The Birdcage is one of the most famous gay movies in history and one of Robin William’s most successful, but where can you stream it?
The Birdcage starring Robin Williams and Nathan Lane is unfortunately no longer available to stream on Netflix UK. It was removed from the service in Feb 2019.
The film was originally released in 1996 and has become one of the highest-grossing LGBT+ films in history. Find out about where the cast is now.
The film is about a nightclub owner (Robin Williams) and his long-term partner (Nathan Lane) who is the club’s drag queen star. When their son, Val, announces he is to wed the daughter of a conservative senator, who deplores liberal values and gay rights, they scramble to make their home, lives and partnership suitable for homophobes. Although it doesn’t all exactly go to plan.
Sadly Robin Williams lost his life in 2014 when he took his own life. He was one of the world’s most loved actors and had a slew of box office-busting credits to his name, the majority of these were in the 90s. In total, his films have grossed over $3.2 billion in receipts, making him one of the top 20 highest grossing actors of all time. His two biggest films are Mrs Doubtfire and the Disney smash, Aladdin.
Nathan Lane‘s first film credit is for the 1987 film, Ironweed. He worked a number of smaller roles (with the exception of his voice work on Disney’s Lion King) until The Birdcage catapulted him into the big players in Hollywood. He is known for his voice work as much as his acting becoming the voice of the much-loved Pumbaa for The Lion King, he’s also voiced the films Stuart Little and Astro Boy. More recently appeared in the Vanishing of Sidney Hall, which had a limited release in the US in early 2018.
The on-screen son of Armand and Albert went on to write the screenplay for Capote in 2005, which garnered him an Oscar for Best Motion of the year. He also starred in Will And Grace in 2003. Most recently he’s written and produced for the Amazon Prime TV show, The Looming Tower.
Dianne has had a steady career since the blockbuster The Birdcage, but nothing that tops the box office numbers for the comedy. Currently, she’s in the CBS / Amazon Prime comedy, Life In Pieces. She won two Primetime Emmy Awards for her work in television.
Gene retired from acting in 2004. Instead, he focused on writing novels. He has written three historical fiction novels: Wake of the Perdido Star (1999), Justice for None (2004) and Escape from Andersonville (2008). He also wrote Payback at Morning Peak, was released in 2011 and his most recent was Pursuit, in 2013.
After the Birdcage, Calista became a huge star, thanks to her playing the lead and title part of Ally McBeal in the late 90s and early noughties. She starred in 112 episodes of the juggernaut show. She then went on to star in 110 episodes of Brothers and Sisters. In terms of film, The Birdcage is by far her biggest grossing movie.
Who can forget the amazing Agador “these shoes make me fall down” Spartacus? Hank is probably most famous for his voice work on The Simpsons. He plays Moe the bartender, Comic book guy, Superintendent Chalmers, Disco Stu, Apu, Chief Wiggum, and Doctor Nick Rivera. In total, he’s played 32 characters on the long-running cartoon. However, he does crop up in smaller roles in films and starred in the 2014 TV series – Huff, which is definitely worth a watch.
Christine is a huge TV star in her own right. She’s appeared in hits like: Cybill, The Good Wife and now The Good Fight. In terms of films, some of her biggest hitters include, Mamma Mia!Chicago and the musical Into The Woods.
Mike died in 2014 a heart attack at the age of 83. In his long and distinguished career, he directed Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Woolf, The Graduate, Angels In America. His last film was 2007’s Charlie Wilson’s War.
The Birdcage is one of the most famous gay movies in history and one of Robin William’s most successful, but where can you stream it?
The Birdcage starring Robin Williams and Nathan Lane is available on Netflix UK.
The film was originally released in 1996 and has become one of the highest grossing LGBT+ films in history. Find out about where the cast is now.
The film is about a nightclub owner (Robin Williams) and his long-term partner (Nathan Lane) who is the club’s drag queen star. When their son, Val, announces he is to wed the daughter of a conservative senator, who deplores liberal values and gay rights, they scramble to make their home, lives and partnership suitable for homophobes. Although it doesn’t all exactly go to plan.
Set in Florida’s famous and beautiful South Beach, The Birdcage made good use of the iconic beachfront, but is the club they feature in the film an actual real club you can go into?
(C) JAKE HOOK / THEGAYUK
Yes and no. The actual building used, well the frontage, is real. Right there on Ocean Drive, South Beach, but the business that occupies the building isn’t called The Birdcage. It’s called The Carlyle and it is somewhere you can get a bite to eat or drink. But unfortunately no drag show. No Agador. No Armand and Albert.
The Carlyle is not a hotel but actually, a residential building with 19 individually owned and operated units within it which can be rented out for holiday stays. It has a restaurant on the ground floor. The building itself has starred in many movies including, Bad Boys 2 in 2003, Random Hearts in 1999, Pronto in 1997, The Birdcage in 1996 and Scarface in 1983.
It originally opened in 1939 and is famous for its iconic Art Deco design.
It’s been over twenty years since the hit camp comedy The Birdcage was released but what has happened to the cast now?
Robin Williams – Armand Goldman
Sadly Robin Williams lost his life in 2014 when he took his own life. He was one of the world’s most loved actors and had a slew of box office-busting credits to his name, the majority of these were in the 90s. In total, his films have grossed over $3.2 billion in receipts, making him one of the top 20 highest grossing actors of all time. His two biggest films are Mrs Doubtfire and the Disney smash, Aladdin.
The acclaimed film and theatre director Mike Nichols has died in New York at the age of 83. Nicholls was one of the few people ever to win an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony Award.
He won his Oscar back in 1967 for his groundbreaking film The Graduate and went on to be nominated for another 4 Oscars after that. Nichols’s stunning TV miniseries of Tony Kushner’s political epic about the AIDS crisis during the mid-eighties Angels In America earned him a Best Director Emmy, one of 9 that the series was awarded.
Much loved by the gay community… he did, after all, start his film career directing the magnificent Elizabeth Taylor in Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Wolfe? he will always be remembered by us for his hilarious and joyous camp movie The Birdcage with its glorious performances by Robin Williams and Nathan Lane.
Meryl Streep who worked with Nichols on “Silkwood,” “Heartburn” and as well as “Angels in America.” Said today: ‘He was an inspiration and joy to know, a director who cried when he laughed, a friend without whom, well, we can’t imagine our world, an indelible irreplaceable man.’
