Monty Woolley

Monty Woolley was an American actor and former Yale professor known for The Man Who Came to Dinner (1942) -- reprising his legendary Broadway role as the insufferable Sheridan Whiteside -- and Since You Went Away (1944, Academy Award nomination). He was gay and a close friend of Cole Porter from their days as Yale classmates beginning in 1909; the two remained close for life, moving in overlapping circles within New York's gay theatrical and social world of the 1920s and beyond, sharing what biographers have described as adventures both personal and creative. His homosexuality was known to his contemporaries and has been documented by biographers, though it went undiscussed publicly during his lifetime. Woolley is one of the figures who illustrates how central gay men were to the wittiest, most theatrical corners of Golden Age Hollywood.