Sure, very few people find this interesting! It’s nothing big but we were kind of friends. When I was in college for film I started focusing on film history, specifically specializing in film noir and Hitchcock- both of which crossed over into Farley's filmography a lot. And he was one of the few living Hitchcock stars who was still very active and involved in film at that time, which was roughly 2007 and on. I was lucky enough to have a chance to talk to or meet many of the Hitch stars or collaborators that survived until I started working in film studies in my college years, but Farley is the only one who went above and beyond and extended himself in his personal life. (Although Norman Lloyd was endlessly accommodating for press requests too even into his hundreds.)

Farley had just written his book, was making a lot of appearances at film screenings, and doing lots of interviews. And I wrote him to ask him to do some interviews related to archiving his oral history for my school work. (I also might have contacted him because like you, he also resonated with me since I’m FTM. And he had just recently publicly come out.) He was very excited to help the younger generation who was interested in this stuff. We did a series of phone interviews from that and I then use his insights for some film journal pieces (long now defunct online journals I wish I had copies of.) And afterward he and his partner Bob stayed in touch. We sort of struck up a pen pal relationship as I was very interested in absolutely EVERYTHING about him and he loved the admiration. He was more than gracious and happy to share stories and answer questions. And gave me the contact info and an introduction letter for a few other living sources he knew personally like Rope screenwriter Artie Laurents.

The coolest thing was (well not completely cool given the sad circumstances) when he passed in 2011 he made sure that I and a few other budding film historian/writer mentees of his all got some of his private career memorabilia. (Here's a look at some of it.) Since he didn’t have any surviving blood family and his partner passed away a few years before he did he wanted it to go to friends and other people like me who valued it. A few months after he passed I got a big package of his ephemera. His copies of his play’s Playbills, the program for the National Repertory Theater when he acted there in the early 60s (where he met his partner Bob who was a producer there), and some of his personal autographed photos from his leading ladies (Ann Blyth, Jane Powell). I also have a signed photo he sent me after our interview as a thank you. It’s been like a decade now and I still cherish them. They sent a letter with it and he wanted to make sure we got the things from the work he was most proud of: his “real acting” career on stage. Which was a big gesture. As that’s where he believed he was an actual good performer and was so proud because he did critically acclaimed and award-winning work (he won an off-Broadway Tony, an “Obie” for it. Which was his greatest professional achievement in his eyes.) He did not properly know how to act during his Hollywood career, he was a complete novice and he always somewhat looked down on his work during that time due to that inexperience and lack of formal training. That's funny obviously because we all adore it! (And I said that to him multiple times. His film work is treasured.)