June 2, 1977– Zachary Quinto

For a gay man of a certain age, coming out of the closet was a major, if not the defining event of your life. So, I especially appreciate the very casual manner in which young gay celebrities these days break the news by casually mentioning it in paragraph seven of a magazine profile. Thank you, Ellen Page, Neil Patrick Harris and Matt Bomer. That is real progress. It’s the 21st century, Kevin Spacey!

Zachary Quinto credits his role in the Tony Award winning 2012 Broadway production of Tony Kushner’s modern masterpiece, Angels In America, in which he played a gay man who leaves his AIDS-afflicted boyfriend, for helping him to come out of the closet and putting him further in touch with the struggles faced by other gay Americans.

Quinto:

“As a gay man I look at the gay kids committing suicide from being bullied and there’s a hopelessness that surrounds it, but as a human being I look at it and say ‘Why? Where’s this disparity coming from, and why can’t we as a culture & society dig deeper to examine that?’ We’re terrified of facing ourselves. When I found out that young Jamey Rodemeyer killed himself, I felt deeply troubled. But when I found out that Rodemeyer had made an ‘It Gets Better’ video only months before taking his own life, I felt indescribable despair.”

“In light of Jamey’s death, it became clear to me in an instant that living a gay life without publicly acknowledging it is simply not enough to make any significant contribution to the immense work that lies ahead on the road to complete equality. Our society needs to recognize the unstoppable momentum toward unequivocal civil equality for every gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered citizen of this country.”

But, Quinto has really been an advocate for Gay Rights even before his coming out of the closet. He put out his own It Gets Better video in 2011, feeding the speculation about his own sexuality, as did the fact that he’s played a number of gay roles on stage and film.

“The fact that these things are such hot-button issues right now, socially & politically, I would much rather talk about that than talk about who I sleep with. I would love to be a voice in this maelstrom of chaos & obsessive celebrity infatuation that says, ‘Let’s talk about something that matters.’”

Last year, I stayed with NBC’s limited series The Slap after the first episode because of Quinto’s strong work playing a particularly brutish heterosexual with real intensity and conviction. It was worth it, the series was provocative and well-acted. Quinto’s own gayness seemed to have been wonderfully ignored in reviews of the series. He can play sensitive also, gathering strong reviews for the 2013-14 Broadway revival of Tennessee William’s classic The Glass Menagerie, playing opposite the openly gay Cherry Jones.

Quinto inherited of the iconic Mr. Spock role in JJ Abrams‘ Star Trek reboot (2010, 2012). He has had interesting, idiosyncratic roles on television in Heroes, Girls, Hannibal, plus two  seasons of Ryan Murphy’s American Horror Story, and in the film Margin Call (2011), which he also produced. Quinto was Executive Producer of the terrific Robert Redford starring vehicle, All Is Lost (2013).

In 2015, Quinto worked on two films with gay themes: I Am Michael opposite my boo James Franco, which garnered terrific buzz at the Sundance Film Festival, and also portraying gay guy Glenn Greenwald in Oliver Stone’s Edward Snowden flick Snowden, to be released in September. Also out next month, the hotly anticipated Star Trek Beyond, returning as that pointy-eared dude. Quinto has that ability to be an emotional shape-shifter, easily charming, and at turns dangerous and volatile.

Quinto became good friends with the original Spock, Leonard Nimoy. Quinto:

“I just enjoyed spending time with him and I recognized a lot of qualities in him that I aspire to and I found him incredibly generous and intelligent and compassionate and funny. Leonard and I were like family. I knew that Leonard was leaving the world imminently, but he wanted me to focus on my work and take care of myself.”

My sources tell me that Quinto is committed to play George Gershwin in a Steven Spielberg directed bio-pic. This seems like a very good idea to me.

He once dated cutie-pie Jonathan Groff, star of the already missed HBO’s Looking and currently on Broadway in a little musical called Hamilton. My sources say Quinto recently purchased a loft in NoHo neighborhood of NYC with his new BF, an artist/model, Miles McMillan. I’ve seen pictures; together they make a whole lot of cute.

“OK, yes, there’s a lot of gay actors that are open, many more now than there were 10 years ago. But I still feel like I’m occupying kind of a unique space. I believe in the power of intention to change the landscape of our society and it is my intention to live an authentic life of compassion and integrity and action.”

Quinto was a big Barack Obama supporter in the last two elections, but he says he is undecided in 2016.

Quinto seems secure in the knowledge that, unlike many of his openly gay predecessors, he is eminently employable.

“I work more now than I ever did when I was in the closet and I’m doing a wider range and variety of roles than I ever did before I came out. I feel like that’s what I need to keep demanding of myself and what I need to keep demanding of the industry.”

I find Quinto to be quite delicious and super-talented. He could do a yummy Vulcan mind-meld on me anytime.