Cukor's reputation as the pioneer maker of divas does not take into account his brilliance in exploring the artistic temperament and the struggle for self-expression in subtle variations throughout his career. Moreover, this reputation fails to acknowledge the grittiness of his 1950s films, which despite strong performances by actresses cannot be consigned to the ghetto of the "woman's picture."

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Particularly in his collaborations with Garson Kanin and Ruth Gordon, such as The Marrying Kind (1952), shot on location, there is an almost neo-realist feeling in the unflinching treatment of the sometimes squalid reality of people's daily lives.

Cukor died on January 24, 1983, two years after his last film, Rich and Famous. This film, which revisits Cukor's theme of the artistic temperament at odds with society and itself, was an update of the Bette Davis-Miriam Hopkins vehicle Old Acquaintance (1943). As such, it is a suitable coda for the career of one of America's great gay artists in or out of cinema.

Since cinema began, Hollywood has been fascinated with finding ways of representing homosexuality.

Gay, lesbian, and bisexual film directors have been a vital creative presence in cinema since the medium's inception over one hundred years ago.

The glbtq history of Los Angeles, the U.S.'s second largest metropolis, is replete with cultural, social, and political firsts.

Set and costume design for stage and film are fields that have attracted a large number of talented gay men and lesbians.

Too often cinematic drag is reduced to a mere joke, a harmless tease that tacitly reassures us that people can change their clothes but not their sexual identities.

Although Tallulah Bankhead is today remembered mostly as an irreverent wit and volcanic life force, she was also one of the most significant actresses of her time.

The fragile persona and emotion-packed voice of actress and singer Judy Garland are powerfully linked to gay culture and identity; she appealed especially to gay men, but also to lesbians.

Bisexual film director and screenwriter Edmund Goulding was one of the most talented and eccentric characters of Hollywood's Golden Age.

Although actor Cary Grant consistently denied rumors of his bisexuality, his good looks, charisma, and ambiguous sexuality enchanted women and men alike.

Among the top five motion picture actors from 1928 to 1933, William "Billy" Haines later became one of the most successful interior designers in the country.

Although playwright, screenwriter, and director Moss Hart achieved great commercial success and popular acclaim, he suffered from severe depression and other emotional problems that were intensified, and possibly caused, by intense anxiety concerning his sexual orientation.

Accomplished character actress Nany Kulp, who specialized in playing prim, straight-laced spinsters, publicly acknowledged her lesbianism only towards the end of her life.

Best known as a screenwriter, Gavin Lambert was also a novelist and biographer who captured the essence of life in the film community in a perceptive and witty fashion.

Living the paradoxical life of an openly closeted gay man, songwriter Cole Porter introduced non-normative values and risqué double entendres into what was one of the most pedestrian and hackneyed of cultural forms.

In his novels about hustling, preeminently City of Night and Numbers, John Rechy moves from the world of homosexual behavior into the world of gay identity.