Robert Opel
He streaked naked across the Oscars stage in 1974 – and later ran one of the first galleries for gay erotic art, showing Tom of Finland and Mapplethorpe.
Robert Opel, born Robert Oppel, grew up in Pittsburgh. In 1966 he wrote speeches for Ronald Reagan’s campaign for governor of California before turning away from the Republicans. He taught English as a second language in Los Angeles and worked as a photographer, including for the gay magazine “The Advocate”. Opel loved both men and women.
On 2 April 1974, at the Academy Awards in Los Angeles, he ran naked across the stage behind David Niven, flashing the peace sign. Niven quipped about the man’s “shortcomings”. Opel lost his teaching job but used the attention: nobody needed to be ashamed of being naked, he declared. He protested naked against a nudity ban at Los Angeles City Council and in 1976 ran for president under the slogan “Nothing to Hide”.
In 1978 he opened Fey-Way Studios in San Francisco, one of the first galleries for gay erotic art. It helped bring artists such as Tom of Finland and Robert Mapplethorpe to national attention. After the murder of Harvey Milk and the lenient sentence for his killer, Opel became more political; at the 1979 Pride parade he staged a mock “execution” of the killer.
On 8 July 1979 two men broke into his gallery, demanded money and drugs and shot him. He was 39. The two men were convicted. Some friends never believed it was just a robbery.