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William Haines, the US film actor and interior designer, was born January 2, 1900, in Staunton, Virginia, USA; he died December 26, 1973, in Santa Monica, California, USA.



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Life and Career

==Early Life==

He attended a military school in Virginia. At the age of 14 he left home. For the next few years he worked his way up the Virginia coast taking jobs in such places as a rubber factory, a powder plant, an accountant’s office as a bookkeeper, and in a Wall Street stockbroker’s office as an office boy.

While in New York he became friends with Orry-Kelly who would become a Hollywood designer, and Cary Grant who would become a leading Hollywood actor. In 1920 he was spotted by a casting director for Samuel Goldwyn and was persuaded to enter a talent competition which he won. He was put under contract and sent to Hollywood where his first film role was an uncredited bit part in Brothers Under The Skin, (1922). Billy Haines fell in love with his stand-in, Jimmy Shields, and they moved in together in 1923.



==Hollywood success==

Billy Haines became a major screen star with the newly merged Metro-Soldwyn-Mayer studio with the film Tell It To The Marines, (1926). In 1927 he was one of only seven MGM stars to be billed above the film title. Although the Hollywood system at the time put pressure on gay actors to provide an ‘acceptable’ public image by marrying, Billy Haines turned down an offer of marriage from Joan Crawford who was then still hoping to be a rising star. Billy Haines starred in MGM’s first talking picture and he made a good transition to talkies. He regularly featured in the polls of the top ten leading men in Hollywood. In 1930 Billy Haines and Jimmy Shields bought an antique shop and developed their interest in interior design by giving free advice to their Hollywood customers and friends.

In 1933 Billy Haines picked up a sailor in Pershing Square in Los Angeles and took him to the YMCA where he had a room. The house detective and L.A. Vice Squad burst in and arrested and handcuffed both men. The MGM boss Louis B. Mayer told Billy Haines that he had to choose between his lifestyle or his career. Billy Haines chose to stay with Jimmy Shields. Louis B. Mayer terminated his contract and ensured that he could not work in the film industry again. Billy Haines and Jimmy Shields took up their interior design as a full-time business and became very successful. Their clients included Lionel Barrymore, Claudette Colbert, Joan Crawford, Marion Davies, Bette Davis, George Cukor, Carole Lombard, and Jack Warner. They also designed, Winfield House, the London home of the US ambassador Walter Anneberg.



==Death==

Billy Haines and Jimmy Shields lived in Manhattan Beach and made the area fashionable. However, in 1936 a neighbour accused them of propositioning their son. The police were involved and it was reported in the local newspapers, but the charges were dropped. This led to an attack by the White Legion (California’s equivalent to the Ku Klux Klan) who beat up Billy Haines and Jimmy Shields. Billy Haines and Jimmy Shields then moved to Malibu which they soon made fashionable. They continued to run a successful interior design business.

“ . . . the happiest marriage I’ve seen in Hollywood is Billy Haines and Jimmy Shields”

Joan Crawford

Despite their long-term relationship Billy Haines had a number of flings with other men. Tradition has it that these included the director George Cukor, screen stars Nils Asther, Lionel Barrymore, Raymond Burr, Clark Gable, and writer Christopher Isherwood. Billy Haines died of cancer in 1973, and within six months Jimmy Shields took his own life. The story of Billy Haines has been left out of many of the histories of Hollywood.



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Films

• Brothers Under The Skin, 1922.
• Lost and Found on a South Seas Island, 1923, (also calledCaptain Blackbird, orPassion of the Sea).
• Souls For Sale, 1923, as Pinkey.
• Three Wise Fools, 1923, as Gordon Schuyler.
• Three Weeks, 1924, as Curate.
• True as Steel, 1924, as Gilbert Morse.
• The Midnight Express, 1924, as Jack Oakes.
• The Gaiety Girl, 1924, as Owen Tudor St.
• Wine of Youth, 1924, as Hal.
• Circe, the Enchantress, 1924, as William.
• So This Is Marriage?, 1924.
• The Wife of the Centaur, 1924, as Edward.
• Little Annie Rooney, 1925, as Joe Kelly.
• Fighting the Flames, 1925, as Horatio Manly.
• A Fool and His Money, 1925, as John Smart.
• Who Cares, 1925, as Martin.
• The Denial, 1925, as Lover in Flashback.
• A Slave of Fashion, 1925, as Dick Wayne.
• The Tower of Lies, 1925, as August.
• Sally, Irene and Mary, 1925, as Jimmy, (directed by Edmund Goulding).
• Mike, 1926, as Harlan.
• The Thrill Hunter, 1926, as Peter J. Smith.
• Memory Lane, 1926, as Joe Field.
• Brown of Harvard, 1926, as Tom Brown.
• Lovey Mary, 1926, as Billy Wiggs, (also calledMrs Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch).
• Tell It To The Marines, 1927, as Private.
• Slide, Kelly, Slide, 1927, as Jim Kelly.
• Spring Fever, 1927, as Jack Kelly.
• West Point, 1927, as Brice Wayne.
• The Smart Set, 1928, as Tommy.
• Telling the World, 1928, as Don Davis.
• Excess Baggage, 1928, as Eddie Lane.
• Show People, 1928, as Billy Boone.
• Alias Jimmy Valentine, 1928, as Jimmy.
• The Duke Steps Out, 1929, as Duke.
• A Man’s Man, 1929, as Mel.
• Speedway, 1929, as Bill Whipple.
• The Hollywood Revue of 1929, 1929.
• Navy Blues, 1929, as Kelly.
• The Girl Said No, 1930, as Tom Ward.
• Free and Easy, 1930, as a Guest, (also calledEasy Go).
• Way Out West, 1930, as Windy.
• Remote Control, 1930, as William J. Brennan.
• A Tailor Made Man, 1931, as John Paul Bart.
• The Slippery Pearls, 1931, as Reporter, (also calledThe Stolen Jools).
• The New Adventures of Get-Rich-Quick Wallingford, 1931, as Jimmy Wallingford.
• Just a Gigolo, 1931, as Lord Robert Brummel.
• Fast Life, 1932, as Sandy.
• Are You Listening?, 1932, as Bill Grimes.
• Strictly Dynamite, 1934.
• Young and Beautiful, 1934, as Robert, (in which the Hollywood ‘pansy’ Franklin Pangborn also appeared).
• The Marines are Coming, 1935, as Bill.
• Craig’s Wife, 1936, as the film’s production designer.
• MGM’s Big Parade of Comedy, 1964.
  
  
  
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  Bibliography

  
  
  
  • Boze Hadleigh, (1996), “Conversations With : Cary Grant, Liberace, Tony Perkins, Paul Lynde, Cesar Romero, Brad Davis, Randolph Scott, James Coco, William Haines”
  • William J. Mann, (1999), “Wisecracker: The Life and Times of William Haines, Hollywood’s First Openly Gay Star”, Penguin Books, 480 pages, ISBN 0140275681 (paperback).
    Synopsis: “In 1930 William Haines was Hollywood’s number-one box-office draw - a talented, handsome, wisecracking romantic lead. Offscreen he was openly gay. This remarkable biography reveals Haines’s story for the first time and captures the rich gay subculture of Hollywood before the studio intimidation led to the establishment of the Hollywood closet.”
    
    
    
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    Press Cuttings

    
    
    

    • The Forgotten Men 4: William Haines by Brian Lavers in Now, November, 1999, No. 13, pages 14-15. “The methods that Loius B. Mayer used to treat Billy Haines shocked a lot of gay Hollywood actors enough to make them climb back into their closets, to protect their careers and their earnings power. Ironically, Billy Haines went on to an even-greater glittering career, and an even-greater earnings power, and he kept his integrity, and he kept the love of his life.”