"It seems that the small movies are a little more risky and cutting-edge. You've got your big commerce and you've got your small films that you're more passionate about." -- Robert Patrick
Robert Patrick (born September 27, 1937) is a gay American playwright, poet, lyricist, and short-story writer and novelist. He was born Robert Patrick O'Connor in Kilgore, Texas.
"Chris Carter is just a fantastic guy, I have enjoyed working for him, immensely. I loved this character. I don't think I can say enough about Chris. It's just a fantastic thing that he's created and I'm so thrilled that I've been a part of it. I'm very grateful.""I enjoyed the crew. The best part about 'The X-Files' has been the crew. This crew is an exceptional family and to go to work with a bunch of people that you really like is great. They're all the best of the best and they really try to do the best job they can. I'll miss that.""I've been doing this 17 years but I can tell you I have more websites now than I have ever had devoted to me or my past career or my character. When I got this show, I think I had two fans out there that had created websites on my behalf.""We were marching since we were babies and all we did was make Jane Fonda famous.""You can't think about how people will perceive you or your character. All you can do is focus on your work. The rest is up to the universe. I've been acting for 16 years. I've done 55 movies and, in all seriousness, there's maybe five that are good and the rest are crap.""You don't buy a Harley with your mind, you buy it with your heart and your balls."
Patrick was born to migrant workers in Texas. Because his parents moved around the southwest constantly, looking for work, he never went to one school for an entire year until his senior year of high school in Roswell, New Mexico. The only cultural constants in his life were books, movies, and radio. His mother made sure he learned to read, and arranged that he start school a year early. Unsocialized due to constant displacement, he always made poor grades, and dropped out of college after two years. Having experienced no live theatre but a few school shows, he fell in love with stage work while washing dishes at the Kennebunkport Playhouse one summer. Stopping off in New York on his way back to Roswell, he stumbled into the Caffe Cino, the first underground or Off-Off Broadway theatre, on September 14, 1961. He remained there working for free in any required capacity, supporting himself with temporary typing jobs while observing and participating in the production of dozens of plays. Having long been a poet, in 1964 he got an idea for a play, "The Haunted Host," and because of the casualness of the Cino, was allowed to mount it almost at once. It was something of a success, and playwrighting became his main focus.
, and Adult Video News magazines; and had his short stories included in numerous anthologies.
Additionally, Patrick has appeared in the documentaries, Resident Alien (1990) (with Quentin Crisp) and Anatomy of an Icon (2008); and in the videos: O is for Orgy: The Sequel and O Boys: Parties, Porn, and Politics, both produced by the O Boys Network.
Most recently, he has written his memoirs, Film Moi or Narcissus in the Dark, and the plays: Hollywood at Sunset and Michelangelo's Models.
He reviews adult gay-male videos for several publications and maintains 70 pages of photographs at Caffe Cino Pictures.
He retired from theatre in 1990, and has lived in Los Angeles since 1993.
In 2010 he published a DVD of his lecture, Caffe Cino: Birthplace of Gay Theatre.
Gay Plays: A First Collection (edited by Hoffman), includes T-Shirts
Contra/Dictions
The Mammoth Book of Gay Short Stories
Flesh & the Word 2 & 3
Best Gay Erotica 2009 & 2010
Poetry
"Benedicktion," published in RFD magazine #104
Screenplays
Ghost Story (TV) (1972)
High-Tide (TV) (1990)
Robin's Hoods (TV) (1994)
Plus numerous ghost-written works
Film and video roles
Resident Alien (1990)
O Is for Orgy: The Sequel
O Boys: Parties, Porn, and Politics
Wrangler: Anatomy of an Icon (2008)
Awards
Show Business Magazine Best Play Award, 1969
Glasgow Citizens Theatre Best World Playwrighting Award, 1973
The International Thespian Society Founders Award for Services to Theatre and to Youth, 1980 (first openly gay recipient)
Blue is for Boys Weekends in the Borough of Manhattan, 1983 and 1986
Robert Chesley Foundation Award For Lifetime Achievement In Gay Playwrighting, 1996
West Hollywood Gay and Lesbian Advisory Board's Rainbow Key Award for having been instrumental in the creation of gay theatre and the off-off-Broadway movement, 2008