The entire history of gay men on American television can pretty TV’s most “revolutionary” character, but Will Truman was certainly the most Will became something extraordinary: the Gay Everyman. Sidekicks, Jack and Karen, and even Will’s much ditzier friend, Grace. The actor who played him, Eric McCormack, was straight – it’s that Will theĬharacter was usually the “straight man” for the show’s break-out zany The transformative sitcom Will & Grace was a straight man it’s not just that Played by actor Eric McCormack (1998 – 2006)
Probably won’t make the jump to American TV. Man with three first names, Gareth David-Lloyd, we’re sad that just when he’sįinally coming into his own (and coming to terms with his “I’ve never fallenįor a man before” relationship with Captain Jack), he had to go and die.ĭeath means that, depending on how the remake is conceived, the character Puritans at heart! As for Torchwood’s Ianto Jones, played to perfection by the That the Brits are ahead of us Yanks, who all too often still seem like Our top three characters come from a British television show? We think it says Played by actor Gareth David-Lloyd (2006 – 2009) For those of you keeping track, that’s aĭrop-off of one from our previous poll. Off the air, enough of you remember television’s baddest of Gay Bad Boys fondlyĮnough to rank him number two. Slightly more complicated arrogant sex machine. Out an arrogant sex machine, but he ended the run of the show as, well, a Played by actor Gale Harold (2000 – 2005)Įveryone had an opinion about Queer as Folk’s Brian Kinney. Better still, he may soon be coming to American TV, almost certainly played by the actor who made him so indelible, John Barrowman. The phenomenon that is Captain Jack has exposed once and for all the lie that mass audiences won’t accept GLBT characters in a leading “hero” role, with a romantic life to boot. Know you think Captain Jack is the “best” gay or bisexual television character ever (although he prefers “omnisexual”).
Vaulting from tenth place all the way to number one is none other than Captain Jack Harkness. Played by actor John Barrowman (2006 – present) Without further ado, here are the results! 1. Harkness (#1), Ianto Jones (#3), and Chris Keller (#25) and Tobias Beecher (#35) from Oz who could probably be identified that way. Twenty percent of the top 50 characters were men of color – including True Blood’s Lafayette Reynolds (#23), My So-Called Life’s Rickie Vasquez (#26), Six Feet Under’s Keith Charles (#29), Ugly Betty’s Justin Suarez (#31), The Wire’s Omar Little (#44), and several characters from Noah’s Arc – although none of these characters made the top 20.Īnd bisexuality continues have low visibility, with no characters that openly as identify as bisexual, but a few, like Captain Jack or UK And speaking of the UK, ten of the top 50 characters herald from shows produced in that country. Ten characters come from soap operas, mostly from the U.S. The exceptions? Jodie Dallas, played by Billy Crystal, on Soap and Ricky Vasquez from My So-Called Life. Meanwhile, we also have many new faces – from shows that have debuted since our last poll.Įvery single character except two comes from a show that ran in the 00s (although some shows, like Will & Grace, did debut in the lateĩ0s). Last poll of the best gay and bisexual characters two and a half years ago – and a few missing ones, namely Vince D’Angelo (from Will & Grace), George Huang (from Law & Order: SVU), and Waylon Smithers (from The Simpsons), all of whom didn’t even make the top 50 this time around. We have quite a few familiar faces – characters who made our
We asked you which gay or bisexual TV characters you think are the best, and you told us – with tens of thousands of votes cast.īut first, a few interesting statistics.