Known mostly as a stage actor on the Broadway scene, Joel Grey's movies include the classical Bob Fosse musical "Cabaret," for which he won an Academy Award in the 80s - a private man throughout his life, in a rarely candid interview, the actor has come out as gay.
Turning 83 years old in just a couple of months, the career of Joel Grey in movies hasn't been as wide as what he's achieved in theater, but he's still considered one of the greats in the musical genre - and in a rare move, the actor has announced that he's gay.
According to Reuters, in a long career that included Joel Grey movies such as "The Seven-Per-Cent Solution," the actor had never spoken publicly about his sexuality, though his friends and family had known for a long time about his sexual identity.
In a recent interview with People Magazine where the actor spoke about his years working in different Joel Grey movies, he spoke to the magazine about his struggles acknowledging his identity throughout his life, after he was raised in a conservative house in Cleveland, Ohio, where he often heard his family refer to gay men as "fairies," as well as being dragged to jail or mistreated just because they were themselves.
"I don't like labels," Grey told the magazine, according to MSNBC, "but if you have to put a label on it, I'm a gay man. All the people close to me have known for years who I am, [but] it took time to embrace that other part of who I always was."
As The Independent points out, Grey would seem more like what's nowadays considered as having a "fluid" sexuality, as he's been attracted to both men and women in the past, and talks about his 24 year-long marriage to Jo Wilder, the mother of Jennifer Grey, as the happiest time in his life.
Asked about her father's recent statement, the "Dirty Dancing" star said she was proud that he'd finally reached a stage where, years after Joel Grey's movies, he was comfortable enough in his own skin to speak out.
