Gale Harold's new role

Former "Queer As Folk" star Gale Harold, who was unexpectedly killed off of Fox's "Vanished" a few weeks ago, is leaving television behind for the time being. He's headed back east to co-star in a production of "Suddenly Last Summer," the Tennessee Williams play that was made into a 1959 movie starring Elizabeth Taylor and Katherine Hepburn (both Oscar-nominated for their roles) as well as closeted gay icon Montgomery Clift.

Harold plays the Clift role of Dr. Cukrowicz, opposite Blythe Danner and Carla Gugino. The play officially premieres on Nov. 15 at the Roundabout's Laura Pels Theatre. The straight actor, who fully gave himself up to the rile of slutty Brian Kinney in "Queer," gave an interview to Playbill magazine. In it, he seems A LOT more enthused about appearing in two episodes of "Deadwood" as Wyatt Earp than about the five years on "Queer," the show that made him a star.

Appearing on "Deadwood," he says, "was fantastic! Working with David Milch [creator and head writer] and the actors and everybody on that show was really invigorating. I don't know what the best descriptive word would be. I loved it! I didn't want to leave."

Of "Queer" he had this to say: "It was full of different experiences. Working with the cast and the directors and pushing myself to places I didn't expect to be in was very positive and difficult and frightening. I'm very grateful that I had the experience to do it. It opened some doors to me. Overall, it was very positive."

Gee Gale, sounds like you had a BLAST.