🌈"𝓦𝓮𝓵𝓬𝓸𝓶𝓮 𝓪𝓫𝓸𝓪𝓻𝓭 𝓲𝓽'𝓼 𝓵𝓸𝓿𝓮!"🌈 (Part Two) LGBTQ+ representation on the Aaron Spelling romantic-comedy-drama anthology series The Love Boat, which ran on ABC from its launch as a TV movie in 1976 and then as a weekly series from September 24th, 1977 until the Pacific Princess sailed off the airwaves on May 24th, 1986. Among the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender celebrities featured on the original series were actor, comedian and director Charles Nelson Reilly (mentioned in the previous post---I found his porthole!), veteran stage and television actress Holland Taylor, who is also the life-partner of actress Sarah Paulson, British stage, screen, and television actor Jeremy Brett, best remembered as Freddy Eynsford-Hill opposite Audrey Hepburn in My Fair Lady (1964) and for his portrayal of Sherlock Holmes on British television from 1984 to 1994, television star and AIDS activist Dack Rambo (among his vast credits include roles on The Donna Reed Show, Wonder Woman, Dallas, Paper Dolls, and All My Children), British stage, screen and television actor Maurice Evans (Shakespearean trained, Evans made a splash as Hamlet on Broadway in the 1920s and went on to star in Rosemary's Baby in 1968, as Dr. Zaius in Planet of the Apes in 1968 and Beneath the Planet of the Apes in 1970, and as Samantha Stephens' warlock father Maurice on the 1964-1972 sitcom Bewitched), Canadian actor Raymond Burr known for his portrayals of the villain in Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window (1954), as the title character on the long-running television series Perry Mason (1957 to 1966), and as Robert T. Ironside on the series Ironside (1967-1974), prolific film and television star Raymond St. Jacques (cast as "Simon Blake" on the Western series Rawhide in 1965, St. Jacques made history as the first African-American actor to have a regular starring role on a prime time western series), actor and singer Jim Nabors who starred as wholesome and goofy Gomer Pyle on both The Andy Griffith Show and the spin-off Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. (Nabors was also one of Carol Burnett's best friends), Ron Palillo who played Horshack on the sitcom Welcome Back, Kotter from 1975 to 1979, Caitlyn Jenner, gold medalist at the 1976 Montreal Olympics who also acted in a few films and TV shows (Caitlyn appeared on The Love Boat in 1986 long before she transitioned, but her porthole credit now reflects her identity), Timothy Patrick Murphy who appeared on The Love Boat four times between 1979 and 1985, Will Geer, well-known for his iconic portrayal of Grandpa Walton on the long-running family drama The Waltons from 1972 until his passing in 1978, Meredith Baxter, the daughter of Hazel actress Whitney Blake who starred on the TV show Family in the 1970s (which also starred fellow openly gay Love Boat guest star Kristy McNichol, featured in part one of this post) and memorably played Michael J. Fox's mom Elyse Keaton on the popular 1980s sitcom Family Ties (Meredith came out as a lesbian in 2009 and married her partner Nancy Locke in 2013), and fashion designer Geoffrey Beene, renowned for dressing many American First Ladies as well as actresses Faye Dunaway and Glenn Close. Among these celebrities, it's worth noting that three of them tragically died from complications due to HIV/AIDS: Dack Rambo at age 52 in 1994, Raymond St. Jacques at age 60 in 1990, and Timothy Patrick Murphy, who had a promising career ahead of him, at the untimely age of 29 in 1988. Part one of this post can be viewed here.
