Thursday, June 4, 2009

Former DAYS Star Wesley Eure Officially Comes Out


Longtime DAYS OF OUR LIVES fans will remember Wesley Eure as Mike Horton in the 1970s. During part of his run, he also became famous for his role as Will on LAND OF THE LOST. He has resurfaced recently at the TV Land Awards and the Land of the Lost movie premiere. Eure made a cameo in the new film, starring Will Ferrell, but it got cut.

He has lived and out and open life as a gay man for decades but is only now talking about it to the media. He spoke with AfterElton recently about his life.

I live my life very open. All my life, even when I was on DAYS OF OUR LIVES and stuff, I had a fairly famous lover, and I never made it a secret. I never talked about it because it never seemed important.

Then during the AIDS crisis, I lost most of my friends. One of my best friends in New York was one of the first to pass away. We took care of John for a year, a bunch of us friends took turns. People thought I was crazy, and John said, "Aren't you afraid?" And I said, "John, if I'm going to die by taking care of you, it would be my honor." So when he passed away, I was holding him.

Afterwards, I said the thing I can do is honor my friends and my community, so I've been raising money ever since. We do a huge event, LalaPOOLooza, you can go online and check out the videos on YouTube. It's outrageous. Eighty-five performers, synchronized swim teams, Greg Louganis came this year, Bruce Vilanch, both mayors of Palm Springs the last few years have been there, we had Ann Walker from SORDID LIVES, Kate Ballard. It's just a lot of fun.

Richard Chamberlain and I were boyfriends for a year, before he met Martin [Rabbett, his long-term partner]. We lived together, he was at my place. We broke up. He met Martin, who he's with now for all these years. He's talked about it, or else I wouldn't. It's great for him. It broke my heart. I was destroyed. I was a kid, and he was a much older guy.

[Coming out] should be a choice. It should not be forced on anybody. It's like being a doctor and getting your license and all going through all the finances, and then somebody going, "Nope, I don't think you should have license, give it back." It's exactly that feeling.

I was on the cover of Tiger Beat and all those a lot, and they'd do those "Win A Date With Wesley" and "Who's Wesley Dating?" It was so disingenuous. I had a full life. I've had a lot of friends and some pretty high profile partners, and it was an odd thing. I got fired from DAYS OF OUR LIVES for being gay.

I knew Fox and NBC were run by gay men at the time, but what was odd about the industry at the time, it was amazing how the gay men were perpetuating the damage. I remember Earl Greenburg — who was a big philanthropist here in Palm Springs, and had the Desert AIDS Project, he did some wonderful work, he's passed away now this last year — but the first time I saw him in Palm Springs, he said, "Didn't I fire you?" He was head of NBC Daytime at the time.

I said, "You're an ass."

Read the entire fascinating interview here.

2 comments:

  1. My goodness! We're coming out all over the place lately! :-D

    I had such a crush on him, both from Land of the Lost and C.H.O.M.P.S. Of course, I was only like 10 at the time :-)

    Good for him!

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  2. Wow, what a great article!! Thanks for posting this Roger. I had such a crush on Mike Horton in the 70's, I had no idea he was fired for being gay. Paging the Y&R casting director!!!

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