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LEGENDARY British-Australian actor Miriam Margolyes came out in 1966.

鈥淚t was the year England won the World Cup,鈥� she recalled.

鈥淚 was in [repertory theatre] at Leicester, and the stage manager used to walk me home at night, and one day she invited me to go to her digs, and it spun from that. It was revelatory and quite wonderful, and I never looked back.鈥�

While Leicester, a small city in the middle of England, isn鈥檛 generally known as a thriving gay metropolis, Margolyes said there was a scene there even back then when she was working in a local theatre company.

鈥淚 really fell in love with this woman and we had a sort of affair, then she fell in love with another actress and I went crackers, and beat her up and trashed her room, and wrote 鈥榶ou lesbian cunt鈥� on the mirror, and I was asked to leave,鈥� she recalled.

鈥淚t had quite an impact, because people weren鈥檛 used to that sort of thing. It was really disgraceful of me, but that鈥檚 what I was like.

鈥淚t was a fractured time, but eventually my partner and I became a solid item, and we鈥檝e been together for 47 years.鈥�

Margolyes became an Australian citizen in 2013, after spending years here on and off 鈥� her partner is an Australian woman. Despite calling Australia home, the actor is perhaps most associated with some very English performances: she鈥檚 been in the Harry Potter films, Blackadder, and a few years ago her one-woman show and worldwide tour about the women of Charles Dickens鈥� novels met international acclaim.

Although she鈥檚 very open about her sexuality (famously calling herself a 鈥渄yke鈥� at her citizenship ceremony in front of former Prime Minister Julia Gillard) Margolyes has mixed feelings about whether everyone should come out without hesitation. Over the years she has expressed regret at coming out to her mother when she did 鈥� the two were very close, and Margolyes has worried the shock of her coming out contributed to a stroke her mother had not long afterwards.

鈥淚 wasn鈥檛 open to my parents, because I knew that it would distress them. And indeed it did distress them, very much. But in the wider world I was very open, and I鈥檓 not sure that that is a good thing for actors,鈥� Margolyes said.

鈥淚 don鈥檛 agree with my friend Ian McKellen about this, because he feels that everybody should come out as far as possible, and I think it can be detrimental to a young person鈥檚 career.

鈥淚鈥檝e no idea whether it was detrimental to mine or not. When I was in America, where I worked for 15 years, everybody 鈥榢new鈥�, so to speak, that I was gay, but I never said it publicly 鈥� deliberately, because I thought it might affect my work.鈥�

However, Margolyes said she now has nothing left to lose.

鈥淚 think that established actors should probably come out, in order to show that it鈥檚 perfectly possible to act a straight person and be a gay person,鈥� she said.

鈥淥n the whole, things have gotten much more relaxed, and so they should. I鈥檓 actually rather bored by talking about being gay, because there are so many things in my life that focus my attention more.

鈥淚鈥檓 not focused on being gay, I just happen to love a woman with all my heart. That鈥檚 the gay bit of me. The rest of me is all different things: Jewish, fat, old, educated鈥︹��

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**This article was first published in the May聽edition of the 17c起草社区, which is . To obtain a physical copy, to find out where you can grab one in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide, Canberra and select regional/coastal areas.

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