To mark Pride month, Art & Hue has created the new Hollywood Guys collection of stylish pop art with gay icons from cinema’s golden age.

Tab Hunter, Rock Hudson, George Nader, Montgomery Clift, Ramon Novarro and William Haines were the legendary leading men of their day, making cinemagoers swoon and capturing the hearts of fans.

With over 270 film credits between them, these matinée idols left an indelible legacy of gay icons who headlined major movies, succeeding despite snooping gossip columnists & persecuting politicians.

We can look back at their careers and, with the benefit of hindsight, appreciate the trail they blazed as stars within the confines of the times, forever proving that gay icons can successfully headline major Hollywood films.

Beloved comedy actors pushed boundaries in British film and TV with larger-than-life characters.

In an age before homosexuality was decriminalised in 1967, the camp performances of Kenneth Williams & Charles Hawtrey in the early Carry On films (which started in 1958) were particularly daring.

Dragging up in “Carry On Constable“, they made no concessions to social pressures, or legislation, of the time.

Frankie Howerd was equally fearless in “Up Pompeii” as was John Inman in “Are You Being Served?“.

John Inman’s character’s antics and witticisms were all popular with audiences and, whilst Mr. Humphries’ sexuality was never explicitly mentioned, he became an icon in an era when representation on television was sparse.

The perceived fear that actors who come out endanger their chances of landing leading roles is perhaps why there are so few openly gay actors from British film history to reference, but there were exceptions. John Fraser’s looks saw him once described as “the most handsome man in Britain”, starring in heroic war films to period dramas; the dashing London-born actor Alfred Lynch headlined several films in the early 1960s before his career took a back seat when he moved to Brighton in 1972 after his partner suffered a stroke; and Richard Warwick had the main role in the 1970 film “The Breaking of Bumbo” which also starred gay icon Joanna Lumley.

Recent reappraisals have identified gayness in British cinema classics, including Ealing comedy “The Lavender Hill Mob” and Hitchcock’s “The Lady Vanishes”.

Basil Radford & Naunton Wayne made their debut as the unique cinematic double-act Charters & Caldicott in the 1938 film “The Lady Vanishes”. Singularly uninterested in women and focused only on the cricket scores, they simply wanted to be left alone to enjoy each other’s company, sharing a bed (and pyjamas) in one scene.

In a recent Studiocanal podcast, academic Dr. Benedict Morrison asks us to reappraise the classic Ealing comedy “The Lavender Hill Mob“. The colour lavender itself was historically used as a signifier of gayness (hence the terms “Lavender Marriage” & “Lavender Scare” of the McCarthy era) and the podcast makes for interesting listening.

Once only found in gay bars, drag icons have transcended cabaret stages to appear in film & TV.

Rather than “female impersonator”, Danny La Rue preferred the term “comic in a frock” and was one of the country’s most popular performers with a career spanning seven decades, awarded an OBE in 2002.

For anyone who ever cried with laughter at one of Lily Savage’s risqué stand-up routines in a nightclub in the 80s, it would have been impossible to imagine that the outrageous drag queen would go on to rule mainstream television in the 1990s and beyond.

Before becoming known to viewers as Dame Hilda Bracket (with George Logan as Dame Evadne Hinge), Patrick Fyffe developed the persona of Perri St Claire who featured in the “Steptoe & Son” film in 1971 and “Special Branch” with Patrick Mower in 1973.

A comedic character actor, Stanley Baxter was not averse to dragging up when required, such as in “Crooks Anonymous”. With a long-running radio & television career, Stanley was beloved for his impressions of famous people, particularly The Queen, most appropriate given he became comedy royalty himself.

Las Vegas has always attracted flamboyant performers, glitzier than the neon lights on the Strip.

Famous for his costumes as much as his virtuoso piano-playing, Liberace is closely associated with Las Vegas – as a performer, resident, and even had a museum dedicated to his legacy in the city.

Since first performing in Las Vegas in the 1970s, Sir Elton John has played more than 450 shows in “Sin City”, including 15 years in residency at Caesar’s Palace starting with The Red Piano show (which Art & Hue had the pleasure to attend).

Barry Manilow performed a residency on the same stage as Elvis at the Las Vegas Hilton, previously the International Hotel, now the Westgate, before going on to reside at the Paris Hotel.

Famous for their white lions & tigers, illusionists Fischbacher & Horn will be forever associated with Las Vegas thanks to their long-running show featuring big cats that spanned five decades.

The first monarch of the House of Stuart, King James VI of Scotland took the English throne in 1603 to become James I following the death of Elizabeth I. The longest-reigning Scottish monarch, his relationship with George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham, was recently dramatised in the excellent Sky drama “Mary & George” starring Julianne Moore.

Derek Jarman’s 1986 film introduced the artist Caravaggio to a whole new audience, dramatising his complicated life, implied to sleep with both male and female models.

Dame Joan Collins, The Avengers women, Dame Joanna Lumley, Comedy Queens, Kate O’Mara, Anouska Hempel, the Supermodels, sassy soap icons, Barbara Windsor, Yootha Joyce, Dame Shirley Bassey, Dusty Springfield, Cher, Diana Ross, Judy Garland, Bette Midler, Diana Dors, Bond girls, and more, have all inspired many within the gay community globally over the years.