EXCLUSIVE! Wesley Eure of TV's "Land of the Lost" Comes Out

AE: When you were together with Richard Chamberlain, did you ever talk about the possibility of coming out?
WE: No. It wasn't an option. But again, we'd go out with my friends from Days of Our Lives, we'd double date with the girl who was playing my girlfriend and her husband. We'd go to Art Laboe's club on Sunset and be dancing, but it was always boy/girl. I lived a very open life, and I'm sure that threatened a lot of people, my producers and stuff. Richard and I had a great time together. I stayed with his parents at the beach and took my mom. You know? We had a really wonderful time.

Richard Chamberlain

When it was over, it was enormously sad. I was broken hearted. I remember we broke up and I was on Days of Our Lives, I couldn't stop shaking. I was crying so hard. I was a kid, comparatively. I went to the studio that day, and I was sobbing in the dressing room. They were all friends of mine, they all knew about Richard, that I was with him.

The makeup girl came in, and Patty Weaver who played my girlfriend, she's on The Young and the Restless now, she came in, and I told them what happened. The good news is, the character on Days of Our Lives was in a very traumatic situation in the script, so it required being depressed, down, crying, all that stuff. So it fortunately timed out great. God bless the makeup artists, they came in did my makeup in the room. I was not ready to cope with it, but I moved on.

Wesley in a '70's Tiger Beat spread

AE: Do you think being gay hurt your career?
WE: Absolutely. It was a horrible time in Hollywood, being gay. It was horrible. I was on the cover of Tiger Beat and all those a lot, and they'd do those "Win A Date With Wesley" and "Who's Wesley Dating?" It was so disingenuous. I had a full life. I've had a lot of friends and some pretty high profile partners, and it was an odd thing. I got fired from Days of Our Lives for being gay.

AE: Is that right?
WE: That's what I was told. I mean, they told me a lot of different reasons. After nine years, my contract was up, but I was hosting the number one show for Nickelodeon, Finders Keepers. It was on cable, but this was before everybody had Nickelodeon. Mark Summers was doing Double Dare. I was getting bigger ratings than Mark. I became the number one host for kids for two seasons, and then we heard the show was being sold to Fox. Everybody else was celebrating and I went, "Oh, no. I'm out of a job." Sure enough. I waited, I kept calling, "Am I hosting the show?" They wouldn't answer the question, and then I got the call they went with somebody younger.

I knew Fox and NBC were run by gay men at the time, but what was odd about the industry at the time, it was amazing how the gay men were perpetuating the damage. I remember Earl Greenburg — who was a big philanthropist here in Palm Springs, and had the Desert AIDS Project, he did some wonderful work, he's passed away now this last year — but the first time I saw him in Palm Springs, he said, "Didn't I fire you?" He was head of NBC Daytime at the time.

AE: And what did you say when he said that?
WE: [laughs] I said, "You're an ass."