fiction.wikisort.org - Actor

Charles William Haines (January 2, 1900 – December 26, 1973) was an American actor and interior designer.

William Haines
Haines in 1920
Born	Charles William Haines (1900-01-02)January 2, 1900 Staunton, Virginia, U.S.
Died	December 26, 1973(1973-12-26) (aged 73) Santa Monica, California, U.S.
Resting place	Woodlawn Memorial Cemetery, Santa Monica
Occupation	Actor interior designer
Years active	1922–1973
Partner	Jimmie Shields (m.1926)
Website	williamhaines.com

Haines was discovered by a talent scout and signed with Goldwyn Pictures in 1922.[lower-alpha 1] His career gained momentum when he received favorable reviews for his role in The Midnight Express. He was cast in the 1926 film Brown of Harvard and his performance solidified his screen persona as a wisecracking, arrogant leading man. By the end of the 1920s, Haines had appeared in a string of successful films and was a popular box-office draw.

Haines' acting career was cut short by the studios in the 1930s due to his refusal to deny his homosexuality. He quit acting in 1935 and started a successful interior design business with his life partner Jimmie Shields, and his work was widely patronized by friends in Hollywood. Haines died of lung cancer in December 1973 at the age of 73.

Early life

Haines was born on January 2, 1900 (he claimed he was born on January 1) in Staunton, Virginia,[1] the third child of George Adam Haines, a cigar maker, and Laura Virginia Haines (née Matthews). Two older siblings died in infancy.[2] He had four younger siblings: Lillian, born in 1902; Ann, born in 1907; George, Jr., born in 1908;[3] and Henry, born in 1917.[4] He was baptized at the Trinity Episcopal Church in Staunton at the age of eight, where he later sang in the choir.[5] He became fascinated with stage performance and motion pictures at an early age, spending hours watching early silent films in local theatres.

Haines ran away from home at the age of 14, accompanied by an unidentified young man whom Haines referred to as his "boyfriend".[6] The pair went first to Richmond and then to Hopewell, which had a reputation for immorality.[7] They both got jobs working at the local DuPont factory, producing nitrocellulose for $50 a week. To supplement their income, they opened a dance hall, which may have also served as a brothel.[8] Haines' parents, frantic over his disappearance, tracked him through the police to Hopewell. Haines did not return home with them, remaining instead in Hopewell and sending money back home to help support the family. The couple remained in Hopewell until most of the town was destroyed by fire in 1915. Haines moved to New York City. Whether his boyfriend accompanied him is unclear.[9]

Following the bankruptcy of the family business and the mental breakdown of George Sr., the family moved to Richmond in 1916. Haines moved there in 1917 to help support them.[4] With his father recovered and employed, Haines returned to New York City in 1919, settling into the burgeoning gay community of Greenwich Village.[10] He worked a variety of jobs and was for a time the kept man of an older woman[11] before becoming a model. Talent scout Bijou Fernandez discovered Haines as part of the Goldwyn Pictures' "New Faces of 1922" contest, and the studio signed him to a $40-a-week contract (~$700 in 2022 terms). He traveled to Hollywood with fellow contest winner Eleanor Boardman in March of that year.[12]

Career

Acting

Haines' career began slowly, as he appeared in extra and bit parts, mostly uncredited. His first significant role was in Three Wise Fools (1923). He attracted positive critical attention and the studio began building him up as a new star. However, he continued to play small, unimportant parts at Goldwyn. When his home studio lent him to Fox in 1923 for The Desert Outlaw, he got the opportunity to play a significant role. In 1924, MGM lent Haines to Columbia Pictures for a five-picture deal. The first of these, The Midnight Express (1924), received excellent reviews, and Columbia offered to buy his contract. The offer was refused and Haines continued in bit roles for Goldwyn. Haines scored his first big personal success with Brown of Harvard (1926) opposite Jack Pickford and Mary Brian. It was in Brown that he crystallized his screen image, a young arrogant man who is humbled by the last reel. He returned repeatedly to that formula for the next several years.

On a trip to New York in 1926, Haines met James "Jimmie" Shields.[13] Haines convinced Shields to move to Los Angeles, promising to get him work as an extra. The pair soon began living together and viewed themselves as a committed couple,[14] though newspapers did not mention their relationship.[14]

Haines found box-office success with Little Annie Rooney (1925), costarring Mary Pickford, and Show People (1928), costarring Marion Davies. He was a top-five box-office star from 1928 to 1932. He made a successful transition into "talkies" in the part-talking film Alias Jimmy Valentine (1928). He was forced to take elocution lessons for the film; he compared the coming of sound to "the discovery of clap in a nunnery."[15] His first all-talking film, Navy Blues, was released the following year. He starred in Way Out West in 1930. The 1930 Quigley Poll, a survey of film exhibitors, listed Haines as the top box-office attraction in the country.^{[citation needed]}

In 1933, Haines was arrested in a YMCA with a sailor he had picked up in Los Angeles' Pershing Square. Louis B. Mayer, the studio head at MGM, delivered an ultimatum to Haines: choose between a sham lavender marriage, his relationship with Shields or his relationship with the sailor. Haines chose Shields and they remained together in a private relationship for 47 years.[16] Mayer then fired Haines and terminated his contract.[1] He made a few minor films at Poverty Row studios and soon retired from acting. His final films were made in 1934 with Mascot Pictures, Young and Beautiful and The Marines Are Coming.

