50’S STAR FARLEY GRANGER DEAD AT 85

Farley Granger, the handsome leading man who had a meteoric career in Hollywood in the late ’40s and early ’50s but became disillusioned with the studio system and ultimately found success performing in live television dramas in the ’60s and on Broadway in the ’70s and ’80s, died Sunday in New York at age 85. Granger is perahps best remembered for his roles in two Alfred Hitchcock thrillers, Rope in 1948, and Strangers on a Train in 1951. In a 2007 autobiography, Include Me Out, Granger became one of the first Hollywood stars to disclose that he was bisexual and had had affairs with such personalities as actresses Shelly Winters, Ava Gardner and Patricia Neal, playwright Arthur Laurents, and conductor Leonard Bernstein. His longtime partner, Robert Calhoun, who produced the soaps As the World Turns and Guiding Light, died in 2008.