Famed female
impersonator Danny La Rue died in his home on Sunday after a
short bout with cancer. He was 81.
Famed female
impersonator Danny La Rue died in his home on Sunday after a
short bout with cancer. He was 81.
La Rue, born Daniel
Patrick Carroll in Ireland, started his career entertaining
fellow sailors during his deployment for the Royal Navy in
World War II. When he returned, the performer toured the United
Kingdom in variety shows, then played London
cabarets.
According to the BBC,
La Rue performed for the royal family 30 times, including three
Royal Variety Performances. In 2002 he was made a member of the
Order of the British Empire for his charitable work and
long-running career.
Over the years the
"comic in a frock" took on impersonating
figures like Elizabeth Taylor, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Dorothy Squires,
and Margaret Thatcher. His West End stage show
At the Palace
ran for two years and was seen by 1.2 million people.
"Sleazy
impersonators get their laughs by having people laugh at women.
I love laughter, glitter, and glamour," he once told
The Stage
. "I suppose I must have been doing something right --
otherwise I wouldn't have lasted!"
In the 1960s he opened
a nightclub in Hanover Square in London and became one of
Britain's highest-paid entertainers. The club attracted
more than 13,000 members including Taylor and Judy Garland.
The BBC reports that La
Rue was also the first man to take on a female role in a major
musical when he played Dolly Levi in
Hello, Dolly!
in a 1982 production that eventually moved to the West End.
After a stroke
sidelined him in 2006, he returned to the stage in
2007 to perform
Hello Danny
, an autobiographical show staged in Spain.
"Danny was a true
show business legend," his former agent Brian Shaw said in
the
Daily Telegraph
. "He was a man of real class and real style. He had no
one before him and there was no one since. It is just a very
sad day."
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