An imperfect TV icon reexamined.
“I’ll take Paul Lynde.”
Not so very long ago, a lifetime ago, those words took Americans somewhere wicked.
Paul Lynde in 1973.Credit: NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images
He was tanned, with shining teeth, if no leading man.
He was in his 40s but looked older, and he had a whinnying snigger.
Is the electrical current in your house AC or DC?
John Springer Collection/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images
“In my house, it’s both!”
Does Mark Spitz believe it’s easier to swim nude?"
Well, it’s easier to steer…"
You’re the world’s most popular fruit.
The audience would roar approval at his bawdy jokes, and Lynde would flash his Cheshire cat grin.
He delivered that performance thousands of times in the 14 years after the show’s 1966 premiere.
“I don’t know if the public thought about his sexuality.”
Being gay was the secret of Lynde’s success, even though it was a (half-hearted) secret.
He hid his truth in plain sight, reveling in a camp persona.
All these years later, people still don’t know what to make of him.
Lynde’s brilliance was rooted in gayness, but he was deeply conflicted about it.
“Paul’s following was mostly straight,” saysCathy Rudolph, author ofPaul Lynde: A Biography.
Lynde was both a role model and a walking stereotype.
There was no one else quite like him on any screen.
Lynde was born in Mount Vernon, Ohio.
Lynde played the role with slightly effeminate blundering outragenot playing gay, exactly, but notnotgay either.
In 1965, Lynde landed a recurring role as Uncle Arthur on the ABC sitcomBewitched.
“His personality was the same off-camera as it was on camera,” saysBewitcheddirector Richard Michaels.
“He became a pioneer because people were laughing with him, not at him,” says Rudolph.
Wealth and fame never made Lynde happy.
“He thought somebody’s going to call him,” Rudolph says.
He ended up going back toSquares."
“They were going along with the jokes he is making.
Lynde’s personal life was volatile.
The actor was a heavy drinker and infamously cruel when intoxicated.
When Davidson began to lose his grip, Lynde desperately grabbed his arm but couldn’t hold on.
The accident was witnessed by two police officers standing outside, who cleared Lynde of wrongdoing.
But whispers about the incident dogged him for years.
“There were rumors Paul had something to do with it.”
“When he didn’t get roles, he would wonder.”
As society changed, Lynde was offered gay parts, but he refused them.
Yet the article also mentioned a friend, Stan Finesmith, described as his “chauffeur-bodyguard.”
“But it took balls to do what he did.
He provided a lot of hope for a lot of us who are flamboyant.”
In 1982, Lynde died alone in his bed of a heart attack at the age of 55.
The answer was as real as Paul Lynde ever got.
“I really don’t knowother than I’m absolutely scared,” Lynde said.
He crossed his arms protectively across his chest. "
… scared of coming out and being myself.”
