This being an era when male actors felt homosexuality was a danger to their career, lawyers shot down that book fast.” His first encounter, a boyhood friend he grew up with, later tried writing a book about Merv. There are his experiences at Liberace’s all-male orgies. And lots about Merv’s prolonged sexual tryst with Marlon Brando. There was Peter Lawford, Robert Walker, Gordon Scott the then-Tarzan. Louis’ boy next door, Tom Drake, who, by the way, ended up a used car salesman. And there was a young James Dean selling his sex for cash. I keep it to his A-list dates like Rock Hudson, whom he met through Henry Wilson, Rock’s agent, and who advised him to keep his sexuality quiet. He maintained a virtual male harem and a pimp who supplied porn stars, but I don’t go into his pay-for-gay guys.
He lived with Roddy McDowall here at the Dakota, where he introduced Eddie Fisher to Elizabeth Taylor. His roommate a year and a half was Montgomery Clift. His first crush was Errol Flynn, whom he saw passed out naked on a couch. What he made then was a far cry from the billionaire he was at the end.”īut what about the sex? “He lost his virginity, to a female, that is, when Judy Garland seduced him. Of Griffin, Porter says, “We met in ’59 when he sang for my senior prom and the student committee paid him $500. Having just hit bookstores, Porter is on a media tour - a stop that includes Cindy Adam’s column. And now he’s doing it to Griffin with Merv Griffin: a Life in the Closet. Now, someone else is doing it for him.Īuthor Darwin Porter’s niche is posthumously outing celebrities.
Though dismissed, the lawsuits put Griffin on the spot, and while he never denied being gay, he didn’t own it either. Rumors about Griffin being a big ‘mo aren’t new, and they weren’t helped by two lawsuits (a palimony claim, and a sexual harassment charge) by two dudes in the 90s.
Two years ago, Merv Griffin died, leaving behind a legacy that included Wheel Of Fortune, Jeopardy, hotels, side business ventures, and more than a billion dollars.