American actor Farley Granger died last Sunday (20), aged 85. Despite being little known worldwide, Farley has great assets on his resume: he acted twice under the baton of the master Alfred Hitchcock and once with the Italian filmmaker Luchino Visconti.
With Visconti, who was gay, Farley starred in "Seduction of the Flesh" (Senso, 1945), an absolute classic. And with Hitchcock, the actor made "Devil's Feast" (1948) and "Sinister Pact" (1951).
It is worth remembering that, in "Festim…", Farley played a tormented pianist, who, alongside his sinister boyfriend (played by John Dall), murders a college friend. Behind the scenes of Hollywood in the 40s, few actors would agree to take on a gay role, except those who were gay in real life.
And that was the case with Farley. The actor did not hide his sexuality and since the 60s he lived with his boyfriend Robert Calhoun, a TV soap opera producer, who died in 2008. Farley Granger died in Manhattan, of natural causes.
His sexuality may have prevented him from becoming a big star, but he still worked like few others. He acted in theater, TV and cinema – combining TV and cinema, he was in 85 works.
