Out ‘Gilded Age’ actor Claybourne Elder talks about the perks of having a gay older brother

“We’re going to hell, but it’s cute because we’re going as a family!”

Mark

Dec 20, 2023 - 19:00

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Out ‘Gilded Age’ actor Claybourne Elder talks about the perks of having a gay older brother

As season 2 of The Gilded Age reaches its finale on HBO, now is as good a time as ever to shine a light on the talent that is Claybourne Elder.

Elder, 41, plays the recurring role of John Adams, the love interest of one of the lead characters, Oscar van Rhijn (played by Blake Ritson).

Elder is known for his work on TV and Broadway. However, besides singing and acting, he’s also a writer and does occasional stand-up comedy. At a recent show, Elder, who is gay, talked about having a gay older brother.

Raised in Utah, Elder is the youngest of eight siblings. He joked that as he has a gay older brother just a little older than him, “We’re going to hell, but it’s cute because we’re going as a family!”

“Having a gay older brother was great,” he goes on to explain, saying they both loved doing the same things.

“That’s why it was so nice [having a gay brother] … I could come home from school and make a charcuterie board with [him]. And then we put on my grandmother’s Edith Piaf records and we’d do our French homework together.”

Watch the clip below.

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Discovering Broadway

Elder studied music and acting from a young age. He says his life was changed in 2007 when he went to see a Broadway show. Another patron, noting his enthusiastic reaction to the performance, gave him $200 and told him to use it to buy a ticket for Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street the next night. The stranger highly recommended it and wanted Elder to also experience it.

Elder took the advice and loved the show. He says it, and the random act of kindness convinced him to pursue his own dreams of acting. In 2022, Elder ended up appearing alongside Patti LuPone, who he’d seen in Sweeney Todd, in a revival of Sondheim’s Company.

Last year, Elder posted about reconnecting with that stranger. He has also paid the kindness forward by buying tickets for strangers to see Broadway shows.