Granger with Shelly Winters in "Behave Yourself" (1951)

Young, handsome and talented, Farley Granger made a name for himself during Hollywood’s heyday as one of the last studio “contract players.” The star of Alfred Hitchcock’s gay-tinged films “Rope” and “Strangers on a Train,” Granger made a strong, swoon-inducing impression on moviegoers both male and female in the 1940s and ’50s.

Now, at 82, Granger has penned his memoir, “Include Me Out,” in which he looks back on his career — on screen, on stage and off. The actor is being honored with an Artistic Achievement Award at the Philadelphia International Gay and Lesbian Film Festival at 7 p.m., July 17 at the Prince Music Theater, 1412 Chestnut St.

“If I don’t do it now, I wouldn’t get around to it. I’m getting up there!” Granger said, stifling a laugh on the phone from his home in New York City, about what prompted him to write his memoir.

He explained that he had first started the book — dictating it to a friend who knew shorthand — in 1992. After he got an agent and an editor, the memoir was dropped by a major publishing house. Fortunately, Granger persisted with the project, which is also how he persevered with his acting career. While his film work ended when he bought out his contract with Samuel Goldwyn and Goldwyn Pictures, Granger found work in Italian cinema, as well as performing on stage. He later acted in episodic television, eventually landing long-running parts in soap operas — work he confesses he hated.

Granger with Alfred Hitchcock in "Strangers On A Train" (1951) Photos: Photofest

“The theater work is what I love the most, and there’s a thrill about it that can’t be reproduced in any other way,” he enthused. “You can do an exciting film performance, but you don’t know it until it is cut together. You hope you build the emotion successfully. That’s probably why actors like the theater — you are in control of your performance. Film is a director’s medium much more than an actor’s.”

Granger writes in “Include Me Out” that directing bored Hitchcock since he had already composed the film in his head by the time shooting started.

The actor also talks fondly about the gay filmmaker Luchino Visconti, who directed him in “Senso,” the actor’s favorite experience. “He was truly royalty .He was sensual as a person, and a painter as a filmmaker,” Granger recalled, adding, “he was not at all seductive or flirtatious with me.”

Granger, however, does not have fond memories of Goldwyn. He claims the producer “tried to control me” and “didn’t know what to do with me.”

Often cast as a sensitive young man in films like “They Live By Night,” Granger caught the attention of Hitchcock, who gave him a plum part in “Rope.” (The film will be shown the night of Granger’s award presentation.) Despite the homosexual subtext in both Hitchcock films, the word “homosexual” was never said aloud in those days, Granger said.

“We acknowledged it,” he says about how he and “Rope” co-star John Dall approached the film version of Patrick Hamilton’s play based on the Leopold and Loeb “thrill kill” story. “And that was at a point when I was with Arthur Laurents [who wrote the screenplay], and he was aggressively out. But we didn’t go into it with detail. In researching [‘Rope’], we read the play, but never discussed [the homosexuality] openly.”

In “Include Me Out,” the actor describes his own sexuality with both candor and caution, mentioning affairs with both men and women.

“I’ve obviously made a choice with my life,” he said about living for two decades with partner Robert Calhoun, who co-authored his memoir.

“I’m not bisexual any longer. I haven’t been since I’ve been living with Bob. I was a sexual opportunist when I was younger. The affairs that I had with women when I was younger were as important as the ones with men.”

Now looking back on his career, Granger reflects on openly gay actors working today. The question arises: Would Granger be out now, if he was starting his career, rather than in his twilight?

“I would hope that I would have the courage, yes,” he said, with vigor. “I would really like to be able to say that I would have the courage. I hope I could be like Rupert Everett — Proud of it and out — because that’s who I admire.”