Out Hollywood Stars! Tom Hulce

September 1, 2022
NSFW.ARMY

Last week at the Hollywood Bowl, there was a presentation of Milos Forman's Oscar-winning 1984 film Amadeus, with live performances of Mozart and Salieri's music performed by the Los Angeles Philharmonic. If this evening wasn't gay enough (it totally was) it brought attention to one of the film's openly gay stars who is not as well remembered today.

Tom Hulce was a pretty big deal for part of the 1980s. He got an Academy Award nomination for Amadeus and also made appearances in such cult classics as Animal House and Parenthood. It's his performance in Amadeus that really makes that film still work almost 40 years later.

F. Murray Abraham understandably won the Oscar for his portrayal of Salieri, but I think you can only believe his frustration and torment because you believe the effortless genius of Tom Hulce’s Mozart. And while he is effectively juvenile and obnoxious, Tom never makes his Mozart unlikeable.

You would think he'd be on his way to big stardom as the decade came to a close. Unfortunately, Tom's work became much less frequent in the 1990s. Always a very talented actor, he gave moving performances in such forgotten films as 1985’s Echo Park, which I still think is one of the most accurate depictions of struggling artists in LA. If for no other reason, watch it for Michael Bowen as a wannabe muscle man and a cameo from Elvira herself, Cassandra Peterson!

In 1988’s Dominick and Eugene Tom played a mentally ill garbage man who is the brother of a young (and hot) Ray Liotta.

Tom got to show off his singing as Quasimodo in Disney's The Hunchback of Norte Dame. Why his beautiful ballad Out There isn't a bigger gay anthem is beyond me...

Talking a little about Tom himself, he was definitely cute. Those are some BLUE eyes and an all-American sweet boy. We only got to see him shirtless a couple times.

By all accounts he has always been a sweet and easy to work with guy. When he started acting less frequently in the late 90s, he successfully shifted into directing and producing on the Broadway stage (how fabulously gay!). In 2007 he won a Tony for Spring Awakening.

So, with all this success, why was Tom Hulce never a bigger movie star? Well, Tom bravely came out as gay in the 90s, before it was cool. Unfortunately, the cynic in me wonders if that stopped him from being offered more and bigger stuff. I could easily see him in Tom Hanks’ role in Philadelphia or a hit Nora Ephron romcom for example.

Wherever Tom Hulce is in his life and career, your fans wish to be well and happy!