Victor Garber Recalls Gilda Radner’s ‘Godspell’ Crush Before Learning He Was Gay
What To Know
- Victor Garber recalled Gilda Radner’s crush on him during their time in the Toronto production of Godspell.
- Radner later became a Saturday Night Live cast member and married Gene Wilder.
- Garber went on to a successful stage and screen career and married Rainer Andreesen.
Victor Garber recently recounted Gilda Radner‘s Godspell crush on him before learning he was gay.
In a Vulture article, Garber, 77, detailed the audition process for Godspell, getting cast as Jesus Christ in the Toronto stage production alongside Radner, Martin Short, Eugene Levy, Andrea Martin, and others, and filming the 1973 musical film of the same name.
Evidently, Radner took a special interest in Garber when they were Godspell co-stars in Canada in 1972.
“With money in our pockets, Gilda and I started going out for dinners at a chic restaurant in the Windsor Arms Hotel called Three Small Rooms,” Garber wrote. “These outings looked and felt like dates, and Gilda was affectionate and tactile — her intentions toward me were clear.”
He continued, “But while it would have pleased both our sets of bourgeois Jewish parents for us to become a couple, that simply wasn’t going to happen. It took Gilda a beat to figure out what was up, but when she did, she was gracious and our friendship continued unaffected.”
Not long afterward, Radner “pursued the significantly less gay Marty,” Garber said, and they “enjoyed a torrid romance.”
Radner went on to become a cast member of Saturday Night Live. In 1980, she married musician G.E. Smith, but they divorced in 1982. Radner then married Gene Wilder in 1984, after meeting on the set of Hanky Panky (1982). They remained husband and wife until she died in 1989 at 42, following a battle with ovarian cancer.
Meanwhile, Garber went on to earn four Tony Award nominations for his role as Anthony Hope in Sweeney Todd, as well as play numerous roles in other musicals and stage productions. He’s also known for films like Titanic (1997), Legally Blonde (2001), Argo (2012), and the TV series Alias. Garber married his longtime partner, artist and model Rainer Andreesen, in 2015; they have been together since 2000.
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