Eleven Gay Historical Figures Worthy of the "Milk" Treatment

Potential film plot points: His four-year affair with Nijinsky, during which they were Europe’s most notable gay couple, ended when Nijinsky married a woman … The premiere of Stravinsky’s “The Rite of Spring” in 1913, which caused a legendary riot … His escape from Russia following the Bolshevik Revolution, followed by his sumptuous but economically disastrous staging of Tchaikovsky’s “Sleeping Beauty” in London in 1921 … His death in Venice in 1929, surrounded by friends, including Coco Chanel.

Dream director: Pedro Almodóvar, who has a seemingly instinctual gift for stories about performers and artists.

Dream actor: Greg Grunberg

Harveys: 2.5. The subject matter might be a tad esoteric for the Academy, but voters would go gaga over the costumes, makeup and cinematography.

Walt Whitman

Who he was: One of the great American poets, Whitman’s 1855 book Leaves of Grass (which would expand over the years, until the writer’s death in 1892) celebrated, among other things, queer desire. Whether he’s praising the hairy chest of a blacksmith or the “Trickling sap of maple, fibre of manly wheat” of a lover, Whitman’s poems are forthrightly sexual — it’s a testament to his talent, then, that his works have been the staple of American high school English classes for more than a century.

Potential film plot points: Historians are torn over just how intimate Whitman’s “intimate friendships” with other men were, but speculation on the real or imagined events that inspired such poetry could be visualized in a very cinematically interesting way ... And lest people think that Whitman’s life was all about sex, there are also his strong anti-slavery sentiments, as well as his tending to soldiers who were wounded in the Civil War … There could also be a great scene with visiting author Oscar Wilde, who famously claimed, upon his return to England, that he still had the kiss of Walt Whitman on his lips.

Dream director: Bill Condon, whose Gods and Monsters (1998) and Kinsey (2004) were fascinating biopics that didn’t skimp on the sexual heat.

Dream actor: Sir Ian McKellen

Harveys: 1.5. Movies about writers tend to go unnoticed unless they’ve got some juicy murder (Capote [2005]) or scandal attached.