Rest in Peace, James Mitchell

I've written before about the relatively small number of openly gay actors on daytime television. At the moment, there are only two out gay men acting on soaps, both on One Life to Live, and neither is actually on contract: Scott Evans, who plays Fish, and Nicholas Rodriguez, who plays Nick.

The Young and the Restless boasts the only out lesbian cast member, Clementine Ford, though if we count Lea Delaria's recurring role as Madame Delphina on One Life to Live, the number goes up to two. Ford is the only out actor or actress working in daytime with a contract.

Of course, there are plenty of actors and actresses in daytime whose sexuality is more or less an open secret, people who are widely known to be gay but who have never officially come out of the closet. These are people who don't hide their sexuality with fake relationships with the opposite sex, but who never address the issue publicly, either.

Earlier this week, actor James Mitchell passed away at the age of 89. Mitchell spent the last thirty years playing All My Children's Palmer Cortland.

Mitchell was one of those actors who never publicly discussed his sexuality, so I was surprised to read in the Associated Press article about his passing that his death had been confirmed by his longtime partner, Albert Wolsky, an academy award winning costume designer. Their relationship was also mentioned in The Advocate.

It's not surprising that Mitchell never opened up to the public about his sexuality. He was from a generation that largely remained closeted their entire lives, even to those closest to them. On top of that, he worked in a medium where almost all of the younger gay actors are still staying in the closet today, forty years after Stonewall. Some are even actively hiding their sexuality, rather than just not discussing it at all.

From what I know of him, Mitchell at least had the courage to live his life openly with the love of his life at his side, and that's no small thing.

I have never been a regular viewer of All My Children, but the few times I have tuned in over the years and seen Mitchell's work, he always seemed to have a sly, amused air about him that made me think that Palmer would probably be one of my favorite characters if I watched the show.

I know he'll be greatly missed by all the fans of All My Children. Rest in peace, James.