Kenneth Anger
was a renowned queer, avant-garde artist known for his surreal films who died at 96. He produced almost 40 works beginning in 1937 which variously merge surrealism with homoeroticism and the occult. One of America’s first openly gay filmmakers” with several films released before homosexuality was legalized in the U.S. he also wrote two “Hollywood Babylon” books, which were filled with gossip.
Amos Badertscher,
a photographer whose empathetic portraits of hustlers, sex workers and drag queens in Baltimore are in institutions devoted to queer art from the Leslie-Loman Museum of Art in New York to the ONE Archives in Los Angeles, died on July 24 at age 86
Helmut Berger,
was an Austrian actor known for his portrayal of narcissistic and sexually ambiguous characters. He was one of the stars of European cinema in the late 1960s and 1970s, He is most famous for his work with Luchino Visconti, particularly in Death In Venice. For his performance as King Ludwig II of Bavaria in Ludwig, he received a special David di Donatello award, and his performance in The Damned for which he was nominated for a Golden Globe Award.
James Bowman, a British countertenor known for his performance as Oberon in Benjamin Britten’s opera “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” and Apollo in Britten’s opera “Death in Venice,” died at 81 on March 27 at his home in Redhill, south of London.
Howard Bragman, an American crisis manager, public relations practitioner, writer and lecturer often seen as a “PR guru”. As a publicist and LGBTQ activist, Howard Bragman represented Sharon Osbourne,Anthony Scaramucci Steven Slater, Stevie Wonder,[21]Chaz Bono, among others. As a “coming out” advisor, Bragman consulted a number of celebrities, including American actress and producer Meredith Baxter, basketball players John Amaechi and Sheryl Swoopes, Chely Wright, and NFL player Michael Sam
Walter Cole,
the world’s oldest drag performer known as Darcelle XV and who held Guinness World Record for being the world’s oldest working drag queen died March 23 at 92 at a Portland, Ore. hospital. She was also the proud owner and operator of club Darcelle XV Showplace, a Portland mainstay that boasts the longest continually running drag show on the USA’s West Coast.
Koko Da Doll, 35, also known as Rasheeda Williams a was black transgender woman, featured in “Kokomo City,” an award-winning documentary about four Black transgender sex workers, and who was killed in Atlanta on April 18th At its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in January, the film received three major accolades, including the Sundance Audience Award.
Terence Davies,
77, a British director whose acclaimed films included “Distant Voices, Still Lives” “The House of Mirth,” “A Quiet Passion” and “Benediction,” died on Oct. 7, ” at his home in Mistley, Essex in England. He was considered by many critics as one of the great British directors of his period. A Catholic “I have hated being gay, and I’ve been celibate for most of my life. Some people are just good at sex, and others aren’t; I’m one of them who isn’t. I’m just too self-conscious.”
Jon Haggins, a fashion designer, who was acclaimed for, what The New York Times called his “sinuous, sensuous” 1960s and early 70s designs, died on June 15 at 79 at his Queens, N.Y. home.
Heklina. aka Stefan Grygelko was an American actor, drag queen, and entrepreneur in San Francisco. He lived in his native Iceland in the 1980s and he named his drag character after the Icelandic volcano Hekla. Heklina founded the drag club Trannyshack in 1996 which is the longest-running drag event series in San Francisco. She was about to appear alongside her friend Peaches Christ in Mommie Queerest, a drag parody of Mommie Dearest, in London and Manchester when she died She was 54. Thousands gathered in San Fran’s famous Castro Theatre in May for a special farewell
Dr Evadne Hinge aka Patrick Fyffe one-half of the legendary musical duo Hinge and Bracket a pair of elderly, intellectual female musicianswho morphed from playing London’s infamous gay pubs to starring in a production of the opera Die Fledermaus. at The Royal Opera House. The Dame was a retired opera singer who still thinks she can sing, with the DR as her male accompanist and they developed into a dual-drag act featuring a pair of eccentric old ladies.
Hank Hightower
The 90s and early 00s iconic gay adult-film star died at his home in November. Hightower, who was 57, appeared in dozens of adult films and amassed a huge fan base in the US. He was known for his scruffy goatee and furry chest, as well as his ability to effortlessly switch from playing a dom leather top to more of a submissive persona. Some of his film credits include “Buttsluts of Leather,” “Bathhouse Bears,” “Dominique’s Bi Adventure,” and “Total Corruption 2: One Night In Jail.”
Barry Humphries. the Australian-born actor and comic and aka the divine and beloved Dame Edna Everage died on April 22 in Sydney at 89. in character as the snobbish Dame Edna, Humphries surprised then Prince Charles and wife Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, in their private box at the 2013 Royal Variety Performance show, only to leave moments later, saying she had been offered a better seat.“I suspect that all those who appeared on stage or TV with Barry’s Dame Edna, or who found her appearing at the back of the royal box, will have shared that unique sensation where fear and fun combined,” King Charles said in a message read out by Employment Minister Tony Burke at the Dame’s funeral
Pamela Rooke aka Jordan
was an English model and actress known for her work with Vivienne Westwood and the Sex boutique in the Kings Road area of London in the mid-1970s, and for attending many of the early Sex Pistols performances. Her style and dress sense—a bleached platinum-blonde bouffant hairdo with dark raccoon-like eye make-up—made her a highly visible icon of the London punk subculture.[2] Along with Johnny Rotten, Soo Catwoman and Siouxsie Sioux, she is credited with creating the London punk look.
