William Haines
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- This article is about the American actor. For other people called William Haines, see William Haines (disambiguation)
William Haines (January 2, 1900 – December 26, 1973) was a American film actor who was one of the most notable film stars of the silent era.
Born Charles William Haines to a wealthy family in Staunton, Virginia, Haines left home at the age of 14 and moved to New York City. After winning a talent contest he moved to Hollywood where he played bit parts for several years until MGM Studios began casting him in more prominent roles.
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[edit] Career in film
By 1925 he was MGM's most important male star, and his films were very profitable for the studio. He was cultivated as a romantic leading man, and his combination of good looks and flair for comedy won him many fans. He made a career out of playing wise-cracking young athletic types whose large egos hold them back until an attitude adjustment leads to success.
He appeared in hits such as The Midnight Express (1924) with Elaine Hammerstein, Sally, Irene and Mary (1926) with newcomers Joan Crawford and Constance Bennett, West Point (1927) also with Crawford, and scored his biggest personal successes with Brown of Harvard (1926), Little Annie Rooney (1927) with Mary Pickford and Vola Vale, and Show People (1928), costarring Marion Davies. Haines was a top-five box office star from 1928 to 1932. He made a successful transition into talking pictures in the part-talkie Alias Jimmy Valentine (1928). His first all-talkie, Navy Blues, was released the following year. Some of his successful talkies include Hollywood Revue of 1929, Free and Easy, Just a Gigolo, The Girl Said No, and Way Out West.
[edit] End of film career
Haines lived openly as a homosexual[1] - from 1926 with Jimmy Shields, whom he had met when Shields was his stand-in during the production of a film. Studio publicists were able to keep Haines' sexual orientation from the press.
In 1933, Haines was arrested in a YMCA with a sailor he had picked up in Los Angeles' Pershing Square. Louis B. Mayer, the studio head at MGM, delivered an ultimatum to Haines: choose between a sham marriage or lavender marriage, or his relationship with Shields. Haines chose Shields (they were ultimately together for 50 years). Mayer subsequently fired Haines and terminated his contract, quickly recasting Robert Montgomery in roles that had been planned for Haines. Haines did made a few minor films at Poverty Row studios, then retired from film. His final films were made with Mascot Pictures, "Young and Beautiful" and "The Marines Are Coming" made in 1934
[edit] Career in interior design
Haines and Shields began a successful career as interior designers and antique dealers. Among their early clients were friends such as Joan Crawford and Carole Lombard, Marion Davies and William Randolph Hearst. Their lives were disrupted in 1936 when members of the White Legion wearing hoods to hide their faces, dragged the two men from their home and beat them, because a neighbour had accused the two of propositioning his son. Crawford, along with other stars such as Claudette Colbert, Kay Francis and Charles Boyer urged the men to report this to the police. Marion Davies asked Hearst to use his influence to ensure the neighbors were prosecuted to the full extent of the law, but ultimately Haines and Shields chose not to report the incident.
The couple finally settled into the Hollywood community in Malibu, and their business prospered until their retirement in the early 1970s, except for a brief interruption when Haines served in World War II. Their long list of clients included Ronald and Nancy Reagan when Reagan was governor of California.
[edit] Epilogue
Haines never returned to films. Gloria Swanson extended him a personal invitation to appear with her in the film Sunset Boulevard (1950) but he declined.
Haines and Shields remained together for the rest of their lives. Joan Crawford (a lifelong friend) described them as "the happiest married couple in Hollywood".
Haines died from lung cancer in Santa Monica, California at the age of 73. Soon afterward, Shields, who suffered from what many believe to be Alzheimer's Disease, put on Haines' pajamas, took an overdose of pills, and crawled into their bed to die. They were interred side by side in the Woodlawn Memorial Cemetery.
William Haines has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 7012 Hollywood Boulevard. His life was detailed in William J. Mann's critically-acclaimed 1998 biography, Wisecracker: The Life and Times of William Haines, Hollywood's First Openly Gay Star.
