Openly gay actor Richard Chamberlain has advised gay Hollywood actors to remain closeted.

Chamberlain was outed in December of 1989 by the French women's magazine Nous Deux. He officially announced he's gay at the age of 69 in his 2003 memoir Shattered Love.

The actor first found fame as a teen idol on the 1960s television show Dr. Kildare. In the 80s, he appeared in several popular television miniseries, including The Thorn Birds and Shogun.

Chamberlain is currently playing an HIV-positive gay man in ABC's Sunday night drama Brothers & Sisters.

The veteran actor recently told gay glossy The Advocate that being gay in Hollywood puts an actor at a disadvantage.

“There's still a tremendous amount of homophobia in our culture,” he said. “It's regrettable, it's stupid, it's heartless, and it's immoral, but there it is. For an actor to be working is a kind of miracle, because most actors aren't, so it's just silly for a working actor to say, 'Oh, I don't care if anybody knows I'm gay' – especially if you're a leading man.”

“Personally, I wouldn't advise a gay leading man-type actor to come out.”