VIDEOS: Celebrate The Birthday of Beloved Broadway Star and Pioneering Gay Actor Charles Nelson Reilly

When Charles Nelson Reilly was a successful young Broadway actor trying to make it on the west coast, he was told by numerous executives that a flamboyant homosexual like him would never be on television. But soon, after accumulating dozens of sitcom guest appearances, years of cutting up on game shows and teasing network censors with innuendo-laced chats on late-night talk shows, you could barely switch channels without running into him.

While his sexuality was never a direct part of his comedy, he was, along with stars like Paul Lynde and Rip Taylor, among a pioneering group in the 1960s, 70s and 80s who brought a campy gay sensibility into American home entertainment.

Reilly's first big break had him cavorting Off-Broadway in the Jerry Herman revue, PARADE, which led to a Broadway debut in the ensemble of BYE, BYE, BIRDIE, where he covered for star Dick Van Dyke. His Tony-winning portrayal of Bud Frump in HOW TO SUCCEED IN BUSINESS WITH REALLY TRYING followed and then Jerry Herman summoned him again to play Cornelius in the legendary original Broadway production of HELLO, DOLLY!

At the 1974 Tony Awards, he gave a memorable comic performance recalling his stage career.

Off-stage he was a well-respected teacher at HB Studios and he directed Julie Harris in her Tony-winning performance in THE BELLE OF AMHERST, but to the general public he was better known for silliness, like playing a BANANA in a television commercial.

Eight years before his passing in 2007, Charles Nelson Reilly started touring a darkly comic solo show about his career highs and lows. It was appropriately called, THE LIFE OF REILLY.