James Jorden, a writer and creator of the high culture, yet punk opera zine-turned-website Parterre Box, died at 69 on Oct. 2. He was found dead at his Sunnyside, Queens home, The New York Times reported.
Michael Leva, an acclaimed 1980s fashion designer, who was on the cover of the (now defunct) weekly “7 Days” for its “Designers on the Verge” feature, and later a prominent fashion executive, died at 62 on Sept. 14 in Providence, R.I. from heart failure.
Andrew Lumsden
was a leading light of the London Gay Liberation Front (GLF) when it started up in 1970, co-founded the fortnightly Gay News in 1971 and the following year helped organize the first Gay Pride march, out of which came the global phenomenon known simply as Pride. An iconic queer figure, he set the tone for a community.
George Maharis, an actor who was a star in the iconic TV show “Route 66,” died at 94 on May 24 at his Beverly Hills, Calif. home. Maharis had a difficult time being his gay self, being obliged, as all actors were at that time, to stay in the closet. Arrested twice for having sex with men in restrooms (1967 and
Sinead O’Connor, the pop singer, who was acclaimed, but reviled for denouncing pedophilia in the Catholic Church, and, in 1992, tearing up a photo of Pope John Paul II on “Saturday Night Live,” died at 56 on July 26.
much-loved presenter and comedian aka Lily Savage. was an iconic UK working-class potty-mouth drag queen and beloved by both the LGBTQ community and mainstream TV audiences appearing on shows such as The Big Breakfast, Blankety Blank, and, eventually, The Lily Savage Show. Outside drag, O’Grady fought tirelessly against homophobia and was an unflinching trans ally. The Rev. A. Steve Pieters, a gay minister, who had AIDS and spoke about being gay and having the disease to church congregations in the 1980s when homophobia was the norm, died at 70 on July 8 from a sepsis infection at a Glendale, Calif. hospital. His memoir “Love Is Greater Than AIDS: A Memoir of Survival, Healing, and Hope” will be released in 2024.
Everett Quinton, an actor, director, and leader of the Ridiculous Theatrical Company after his partner Charles Ludlam’s death in 1987, died on Jan. 23 in Brooklyn, NY. at 71. He had roles in the films Natural Born Killers, Pollock, and Bros.
Paul Reubens,
was an American actor and comedian, widely known for creating and portraying the character Pee-wee Herman., in 1981. Pee-wee became an instant cult figure and, for the next decade, Reubens was completely committed to his character, doing all of his public appearances and interviews as Pee-wee. He produced and wrote a feature film, Pee-wee’s Big Adventure (1985), directed by Tim Burton, which was a financial and critical success. He died at 70 on July 30 from cancer in a Los Angeles hospital.
Julian Sands was an extremely handsome and talented British actor who died on June 27, aged 65. He had an enormous queer base for going au naturel in his breakthrough appearance in the Merchant-Ivory movie A Room With a View. He also played beautiful gay man Yves Cloquet in David Cronenberg’s 1991 version of Burroughs’s Naked Lunch – who is in fact a hallucinatory insect: Sands was well chosen for this humorously bizarre creation.
Donald Spoto, was a queer American biographer known for his bestselling biographies of people in the worlds of film and theater including Alfred Hitchcock, Laurence Olivier, Tennessee Williams, Ingrid Bergman, James Dean, Elizabeth Taylor, Grace Kelly, Marlene Dietrich, Marilyn Monroe, Audrey Hepburn, and Alan Bates. He died at 81 on Feb. 11 in Koege, Denmark ‘
Tina Turner
was deemed the Queen of Rock and Roll, passed away “peacefully” in her home in Zurich, Switzerland at the age of 83. The legendary singer performed at the first Gay Games in 1982 and is also best remembered for her storied career in the music industry. She was known to collaborate with queer artists and other gay icons. From duets with queer artists like Elton John and David Bowie to performing live with fellow gay icons Cher and Beyoncé, Tina continued to dazzle queer fans with stellar collaborations and performances in her decades-long career.
Treat Williams
LGBTQ+ Ally in Gay-Themed Film died aged 71. Our most favorite Williams roles were playing an undercover detective in a gay bathhouse in The Ritz and the supportive father of a gay man in The Christmas House.
Carmen Xtravaganza, a ballroom legend and transgender activist, who was featured in the documentary “Paris Is Burning,” died at 62 on Aug. 4. Before her death, she had been struggling with stage 4 lung cancer.
PLUS : IN MEMORIUM
The Trans Murder Monitoring report tracks murders reported in the media have confirmed that three hundred
twenty trans and gender-diverse people were killed this year. The vast majority of those killed (94%) were
trans women or trans-feminine people. Most were Black, and many were sex workers too. 80% of those
killed were of trans people affected by racism, an increase of 15% from last year.
Labels: 2023, Allies, In Memorium, Obituaries, Queer Stars
