Sarge

If you like stocky, muscular, uniformed men then Chuck Mitchell (‘Sarge’) is your man. Cocky, arrogant and built like a fireplug, Sarge flat out dominated every Academy video in which he appeared.

Bursting out of his body-hugging uniform and giving over-the-top performances, he was wildly popular among a certain subset of gay men. Even today clips of his performances top most AcademyMen web searches. His images and his clips are everywhere.

To be completely honest, few men who performed in front of the cameras at Chip’s Academy were there because of their acting chops. Most gave wooden performances and spouted awkward dialogue. No, we remember their performances for their looks and their attitude.

To a man they were young, fit, uniformed alpha males captured in their physical prime. They were hyper masculine and occupy a hyper masculine world devoid of femininity, softness and sex. Their scenes were about authority, control, domination, gear, uniforms and power.

No hint of homosexuality (or homophobia for that matter) colored their performances – and rarely, if ever, did sex rear its head. When sex was implied (and it was never more than implied or simulated – these are not sex tapes), it was used as a means of asserting authority and domination.

There was nothing gay about these men, or their performances. They might sometimes verge on camp – but never gay. And that’s a big part of their appeal: these are masculine men in manly roles in a male world.

Sarge was the campiest cop ever to appear in the AcademyMen roster. Almost without exception his performances were energetic, over-the-top exaggerations of macho male behavior. You have to wonder if he trained for a role in TV wrestling with his comic rages, extreme posturing and pulled punches. His performances are fun to watch precisely because they are so extreme.