Craig Russell (Canadian actor)

Craig Russell ( born January 10, 1948 in Ontario, † 30 October 1990 in Toronto, real name Russell Craig Edie ) was a Canadian entertainer and woman impersonator.

Life and work

He first worked as secretary of the actress Mae West and as a barber before he began his career as a woman impersonator. Russell was able to dispense with backing tracks, as it was thanks to his own, extremely modulation of effective and comprehensive three -octave voice capable of not only the body language, but also the voices of stars such as Judy Garland, Marlene Dietrich, Peggy Lee, Bette Midler, Mae West to imitate Ella Fitzgerald and Barbra Streisand. Likewise, he could imitate the voices of Elvis Presley, Neil Diamond, and Louis Armstrong.

Russell became world famous by the 1977 film shot Gonzo (Original Title: Outrageous ), can be seen in the numerous imitations of his. The film based on the short story Making it his partner Margaret Gibson and included biographical references both artists. In 1978 he was awarded for his performance in this film the Best Actor Award at the Berlin Film Festival. He went on with his show in New York, Las Vegas, Hollywood, Berlin, London and Paris. The recording of a concert in Hamburg was broadcast on German television, the recording of a concert in Amsterdam was the Dutch television.

With increasing pressure to succeed psychological problems were felt at Russell, which also affected his career negatively. In 1986, he turned with the film Too Outrageous! a continuation of Outrageous, but could not build on the success of the original.

He died of complications from AIDS.