Celebrity Friday: Zachary Quinto Comes Out

Zachary Quinto played Spock in J.J. Abrams' re-boot of Star Trk

Zachary Quinto, 34, is an actor best known for playing the hero/villain on the once wildly popular television series Heroes and inhabiting the role of Spock in J.J. Abrams re-boot of Star Trek (see my A- review).

But this week he makes news by revealing his long-rumored sexual orientation. Zach is gay!

Last year, the Times, in profiling him forAngels, noted that “the blogosphere is rife with speculation about his sexuality” but that “he prefers not to feed the rumor mill with either substantiation or dismissal.” That has changed. A little while later in our conversation, speaking of the cultural bipolarity that can see gay marriage legalized in New York in the same year that yet another gay teenager, Jamey Rodemeyer, was bullied and killed himself, Quinto says, “And again, as a gay man I look at that and say there’s a hopelessness that surrounds it, but as a human being I look at it and say ‘Why? Where’s this disparity coming from, and why can’t we as a culture and society dig deeper to examine that?’ We’re terrified of facing ourselves.”

Hmmm, I hope this doesn't impact his career negatively. (I doubt it will.) I'm also curious about his Star Trek co-star (who played the other pivotal role of James T. Kirk), Chris Pine, and has gone on to co-star in films with big stars like Denzel Washington in Unstoppable. Pine still has no "personal information" in his Wikipedia page, while Quinto's contains the fact that he is now out as a gay man.