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.
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.
Just how well are us LGBTs portrayed on television & film? Here are 9 of our favourite TV characters.
So I’m going to list my 9 best examples of LGBT characters based on their iconic status or accurate portrayal. For this list I’m using the characters sexuality and identity only, not the actors who portray them.
1. Maura Pfefferman (Jeffrey Tambor)
Transparent. A sensitive and moving portrait of a trans-woman struggling to come to terms with her gender identity and having to come out to her family as transgender. Transparent depicts the struggles that families go through when a loved one comes out with a secret like this. Luckily the series doesn’t sensationalise the issue, nor does it become offensive of the portrayal of Maura, who says the most wonderful line “All my life, my whole life I’ve been dressing up like a man, this is me” Definitely worth a watch.
2. Ellen Morgan (Ellen DeGeneres)
Ellen. In 1997 The Puppy Episode the character of Ellen loudly announced to a whole airport terminal she was gay and made television history in the process. DeGeneres herself came out on the same day to Oprah (who had guest starred in the episode) and the show took a light-hearted comedic approach to the character who’s sexuality had always been a source of speculation. However, after the episode aired ratings started to decline and criticisms were aimed at the writers for concentrating too much on the gay aspect of a character and the show was cancelled a year later.
A 65-year old man in great conflict makes a life changing decision in the new film ‘Boulevard.’
The late Robin Williams is bank branch manager Nolan Mack. He’s literally just going through life’s motions – working at a bank, with a longtime wife (Kathy Baker) and a very sick father in the hospital. Then one late evening after visiting his father, he drives through a derelict part of town and almost runs over a young man, Leo (Roberto Aguire), who turns out to be a male prostitute. Nolan checks to make sure Leo is fine, then out of the blue, invites him to go to a motel. This chance meeting opens up something inside Nolan who perhaps realised but didn’t accept that he has feelings for other men. While his relationship with Leo becomes more involved and more complicated, Nolan starts giving Leo money and starts acting like a surrogate father. Their relationship is not sexual but it’s intimate. Nolan tries and tries to his hide his encounters with Leo from his wife and his best friend Winston (Bob Odenkirk), but as Nolan becomes more and more involved and emotionally tied to Leo, his wife suspects that something is going on. But eventually Nolan comes to the realisation that Leo does not feel the same way about him, but at this point it appears that Leo’s life will never be the same again.
Williams gives a delicate performance as the lonely and subdued Nolan. He’s a man whose conflicted, despondent and depressed until Leo comes into his life. Shot in 2013 in Nashville, Tennessee, Williams would eventually hang himself a year later. This story of a lonely and depressed man is eerily parallel to William’s life. Baker, known mostly for her parts on television, is very good as Nolan’s wife, who knows her 40-year marriage is slipping away and there’s nothing she can do to about it.
Aguire more than holds his own against seasoned veteran Williams, their scenes together are both calm and gentle.
Director Dito Montiel (2013’s Empire State) does a great job in getting great performances from his cast, with a good script by Douglas Soesbe. But it’s Williams performance that will stay with you for a long time as it’s one of his last, ever.
11 Things You Need To Know About Boulevard – Robin Williams’ last ever film…
Posted by The Gay UK on Saturday, 9 April 2016
You glance at the cast list and think that at last, Hollywood is acknowledging good actors who happen to be a little older than Channing Tatum. The 3 leads here are Annette Bening, Ed Harris and the late Robin Williams in a slightly left of centre love story.
It goes like this, Annette Bening plays Nikki, an LA housewife and mother, who loves her husband, architect Ed Harris. The first part of the film shows this love while it films them on vacation for their 30th anniversary in Mexico until tragedy strikes.
Widowed, Nikki does what you imagine anyone in that position does, they exist, get up, breathe, eat, sleep and try to form some kind of life without that special someone but without any meaning and this film shows that lack of purpose so well.
That is until, on a whim, she drops by her favourite art gallery in LA, an old haunt from her pre-widow days and she spots a doppleganger; the spitting image of her late husband and that’s where the film goes into uncharted territory.
I’ve read some online reviews of this movie and they aren’t kind, but I found it endearing and felt an empathy with Nikki and her web of lies as she’s negotiating a relationship with someone who looks like and to all intents and purposes is her late husband; but with a penchant for hats and less fake teeth (watch, you’ll understand)!
Robin plays the third wheel – a neighbour, who lost his wife and has a crush painful on Nikki – a crush that comes to the surface when he makes a move and is, politely, thwarted due to Nikki’s sudden involvement with her late husband’s double!
Her live away daughter’s reaction is a treat when she first, accidentally, meets her mother’s new lover – worth watching just for this.
This is a lovely, delicious, silly and far-fetched movie – a Saturday afternoon treat, make yourself some popcorn, pour a wine and indulge kind of thing.
It’s been a sad year with a number of LGBT Icons / Idols from Robin Williams to Joan Rivers who have died in 2014.