Haines continued to receive offers for film roles. During production of Sunset Boulevard (1950), he was offered a cameo role in the film, which he declined. He later said, "It's a rather pleasant feeling of being away from pictures and being part of them because all my friends are. I can see the nice side of them without seeing the ugly side of the studios."[17]

Interior design

Haines and Shields began a successful dual career as interior designers and antique dealers. Among their early clients were friends such as Joan Crawford, Gloria Swanson, Carole Lombard, Marion Davies, and George Cukor. After a neighbor accused the two of propositioning his son, about 100 members of a white supremacist group called "The White Legion" dragged the two men from their El Porto, Manhattan Beach, home and beat them.[1][18] The incident was widely reported at the time, but Manhattan Beach police never brought charges against the attackers. The child molestation accusations against Haines and Shields were unfounded and the case was dismissed due to a lack of evidence. In reality, the boy had been chasing Haines' dog on the beach and Haines paid the child six cents to go home; this was misinterpreted as a proposition.[19] When Jack L. Warner remodeled his estate in 1937, he hired Haines as interior decorator.[20]

The couple finally settled in the Hollywood community of Brentwood and their business prospered until their retirement in the early 1970s, except for a brief interruption when Haines served in World War II.[21] In the 60s and 70s, their clients included Betsy Bloomingdale and Ronald and Nancy Reagan when Reagan was governor of California.[22] Haines and Ted Graber designed the interiors of Walter and Leonore Annenberg's "Sunnylands" estate in Rancho Mirage.[23] The Annenbergs also hired Haines to work on the redecoration of Winfield House in London, where Walter was serving as U.S. Ambassador.[24]

Final years and death

Haines and Shields (1905–1974)^{[citation needed]} remained together until Haines' death. Joan Crawford described them as "the happiest married couple in Hollywood."[25]

On December 26, 1973, Haines died from lung cancer in Santa Monica, California, at the age of 73.[26] Soon afterward, on March 6, 1974, Shields took an overdose of sleeping pills. His suicide note read in part, "Goodbye to all of you who have tried so hard to comfort me in my loss of William Haines, whom I have been with since 1926. I now find it impossible to go it alone, I am much too lonely."[27] They are interred side by side in Woodlawn Memorial Cemetery in Santa Monica.[28][29]

Legacy

For his contribution to the motion-picture industry, William Haines has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame located at 7012 Hollywood Blvd.[30]

William Haines Designs remains in operation, with main offices in West Hollywood and an additional showroom in New York.[31]

Filmography

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1922	Brothers Under the Skin	Bit part	Uncredited
1923	Lost and Found on a South Sea Island	Extra
1923	Souls for Sale	Pinkey – Assistant Director
1923	Three Wise Fools	Gordon Schuyler
1924	Three Weeks	Curate
1924	True as Steel	Gilbert Morse
1924	The Midnight Express	Jack Oakes
1924	The Gaiety Girl	Owen Tudor St. John
1924	Wine of Youth	Hal Martin
1924	Circe, the Enchantress	William Craig
1924	So This Is Marriage?		Lost film
1924	The Wife of the Centaur	Edward Converse	Lost film
1925	A Fool and His Money	John Smart
1925	Who Cares	Martin	Extant; Library of Congress
1925	The Denial	Lover in flashback	Partially lost film
1925	A Slave of Fashion	Dick Wayne	Lost film
1925	Fighting the Flames	Horatio Manly, Jr.	Lost film
1925	The Tower of Lies	August	Lost film
1925	Little Annie Rooney	Joe Kelley
1925	Sally, Irene and Mary	Jimmy Dungan
1925	MGM Studio Tour	Himself	Short subject made by MGM
1926	Mike	Harlan
1926	The Thrill Hunter	Peter J. Smith
1926	Memory Lane	Joe Field
1926	Brown of Harvard	Tom Brown
1926	Lovey Mary	Billy Wiggs	Incomplete
1926	Tell It to the Marines	Private "Skeet" Burns
1927	A Little Journey	George Manning	Lost film
1927	Slide, Kelly, Slide	Jim Kelly (fictionalized version of Mike "King" Kelly)
1927	Spring Fever	Jack Kelly
1928	West Point	Brice Wayne
1928	The Smart Set	Tommy
1928	Telling the World	Don Davis
1928	Excess Baggage	Eddie Kane	Lost film
1928	Show People	Billy Boone
1928	Alias Jimmy Valentine	Jimmy Valentine
1929	The Duke Steps Out	Duke
1929	A Man's Man	Mel	Lost Film
1929	The Hollywood Revue of 1929	Himself
1929	Speedway	Bill Whipple
1929	Navy Blues	Kelly	First Talkie
1930	The Girl Said No	Tom Ward
1930	Free and Easy	Himself – A Guest	Alternative title: Easy Go
1930	Estrellados	Himself
1930	Way Out West	Windy
1930	Remote Control	William J. Brennan
1931	A Tailor Made Man	John Paul Bart
1931	The Stolen Jools	Bill Haines
1931	Just a Gigolo	Lord Robert Brummel	Art director
1931	New Adventures of Get Rich Quick Wallingford	Wallingford
1932	Fast Life	Sandy
1932	Are You Listening?	Bill Grimes
1934	Young and Beautiful	Robert Preston	Set decorator
1934	The Marines Are Coming	Lt. William "Wild Bill" Traylor

