Al Corley Quit Dynasty Because They’d Only Let His Character Shake Hands

TLDR: Al Corley signed up to play one of American television’s first openly gay lead characters. When the network wouldn’t let him actually play it that way, he walked, even though it meant giving up a hit show.

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Alford Corley was born May 22, 1956, in Wichita, Kansas, and worked as a doorman at Studio 54 in the late 1970s before landing his first screen role in the 1979 TV movie Women at West Point.

Two years later he was cast in the series premiere of Dynasty as Steven Carrington, one of the earliest gay main characters in American network television history.

He Wanted to Play It Honestly, and the Network Wouldn’t Let Him

Corley has said what attracted him to the role in the first place was the chance to play an openly gay character at all, something almost unheard of on network television at the time, aside from Billy Crystal’s part on Soap.

What he got instead was a character whose sexuality kept shifting between men and women, softened into something the show could keep comfortably vague.

“I couldn’t put my heart and soul into it,” Corley said. “I just felt there was nowhere to go with the character unless they were willing to explore a gay character.” He left after the second season in 1982, telling Interview magazine plainly that “Steven doesn’t have any fun. He doesn’t laugh; he has no humor.”

A castmate later confirmed how limited the show’s actual depiction was allowed to be. “I was very impressed to hear him say that as Steven when he met his boyfriend they would only allow them to shake hands,” said Gordon Thomson, who played Adam Carrington and came out publicly as gay himself years later. “He left the show because he thought that was crap, and of course it was.”

Leaving Cost Him Real Relationships, and He Knew It Would

Show co-creator Esther Shapiro later named Corley’s exit as her single biggest regret about the series. “I wish we could have kept Al and Pamela Sue,” she said, referring to Pamela Sue Martin, who left the show around the same time. Corley has said his honesty about the situation came at a real cost. “When I said that, it hurt people and seemed like I was ungracious,” he admitted, while maintaining he’d had to judge his own happiness first.

He Became a Real Pop Star in Europe

Corley pivoted directly into music, recording three albums overseas. His 1984 single “Square Rooms,” produced by Harold Faltermeyer, became a genuine hit across Europe, and he recorded a duet, “Thought I’d Ring You,” with Shirley Bassey. It was on tour in Hamburg that he met Jessika Cardinahl, working in a cafe at the time, whom he married in 1989. They have three children together.

He Came Back Once, on His Own Terms

Corley reprised the role of Steven Carrington in 1991 for the miniseries Dynasty: The Reunion, this time, by his own account, finally playing the character the way he’d wanted to from the start.

Afterward, he moved primarily behind the camera, becoming a principal at Code Entertainment and directing his first film, Bigger Than the Sky, which brought Sean Astin together on screen with his own mother, Patty Duke, for the first time.

You can read more about the rest of the Dynasty cast in our full guide to the show.

Al Corley, Frequently Asked Questions