George Nader
(October 19, 1921 - February 4, 2002) U.S.A.
Actor
Born in Pasadena, after graduating from Occidental College, Nader joined the U.S Navy. 6" 1' tall (185 cm) and weighing 180 lbs (81 kg), the he-man film star George Nader, was a constant subject of beefcake photos in the 1950s, and frequently exposed his beautiful chest in the movies. He stayed in shape most of his life by lifting weights and swimming.
Nader became interested in acting while still in school and appeared in several productions at the Pasadena Playhouse. That work led to a number of bit parts in 1951-52. His big break was in 1953's Robot Monster. While the low-budget 3D sci-fi outing is deservedly famous as one of the worst movies ever made, it nonetheless made money. Nader first won fame for his muscular good looks as an actor under contract to Universal in the 1950s, at the same time the studio was promoting male stars such as Hudson and Curtis.
Though he won a Golden Globe award for "Most Promising Newcomer," he often found himself struggling in the shadow of more famous leading men, such Rock Hudson, Tony Curtis, and Jeff Chandler. Nader was generally relegated to lower profile films, including Four Guns to the Border and Man Afraid.
Universal Studios kept trying to bolster his masculine image by setting him up on dates with starlets, including Joan Crawford, but he never felt entirely comfortable with the studio's attempt to promote him as a handsome he-man with interest for girls.
He moved to television in the late 1950s, and appeared in several short-lived series including The Further Adventures of Ellery Queen, Man and the Challenge and Shannon. He also appeared frequently on The Loretta Young Show, a dramatic anthology series.
In the "moral" climate of the 1950s, gay stars like Rock Hudson, Tab Hunter and Anthony Perkins were terrified of being exposed, so they all had "beards", women who provided them with an emblem of spurious virility. But Nader refused to play the game and, although he was not exactly out of the closet, he never married, was seldom seen alone dating a woman.
Since Hollywood refused to acknowledge that some of its most virile male actors were gay, Nader, Hudson and Miller would often dine out as a trio to avoid drawing attention to themselves. Two men alone would have looked suspicious, and four men would have give the impression of two couples.
But in the mid 1960s, news of Nader's private life reached the editors of a scandal sheet called Confidential Magazine, which threatened to publish the details of Nader's supposed relationship with Rock Hudson. In fact, Nader was seriously involved with Mark Miller, Hudson's personal secretary, and they became lifetime companions. According to many Hollywood whispers, the studio cut a deal and agreed to fire Nader if the information about Hudson was suppressed.
 
His career in Hollywood all but dead, he moved to Germany, where he became famous for his portrayals of the tough FBI agent Jerry Cotton - something of a counterpoint to Ian Flemming's James Bond - in eight crime thrillers shot in Europe.
In the mid 1970s, Nader suffered an eye injury in an auto accident. No longer able to tolerate the bright lights of movie sets, George retired from acting in 1974. He then took up writing science fiction.
His best-known work is Chrome, a novel featuring a forbidden gay love story between a man and a robot set in a tyrannical future, published in 1978. The book, now in its sixth printing, tells of a young space cadet who falls in love with a beautiful male robot. In a world where "to love a robot is death", the earth authorities tear the lovers apart, exiling one to space, the other to earth. Obviously a metaphor about the place of gay men in society, the story is well-written and holds together on its own merits.
He was named, together with Miller, one of the beneficiaries of Rock Hudson's estate after the star died of AIDS related complications in 1985. For years, he lived quietly with his partner in Palm Springs, making rare public appearances.
With Miller, he also wrote The Perils of Paul, a novel about the gay community in Hollywood, which he did not want published until after his death. Nader and Miller eventually returned to the U.S. and settled in Palm Springs, CA.
He had been hospitalized since September, 2001 with a life-threatening fever of unknown origin, a bacterial infection, but, according to his doctor, was "able to put up such a strong fight because of his lifelong devotion to healthy living and fitness". But in 2002 he died from pneumonia at the Motion Picture Country Home near Los Angeles. Nader is survived by his lover of 55 years, publicist Mark Miller.
His work include:
- Robot Monster (1953)
- Carnival Story (1954)
- Sins of Jezebel (1954)
- Lady Godiva (1955)
- Six Bridges to Cross (1955)
- Away All Boats (1956)
- The Second Greatest Sex (1956)
- The Unguarded Moment (1956)
- The Female Animal (1958)
- The Secret Mark Of D'Artagnan (1962)
- The Human Duplicators (1965)
- Beyond Atlantis (1973)
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