Leslie gay man

Home / gay topics / Leslie gay man

Leslie went on to earn an Emmy trading wicked barbs with Mullally's Karen character, playing the hilarity up for all its worth. TV would invariably be the next step, finding him progressively better parts on such programs as "The Fall Guy," "The Wizard," "Night Court," "Newhart" and "Midnight Caller." He then earned a regular role on the short-lived comedy-fantasy series The People Next Door (1989) starring Alan Parker.

Inspired by "The Far Side" comic strip, the show starred Jeffrey Jones as a cartoonist who could materialize his wild imagination.

Leslie began in films in the late 1980s with a bit part in the Richard Pryor comedy Moving (1988) and followed it with the role of Iggy, a hunch-backed Igor counterpart, in the whacked horror spoof Frankenstein General Hospital (1988) starring comic actor Mark Blankfield as the mad doctor.

“I felt it was a lot easier to be gay when I was loaded,” he said.

He died more than 20 years sober, a fact that gives Vic Vela comfort.

“He leaned into his flamboyance,” said Eric Gonzaba, an assistant professor of American studies who specializes in LGBTQ scholarship at California State University, Fullerton. He was declared dead at the scene at 9:38 a.m., according to officials.

In fact, in a 2021 interview with Andy Cohen Jordan claimed that he'd never even been on a date before. Hailing from the South, as his dead-giveaway drawl quickly exposed, he was born in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 29, 1955, and raised in a highly conservative, deeply religious atmosphere in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

Late actor claimed he had dated 'straight boys' for years

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Leslie Jordan, best known for playing Beverly Leslie in 'Will & Grace,' 'Sordid Lives,' 'American Horror Story,' 'The Help,' and several TV shows and films, was a gay icon.

His challenges with substance abuse, he admitted, were directly related to his experience as a gay man in those times.

He also appeared in the cult TV movie The Last Sharknado: It's About Time (2018).

BornApril 29, 1955

DiedOctober 24, 2022(67)

Queer fans mourn Leslie Jordan, a symbol of a 'lost generation' of gay men

The LGBTQ community is reeling from the news of beloved gay icon Leslie Jordan’s death.

In the late ’60s and early ’70s, amid the Stonewall uprising and the American Psychiatric Association’s removal of homosexuality from its official list of mental disorders, he was coming to terms with his identity as Americans’ ideas about sexuality were also starting to change.

Condolences poured in for the Emmy-winning trailblazer as the day went on, from other actors to drag queens to activists to everyday LGBTQ folks, many of whom praised Jordan for never shying away from a wrist flick or a double entendre, centering his queerness unapologetically in his many roles and public appearances.

The 4-foot-11 scene-stealer first catapulted to fame in the ’90s with cameos as Beverley Leslie, the facetiously queer-coded nemesis of a New York City socialite played by Megan Mullally on “Will & Grace.” Jordan’s character eventually comes out as gay on the show, which itself broke major barriers for its time in its representation of gay men, though mostly white and cisgender, on network television.

A self-proclaimed substance abuser and sexaholic, Jordan finally faced his inner demons and reached full recovery in 1996.

TV was an exceptionally inviting medium over the years with a number of offbeat roles coming his way.

Jordan was a teenager as the gay rights movement started to pick up steam. “For you older people, that means I’m doing really well on Instagram.”

For many, Jordan was a symbol of the joy of unquestionably visible queerness — of reclaiming and rejoicing in long-held stereotypes about the feminine affects of gay men.

“I think for myself when you know something in your heart and you’re [told] that’s just wrong … I talk to a lot of my gay friends and I say it’s a wonder we’re even alive!' he said, adding that, “I’m a happy person but when you grow up with a secret and there’s a lot of inner turmoil,” he said.

Then came the AIDS epidemic.

Jordan — an effeminate Southern gay actor who for decades occupied his own special corner of queer culture — died Monday morning in a car crash in Hollywood.

“When things really begin to change is when the social culture changes,” Biden said. Jordan may have experienced "some sort of health emergency," according to his representative, which led to his losing control of the car.