The Secret Gay Life of 'Medical Center' Star James Daly & How Son Tim Daly Later Revealed the Truth

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It's been forty-six years since the tragic death of Emmy-winning actor James Daly of a heart attack on July 3, 1978. Best known for his acclaimed role as Dr. Paul Lochner on TV's Medical Center (CBS, 1969-1976), Daly was secretly gay. Daly's sexuality remained in question until his son actor Tim Daly revealed the truth on CBS Sunday Morning in 2016. The father Daly was only 59 years old when he died. This is his story.

A Closer Look

James Daly was born of Irish and German descent on October 23, 1918, in Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin, the son of Dorothy Ethelbert (Hogan) and Percifer Charles Daly.

His family was interested in acting before young James debuted on the stage. His father Percy had performed in amateur theatrical productions in Central Wisconsin.

The son Daly made his New York stage debut in 1946 as an understudy to Gary Merrill in Born Yesterday. Other roles followed in productions like Virginia Reel, and Man and Superman.

In 1950, Day took the lead in Major Barbara, which that year won the Theater Guild Award. He then performed in plays like Billy Budd, Saint Joan, The Merchant of Venice, and Miss Julie.

Daly eventually made over 600 TV appearances including leading roles in The Twilight Zone and Omnibus productions of Henry Adams and The Court Martial of Billy Mitchell.

He won an Emmy award for his performance in The Eagle and the Cage and acted in Hallmark productions of Give Us Barabbas and The Magnificent Yankee.

Behind the Scenes, He Struggled

James Daly had four children: actors Tyne Daly (star of TV's Cagney & Lacey), and Tim Daly (star of TV's Wings), and Mary Glynn, and Pegeen Michael.

In private, Daly was gay at a time when such sexuality was considered a mental illness. He wed his wife Hope in 1942, and they failed to “cure” the actor.

In struggling with his sexuality, the couple divorced in 1965. Afterward, Daly remained distant from his children, believing his sexuality might somehow have harmed their lives.

In 1975, Daly finally came out to his son Tim, who in 2016 explained how his father left him when he was "a very young man, a young boy, and I didn't see him very much."

"You know," the son Daly said, "...my parents had a long and difficult marriage, mostly because my father was gay. Not many people know this."

"But given the wisdom of that era," Tim went on to relay, "...the medical, psychological and societal wisdom of that time, which was all false -- being homosexual was a disease, right, that could be cured."

"My father worked very hard to try to 'cure' himself of something that was incurable, and so did my mom," Tim said. "And it was very sad."

As such, when James Daly left his wife, as Tim revealed, "My parents made a mutual decision based on all this false information that they would limit my exposure to my father so that I would not contract this 'disease.' And it was a tragedy, as I look back on it, because my father had the means and the desire to see me, and I loved him desperately. And I saw him maybe a couple weeks a year."

It wasn't until Tim Daly was 19 years old, that his father told him the truth. The two were about to perform in a summer stock tour of the play “Equus” at the Tarrytown Music Hall. Tim was scheduled to play the horse in the Peter Shaffer drama.

But Then Tragedy Struck

And then James Daly died on, as son Tim Daly relayed, "The day we were going to begin rehearsals. So it felt like this momentous point in my life where I was about to really get to know him as a man, and the universe intervened, and there was this moment where the torch was passed, and I was now the man. So, you know, I was sort of robbed of the opportunity to really get to know my dad."

Final Role

James Daly's final acting role was that of R.S.M. Boyce in TV's Roots: The Next Generations, which debuted in 1979, more than seven months after he died.

Early in his career, James Daly had made two guest appearances, in different roles, on David Jannsen's groundbreaking TV series, The Fugitive. Daly's son Tim later portrayed the lead character, Dr. Richard Kimble, in a short-lived, but heralded reboot of The Fugitive in 2000.

Final Impression

James Daly was one of the most remarkable actors in the history of television.