Sex and the City is a show that for better or worse raised a lot of us. It's a cross generational juggernaut that captivated Boomers just as much as it did Gen X and the elder Millennials who were allowed by their more liberal parents to watch it (me). But it didn't matter how old you were — for many fans, SATC was an introduction to a myriad of captivating big city-dwelling themes, nuances and archetypes. And no character stepped into those bespoke archetypal loafers quite like Stanford Blatch, played by Willie Garson. For some people he was the first gay character they ever got to know, and for others he was the first time they saw a reflection of themselves on a major television show.
The news of Garson's passing from cancer at just 57 years old on Tuesday has seen the beloved actor eulogized by many co-stars like Cynthia Nixon, Kim Cattrall, and Christopher Noth, but the tragic news has also surprised and saddened the masses of people who were touched by his lively and endearing television portrayal of Stanford. And as we await the HBO Max reboot And Just Like That, that Garson was working on until the end, its an essential time to consider his character's contribution to the queer television-sphere.
