'There's Still a Tremendous Amount of Homophobia in Our Culture'

I think this dude is living in the past. Perhaps if he came out in the 1960s his career may have suffered, but these days being out of the closet is run of the mill in Hollywood and elsewhere.

Now if you come out as a conservative in Hollywood, then you've got problems.

Actor Richard Chamberlain, who kept his homosexuality a secret for decades while he worked as a romantic leading man on TV, is advising other men in his spot to stay in the closet.

"There's still a tremendous amount of homophobia in our culture," says the actor who came to fame in the early 1960s as the impossibly handsome Dr. Kildare.

"For an actor to be working [at all] is a kind of miracle, because most actors aren't," Chamberlain told The Advocate, the monthly magazine.

"So it's just silly for a working actor to say, "Oh, I don't care if anybody knows I'm gay" -- especially if you're a leading man.

"Personally, I wouldn't advise a gay leading man-type actor to come out."

Chamberlain, now 76, came out only in 2003, at the age of 69.

He made the admission in his autobiography, "Shattered Live," published that year.

Reports about his sexual orientation had been floating for years, but Chamberlain -- apparently concerned about his ability to keep finding work -- always refused to discuss them.

"Despite all the wonderful advances that have been made, it's still dangerous for an actor to talk about that in our extremely misguided culture," he said.

Dangerous? Is he for real?