He was a big star. And already sexually active.
He always said that he was born horny. As a teenager he rarely went more than a day without going down on a man or letting a man or woman go down on him. Usually two or three. He and a buddy often teamed up to work on a third guy or girl, then do each other.
How did he find all those willing partners, at a jailbait age, in the police-state 1950s, when sodomy and fornication would get you a prison sentence? It helped that he had a stunning face and an enormous penis that kept getting bigger and bigger every year. And that he looked...well, innocent. Everybody thought they were his first.
Right, his first today.
Brandon wasn't sure whether he liked sex with men or women better -- why choose, they were both great! But for sheer physical attraction, that jolt that hits you in the pit of your stomach, it was always men.
And maybe help your career. Brandon's first real boyfriend was novelist James Leo Herlihy, who got him cast in the film versions of Blue Denim (1959) and All Fall Down (1962).
In 1962, shortly after he and James broke up, Brandon landed a dream role -- Lonnie in Hud, an adaption of Larry McMurtrey's 1961 Western novel Horsemen Pass By, about a gay teenager who falls in love with his no-good uncle.
Ok, he wasn't explicitly gay, in the script, but that's how Brandon intended to play him!
How could Brandon not be in love with him?
"Dream on," James said, still smarting a little from the breakup. "Paul Newman can have any guy he wants, and he likes them big and built, like Brando, Yul Brynner, and Rocky Graziano -- why would he pick a skinny 20-year old kid? Besides, you're both bottoms. What are you going to do, exchange recipes?"
"I can screw with the best of them, Daddy-O!" Brandon exclaimed. "And I can seduce with the best of them."
On May 21, 1962, location filming began in the town of Claude on the Texas Panhandle. Cast and crew stayed at several hotels in Amarillo. Brandon seduced the desk clerk at Paul's hotel into letting him into his room. Paul came in later to find Brandon on the bed naked.
"I've been waiting all afternoon to suck the cock of Paul Newman," he announced.
Paul was hesitant at first -- he wasn't into skinny kids, even those with angelic faces and enormous penises -- but Brandon was very persistent. Soon they were having sex every night, with each other and with whatever men or women they invited along -- both of them got a lot of offers!
Brandon was mostly a bottom with men, but one night he topped a guy who was going down on Paul at the same time. Then he switched positions -- what a kick! He never topped Paul, though -- Paul had a smaller cock, but he was older, and a bigger star, therefore always dominant.
Brandon was completely captivated. Paul's fame, his money, his connections that could push a career -- none of it mattered. Even the sex wasn't important. He wanted to be with Paul, share his bed, share his life, no matter what.
So he tried monogamy. He cut back on the hookups. He got married, to take some of the pressure off. But he and Paul had different commitments, and just couldn't see each other often. They had to make do with an occasional weekend fling.
What was Brandon supposed to do on the other days? Sex with his wife Susan, of course. But he got aroused so easily, and he had so many offers -- it was simply impossible to turn them all down.
Brandon tried visiting Paul on the set for an occasional dressing-room blow job, but Paul didn't like that -- too dangerous. If anyone found out about them, both their careers would be over.
Still, Brandon longed for some public recognition of their relationship, if only in code.
In 1968, Paul signed on as Butch in the intensely homoerotic buddy-Western Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Brandon thought that he should play Sundance -- a perfect way to display their commitment!
Besides, his career was in the dumps -- he had barely worked in three years. What good was having a superstar boyfriend, if he refused to use his influence to get you jobs?
Paul argued that it would look suspicious for him to promote Brandon for the role. The producers wanted Steve McQueen.
"Your new boyfriend?" Brandon sniped. "What, does he suck your cock better than me? Or does he have a tighter ass? Here I've been trying my damnedest to stay faithful, and you're shacking up with every Tom, Dick, and Harry!"
The argument escalated, and became public -- they were nearly outed on the spot. Paul angrily broke up with Brandon.
Worried about being caught in the middle of a gay love triangle, McQueen backed out of the role, and Robert Redford took over.
Devastated by the breakup, Brandon divorced Susan -- they were mostly together for Paul's sake, anyway -- and distanced himself from Hollywood, returning to his old love, theater. In March 1972 he remarried. In July 1972, while starring in Butterflies are Free, he was driving through Lakewood, a suburb of Denver, when he swerved to avoid a drunk driver and was killed.Paul Newman had a legendary career, in such memorable movies as The Sting (1973), Fort Apache, the Bronx (1981), and The Color of Money (1986). Never openly bisexual -- his 2010 biography just mentions Brandon as his costar in Hud -- he was married to Joanne Woodward for 50 years, and had three children. He was a strong supporter of gay rights.
Most of this story comes from Randall the Muscle Bear, who never met Brandon, but knew some men who tricked with him in the 1960s. I took some details from Darwin Porter's 2009 biography of Paul Newman, but I found it to be generally unreliable.
See also: Paul Newman and Rocky Graziano
