He did, in gay bars and on the waterfront. Sailors were reportedly a favorite pastime. The rumple-faced comedic actor was one of myriad faces familiar to film and TV audiences that invariably played husbands and fathers and in real life was married and had offspring (a son, in Ewell’s case) but who in truth were gay.Another such was Leon Ames (1903-1993), never a character star but seen more often because in more movies. After Ames made a pass at a male friend of Doris Day—whose father he played in a few movies—she apprised the younger man, “We don’t discuss his private life. Leon is a very fine actor.” Evidently.Most of Ewell’s work was on the stage, but he shot to temporary stardom as Marilyn Monroe’s sorely tempted neighbor—a married man whose wife and son are away from Manhattan for the summer—in the then-daring 1955 classic The Seven Year Itch. Ironically, Ewell stands in for practically every heterosexual man on earth, at Marilyn’s side in one of the most iconic scenes and stills in movie history: the one where the pleated skirt of her white halter dress (via bisexual costume designer Travilla) gets blown skyward by the wind from a subway grating.A three-story depiction of Tom and Marilyn could still be seen, in July, 2011, on the 20th Century Fox lot in Los Angeles.Some also remember Ewell for his supporting role in Robert Blake’s detective TV series Baretta (1975-’78).
