Billy crystal gay

Ever since Billy Crystal showed up on screen as Jodie Dallas on the satirical show called Soap in 1977, people have wondered if he is gay in real life.

In some ways, those concerns proved to be prophetic. 

Initially, Jodie’s character exhibited traits that aligned with pejorative stereotypes, including his inclination to cross-dress and his struggles with suicidal thoughts. 

Furthermore, subsequent storylines that explored his heterosexual relationships weren’t necessarily groundbreaking either.

However, what set “Soap” apart was Billy Crystal’s remarkable and emotionally charged portrayal of Jodie Dallas. 

Crystal’s performance transformed potentially problematic plotlines into something palatable and, most importantly, relatable. 

He took a character that could have easily been reduced to a caricature and turned him into one of the show’s most admirable and empathetic personalities.

What’s truly remarkable is that Crystal wholeheartedly embraced the role of a gay character during a time when many actors might have hesitated.

Billy Crystal, playing the usual Jewish wise guy from Brooklyn, has been kept in total darkness about the mission, but enters a room in which a miniaturized and devitaminized Robert Oppenheimer played by Robert Walden, gives a thirty-second chalkboard explanation of a weapon only a graduate in physics could understand, and Crystal emerges from the room fully enlightened as to the nature of the bomb and his own inclusion in the mission to drop it.

Macht turns slowly and looks up at him with surprise and an expression of dead earnest. You crawl around and bang your head.

Hard to tell how closely the film sticks to historical fact. It would take longer than that to learn elementary basket weaving.

Nice shots of airplanes in flight. The Japanese pilots left poems and hand-carved dolls for their loved ones.

There was no recording of the crew's comments, and Lewis's "My God" was conveyed in written form only.

The movie was very interesting, although Lewis's asking "What is that funny name (Enola Gay) doing on my plane?" is shown in a more pleasant light than the actual incident, in which Lewis was very angry at Tibbets being named to take over the Hiroshima mission.

But not the principals, like Patrick Duffy, Stephen Macht, or James Shigeta. Lewis wrote "My God" in his journal when he saw the brilliant flash of light that filled the plane and felt the shock wave from the bomb 31 seconds later.

It was not until 1955 when Lewis, then an employee of a candy company, told a Japanese minister that he had written, "My God, what have we done?" in his journal.

His younger brother, a teen, is swept up in the Kamikaze and dies in an act of altruistic suicide. The show featured an early career turn for Billy Crystal as Mary’s son Jodie, who was among the first openly gay characters on primetime TV.

After ABC screened two episodes for local affiliates, a Newsweek report in June 1977 exaggerated its depictions of sexuality and misrepresented certain plot points, including a scene involving a woman proclaiming her love for a priest during confessional.

So, is the actor a part of the LGBTQ community?

No, Billy Crystal/ William Edward Crystal isn’t gay. They trusted him with the baby.” Co-star Dinah Manoff says she’s still proud of Soap‘s inclusivity: “We were just so excited to see that kind of work on television and those issues being reflected.”

This story first appeared in the June 14 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine.