William Haines
(January 1, 1900 - December 26, 1973) U.S.A.
Star of silent movies, interior decorator
Born in Staunton, Virginia, son of the manager of the family tobacco factory, Haines was the eldest of five children and the self-anointed black sheep of the family. He showed an early predilection for fine clothes, furniture, dancing and practical jokes. At age 14 he ran away from home with "a boyfriend" to Hopwell, Virginia, where the precocious and handsome boy worked at a factory by day and ran a "dance hall" by night.
Moving to New York City in 1916, Haines settled in Greenwich Village, where he became an active member of the neighbourhood's gay subculture. While working as a photographer's model, Haines was offered a Holliwood film contract with Goldwyn studios. He arrived in Holliwood in 1922, and by 1930 he was a top-ranking box-office male star. William Haines retired from the screen in 1935 after being terminated from MGM film studios in 1933 for refusing to get married for the sake of appearance
Haines was Hollywoods first openly gay star, as in 1935, was caught in a YMCA with a U.S. serviceman, and arrested on morals charges. His relationship with Jimmie Shield, whom he met as a one-night stand in 1926, became something serious and he lived with Jimmie, his house-husband, for 47 years. They were referred to by their friend Joan Crawford as "The happiest married couple in Hollywood." William died in Santa Monica, California.
Soon after Haines' death, Jimmy took an overdose of sleeping pills and committed sucide. He wrote in his suicide nore, "Goodbye to all of you who have tried so hard to comfort me in my loss of William Haines, whom I have been since 1926. I now find it impossible to go it alone, I am much too lonely".
Films:
- Brothers under the skin (1922)
- Souls for sale (1923)
- Three wise fools (1923)
- Three weeks (1924)
- The gaiety girl (1924)
- Wine of youth (1924)
- So this is marriage (1924)
- The tower of lies (1925)
- The smart set
- Tell it to the marines
- Brown of Harvard
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