Talk:Roddy McDowall

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I've long heard rumors that he was gay, but do we have proof or a citation of this? His work on the Twilight Zone may also provide a decent entry. --AWF

I wondered that myself. Although it was always kind of assumed there doesn't seem to be anything in the article to confirm it.--T. Anthony 22:51, 20 August 2006 (UTC)

If no source is provided by February 2007, I am going to remove him from the Gay Actors category.Apofisu 21:18, 1 January 2007 (UTC)

I think that the cat should remain, although you might make a distinction between actors and actresses who have publicly come out and those who have wished their private lives to remain private. Here are at least two web supports for putting him into this category: [1] and [2]. These were gleaned from the IMDb website blog postings to a query regarding Mr. McDowall's orientation. You have to be freely registered on IMDb in order to see that blog. I oppose removal of the cat.--River 23:26, 1 January 2007 (UTC)

Thanks. As I said, I just wanted to see a source.Apofisu 19:19, 2 January 2007 (UTC)

Neither of the 2 web sites actually provide any proof or citation as to him being gay. Supposedly it was a well known secret in Hollywood, but has anyone actually seen anybody from the Hollywood industry state he was gay?(DLW)

What would constitute proof? Also, why the assumption that he is heterosexual? Better to state that his orientation is unknown. Even better would be to point out that there was significant speculation regarding his orientation. Speculation itself is noteworthy, as long as it is presented as such, IMHO. (TW) —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Timwayne (talk • contribs) 20:05, 13 March 2007 (UTC).

Contents 1 CLEOPATRA 2 Fantastic Journey 3 FBI seizure 4 Apparent contradiction

[edit] CLEOPATRA

This man was the actor who played Octavian Caesar, who became Augustus, the greatest Emperor Rome had ever known! He should be directly given credit for this, but he is not! He did a great job in the movie, and he is not given credit in this entry!

[edit] Fantastic Journey

I have added a brief mention of McDowall's role in the sci-fi series "The Fantastic Journey" in the main text, as this is where many of us in my generation were first introduced to him outside of his Planet of the Apes role.

[edit] FBI seizure

This passage is maddeningly vague:

In 1974, the FBI raided the home of McDowall and seized the actor's collection of films and television series. His collection consisted of 160 16 mm prints and over 10,000 videocassettes (this was before the era of VCRs and VHS tapes). ... McDowall was forthcoming about some of the individuals he had dealt with on the black market: Rock Hudson, Dick Martin and Mel Torme were some of the celebrities that were interested in his creations. No charges were pressed against McDowall.

What was the purpose of the seizure? What was on the films and tapes? What were McDowall's "creations"? —Whoville 15:41, 5 August 2006 (UTC)

I agree with you completely. Why was his home raided? What was the point of it all? It just seems like a piece of random trivia. Mohsin.Siddiqui 18:13, 24 September 2006 (UTC)

With a little research, I discovered the only thing missing from the trivia piece was mention of the raid being part of an investigation towards copyright infringement and the like. That being added in, the section may read more clearly. Cybertooth85 01:43, 23 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Apparent contradiction

This passage appears to contradict itself:

In 1974, the FBI raided the home of McDowall and seized the actor's collection of films and television series. His collection consisted of 160 16 mm prints and over 10,000 videocassettes (this was before the era of VCRs and VHS tapes). ...

Are we to believe he had 1000's of videocassettes before the era of VCR's? Nonsense! Jerry lavoie 16:33, 4 March 2007 (UTC)

Videocassettes existed before VCRs. They were larger in size an film size as well. Visit any academic research library or older television news studio in the U.S. and they'll be happy to show you the 2" videocassettes they have (and unfortunately, no equipment on which to play them).--Spacini 04:15, 8 March 2007 (UTC)

Indeed, the first home video-recorders (With tape-reels, not yet cassettes) were launched by 'PHILIPS' in 1969. I know because I craved one. They cost BEF 40.000 in 1969 (Approximally $ 800). After this, during the early 70's came many different cassette-systems (Too numerous to enumerate here) until finally in the early eighties the Betamax><VHS war was won by the latter. AFTER the VHS-victory Philips tried to launch the Video-2000 system but it never really took off. It is noteworthy to state here that ALL of these systems were of (Sometimes considerably) better quality than VHS. It is likely that VHS won the battle on one single feature: At the time of its launch it had the longest possible recording-time (And hence lowest picture-quality) on one single cassette (Although Philips video-2000 system doubled this recording time, by that time VHS was already too well-established). One must bear in mind that the price of one cassette was considerable in those days. In 1982 I bought my BETAMAX video for around $400 and a single 3-hour cassette (Enough for recording ONE feature film, but NOT two) was selling for $ 20. At the same price you coud easily store TWO feature-films on a VHS-cassette and that was the only thing people had in mind, too short-sighted to have an eye for quality (A bit like in the APPLE>< IBM (Or Microsoft) Battle). 87.64.164.54 18:50, 28 March 2007 (UTC)