Famed Female Impersonator Dies At 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.”