In popular culture

Haines' story is told in the 1998 biography Wisecracker: The Life and Times of William Haines, Hollywood's First Openly Gay Star by William J. Mann. His designs are the subject of Peter Schifando and Haines associate Jean H. Mathison's 2005 book Class Act: William Haines Legendary Hollywood Decorator.

World of Wonder produced Out of the Closet, Off the Screen: The Life of William Haines, which aired on American Movie Classics in 2001.[32]

In October 2015, Karina Longworth chronicled Haines in the episode William Haines and Hollywood's First Openly Gay Marriage, which she included in her 15-part series of MGM stories for her podcast You Must Remember This.[33] Haines was voiced by actor Wil Wheaton.

Playwright Claudio Macor created the biographical drama The Tailor-Made Man in the mid-1990s in London, telling the story of Haines' discovery in a talent contest, his movie career, its curtailment by Louis B. Mayer, and Haines' re-invention as an interior designer. The play tells the story of his 50-year relationship with Jimmie Shields. The play premiered at London's tiny Hen and Chickens theatre and quickly transferred to Battersea Arts Centre. Over the years the play has been produced at London's Cockpit Theatre, off-Broadway in New York, San Diego's Diversionary Theatre in California in 1995. It was revived in a successful anniversary production in 2017 at London's White Bear Theatre, directed by Bryan Hodgson.[34] In 2013 a musical adaptation of The Tailor-Made Man opened at London's Arts Theatre in the West End with pop star Faye Tozer (Steps) as Marion Davies and Mike McShane as Mayer.

In 1994, The Tailor-Made Man was chosen for a workshop TV production for Thames Television Masterpiece Pilot Showcase, directed by Golden Rose of Montreux winner Chris Bould. Bould returned to direct the UK radio adaptation of the play starring Judd Hirsch as Mayer. In 2017, to tie-in with the anniversary production, the definitive playscript was published by theatrical publisher Oberon Books.[35]

Notes

References

Citations

Works cited

• Adrich, Robert; Wotherspoon, Garry (2002). Who's Who in Gay and Lesbian History: From Antiquity to World War II (2nd ed.). Psychology Press. ISBN 0-415-15983-0.
• Dennis, Jan (2003). Manhattan Beach Police Department. Arcadia Publishing. ISBN 0-738-52089-6.
• Golden, Eve (2001). Golden Images: 41 Essays on Silent Film Stars. McFarland. ISBN 0-786-40834-0.
• Mann, William J. (1998). Wisecracker: The Life and Times of William Haines, Hollywood's First Openly Gay Star. New York, NY: Viking. ISBN 978-0670871551. OCLC 243900007.
• Prono, Luca (2008). Encyclopedia of Gay and Lesbian Popular Culture. ABC-CLIO. ISBN 978-0-313-33599-0.
• Stern, Keith (2009). Queers in History: The Comprehensive Encyclopedia of Historical Gays, Lesbians and Bisexuals. BenBella Books. ISBN 978-1-935-25183-5.

External links

• Official website
• William Haines at IMDb
• Photographs of William Haines
• William Haines at Find a Grave

На других языках

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[de] William Haines

William Haines (* 2. Januar 1900 in Staunton, Virginia als Charles William Haines; † 26. Dezember 1973 in Santa Monica, Kalifornien) war ein US-amerikanischer Schauspieler. Er war in der späten Stummfilm- und frühen Tonfilmzeit sehr beliebt.

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- [en] William Haines

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[es] William Haines

Charles William Haines (Staunton, Virginia; 2 de enero de 1900-Santa Mónica, California; 26 de diciembre de 1973) fue un actor cinematográfico estadounidense, una de las estrellas más notables de la época del cine mudo.

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[ru] Хейнс, Уильям

Чарльз Уильям «Билли» Хейнс (англ. Charles William «Billy» Haines, 2 января 1900 (1900-01-02) — 26 декабря 1973) — американский актёр и дизайнер интерьеров.

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