Philip Seymour Hoffman 2nd Feb 2014
Birthdate: 23rd July 1967
Age: 46
The Oscar winning actor was found dead in his New York apartment from an acute mixed of drug intoxication. He left 3 children. In 2005 he won Best Actor at the Oscars for his portrayal of Truman Capote. He also played gay in Flawless and Boogie Nights. He said this about playing gay: “When I play somebody gay, I never think of it as ‘I’m playing a gay character.’ It’s interesting to play all the different aspects of the character. There’s something else about the character that’s pulling me there that I identify with. With Flawless, it’s not that he was gay—I found it more interesting that he thought he was a woman. With Capote, it’s the story that he had as an artist. And in Boogie Nights, he was so completely stunted I don’t even think he knew his attractions were of a gay nature.”
Shirley Temple 10th Feb 2014
Birthdate: 23rd April 1928
Age: 85
The iconic former child star died from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. He ranks 18th on the American Film Institute’s list of the greatest female American screen legends of all time. Her family stated that she died of ‘natural causes.’
Sid Caesar 12th Feb 2014
Birthdate: 8th September 1922
Age: 91
Sid Caesar was an actor and comedian was best known for his role in the ever popular 1978 film Grease and the 1982 film Grease 2.
Maria was the second-oldest child of Georg Van Trapp. She and her siblings inspired the musical and film The Sound Of Music, which has long been a favourite of the gay community.
Charlotte Dawson 22nd Feb 2014
Birthdate: 8th April 1966
Age: 47
Charlotte was an Austrailan TV presenter who was a passionate ally for the LGBT+ community. She died by committing suicide at her Woolloomooloo home, in New South Wales. She was also a ambassador against cyber bullying.
Clarissa Dickson Wright 15th March 2014
Birthdate: 24th June 1947
Age: 66
The last of the Two Fat Ladies has died at the age of 66. In an interview with Philly.com in 1998, Dickson-Wright and Paterson talked about how they were very happy with their gay supporters, saying: ‘We’re gay icons,’ she says with glee, as if this is the best thing that’s ever happened to her. “We’re like Judy Garland and Bette Davis.
James Redhorn 21st March 2014
Birthdate: 1st September 1948
Age: 65
James Redhorn was an actor who appeared in over 100 films in his career. He died of melanoma, which was diagnosed in 1992. In 2013 he starred in the gay film: The Perfect Wedding.
Kate O’Mara 30th March 2014
Birthdate: 10th August 1939
Age: 74
Kate O’Mara was famous for her stint in Dynasty, however she was also the second cast member from Absolutely Fabulous to die in 2014. In Ab Fab she played Patsy’s long lost sister Jackie Stone. Her agent Phil Belfield said that she died in Sussex following a short illness.
Frankie Knuckles 31st March 2014
Birthdate: 18th January 1955
Age: 59
The late Frankie Knuckles is known as the Godfather of House Music, a genre which was adopted by the gay community as the preferred sound in many clubs around the world. Knuckles died of Type II diabetes-related complications in Chicago on March 31, 2014 at age 59.
Dora Bryan OBE was the third castmate from Ab Fab who died in 2014. She played the part of Eddie’s Mum’s scene stealer good friend. TGUK writer Roger Walker-Dack noted in his obituary of Bryan, ‘To gay men she was the complete epitome of camp and managed to be as outrageous as she could in all the great comic roles that came her way. None so more when towards the end of her career she played go to June Whitfield’ best friend in the Jennifer Saunders ‘Absolutely Fabulous’ a role, which earned her another BAFTA Best Actress Nomination.’
Robin Williams 11th August 2014
Birthdate: 21st July 1951
Age: 63
Robin Williams was found dead at his home, after an apparent suicide in August 2014. His death shocked the world. Robin Williams rose to fame in the 1970s during a TV series called Mork and Mindy which ran from 1978 to 1982. It wasn’t until Good Morning Vietnam and Dead Poets Society that William’s cemented his name as one of the Hollywood greats. He also found success playing gay characters, doing so twice, first in Birdcage and then again in 2014 in Boulevard.
Lauren Bacall 12th August 2014
Birthdate: 16th September 1924
Age: 89
Lauren Bacall passed away in New York at the age of 89, after a career that spanned seven decades. She became a bit of a gay icon, winning legions of fans, with her films, How To Marry A Millionaire (opposite Marilyn Monroe and Betty Grable), Written On The Wind as Rock Hudson’s muse and the mother of Barbra Streisand’s character in the 1996 film, The Mirror Has Two Faces. She was known as deeply liberal and anti-Republican. In an interview with Larry King in 2005 she said, ‘being a liberal is the best thing on earth you can be. You are welcoming to everyone when you’re a liberal. You do not have a small mind.’ She died from a Stroke.
Over the course of his long and distinguished career Robin Williams won four Golden Globes, two Screen Actors Guild Awards, two Emmys, and an Oscar. And although he started off his career as a stand-up comedian who became a household name as the star of TV’s Mork and Mindy, a silly show about Aliens, some of the finest work he went on to create were in some superb highly dramatic movies.
Russell Tovey, Ellen DeGeneres, Neil Patrick Harris, Harvey Fierstein and many more stars have given their reaction to the death of comic legend, Robin Williams.
