend has it that Denzel Washington warned Smith not to kiss another man in this film for fear of ruining the Men in Black star's career. Here, Smith stars as a con-artist feigning to be Sidney Poitier's son -- and who does not kiss another man onscreen.
· Leonardo DiCaprio, Total Eclipse (1995)
Based on a Christopher Hampton play, this feature starred DiCaprio as a 19th century French poet Arthur Rimbaud who engaged in a fiery romantic relationship with peer Paul Verlaine.
· Robin Williams, The Birdcage (1996)
Robin Williams starred as the owner of a South Beach drag club who, along with his partner (Nathan Lane), feign heterosexuality for his son's disapproving future in-laws.
· Greg Kinnear, As Good As It Gets (1997)
The As Good As It Gets actor earned both Oscar and Golden Globe nominations for his role as a gay artist who is reluctantly taken under the wing of his obsessive compulsive and judgmental neighbor (Jack Nicholson) in this James L. Brooks comedy.
· Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Ewan McGregor, Velvet Goldmine (1998)
This Todd Haynes film featured Rhys Meyers as a glam-rock icon, akin to David Bowie, in the 70's and his lover, played by McGregor.
· Matt Damon, The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999)
Damon earned a Golden Globe nomination for playing an identity thieving opportunist who ultimately kills his lover to save his image in this Anthony Minghella thriller.
· Hillary Swank, Boys Don't Cry (1999)
Hillary Swank won the first of her two Academy Awards for portraying a transgender young man who is savagely murdered after it is discovered that he is biologically female in Kimberly Peirce's indie.
· Ed Harris, Julianne Moore and Meryl Streep, The Hours (2002)
This Stephen Daldry drama famously won Nicole Kidman an Oscar for donning a prosthetic nose and playing Virginia Woolf -- but it also accumulated an assortment of Oscar and Golden Globe nominations for its supporting three actors who all played gay and/or sexually confused characters.
· Charlize Theron and Christina Ricci, Monster (2003)
Just three years after Hillary Swank won an Oscar, Charlize Theron followed suit for her role as a former prostitute turned serial killer. Ricci played her devoted on-screen lover.
· Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Mysterious Skin (2004)
After being sexually abused by his baseball coach, Joseph Gordon-Levitt's character turns to prostitution and crime in this drama from Gregg Araki.
· Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal, Brokeback Mountain (2005)
Their oft-parodied roles in Ang Lee's romantic drama -- as married cowboys who share semi-regular Wyoming rendezvous -- earned both Ledger and Gyllenhaal Oscar nominations.
· Tracy Morgan, The Longest Yard (2005)
Even Tracy Morgan went gay for a paycheck -- but his cartoonish turn as Ms. Tucker, a gay inmate who lusts after every other male prisoner in this Adam Sandler flick, was gravely insulting and even worse, enormously unfunny.
· Philip Seymour Hoffman, Capote (2005)
Hoffman's portrayal of Truman Capote during the writing of his famous book In Cold Blood, swept both the Oscars and the Golden Globes.
· Sean Penn, James Franco and Emile Hirsch, Milk (2008)
The role of gay rights activist Harvey Milk earned Sean Penn both an Oscar as well as a Golden Globe nomination. James Franco and Emile Hirsch also starred as Milk's lover and mentoree respectively.
· Colin Firth, A Single Man, (2009)
This stunning Tom Ford film won Colin Firth an Academy Award nomination for his portrayal of a depressed British professor who mourns his longtime partner in the span of a single day. comprehensive
· Ewan McGregor and Jim Carrey, I Love You Phillip Morris (2010)
This year's comedy featured Jim Carrey as a con artist who falls in love with a fellow inmate played by McGregor. Graphic sex and cuddling included.
· Julianne Moore and Annette Bening, The Kids Are All Right (2010)
Their roles as loving-if-dysfunctional partners and parents of two could win Julianne Moore and Annette Bening (who have already been nominated for Golden Globes) bids in this year's Academy Award race.