Jackie Curtis
Jackie Curtis ( born February 19, 1947 as John Curtis Holder Jr. in New York City; † May 15, 1985 ) was an American playwright, actor, singer and belonged temporarily to the Andy Warhol " Superstars" and the Factory scene.
Life
Jackie Curtis was the son of John Holder Sr. and Jenevive Uglialoro. He grew up in the East Village, where his grandmother ran a pub on the corner called Slugger Ann's.
Already in his youth, he began to dress as a woman. He developed his distinctive cross-dress, which consisted of a mixture of trash and glamor. For lipstick, heavy makeup, glitter and bright red hair he usually wore torn clothes and pantyhose. However, he saw himself not as a drag queen. Andy Warhol, who cast him in several of his films, said of Curtis: "Jackie is not a drag queen. Jackie is an artist. A pioneer without limits. "
As a stage actor, Curtis made his debut at age 17 in Tom Eyens Off-Off - Broadway play Miss Nefertiti Regrets. From the late 1960s he began to write his own lyrics on stage the body. In the plays in which he performed both as a man and as a woman who often worked with other famous transsexuals such as Candy Darling and Holly Woodlawn. Warhol and his film director Paul Morrissey occupied Curtis and Candy Darling in the films Flesh (1968) and Women in Revolt (1971).
Jackie Curtis was also a singer and poet. In 1974, he joined together with Holly Woodlawn in New York Cultural Center ( Saks Fifth Avenue ) with the program Cabaret in the Sky: on An Evening with Holly Woodlawn and Jackie Curtis. In the 1980s, he even starred in two films. For years, drug addict, died Curtis in 1985 at age 38 from an overdose of heroin.
Reception
Lou Reed immortalized Jackie Curtis in his song Walk on the Wild Side of the classic 1972 album Transformer.
The documentation published in 2004 Superstar in a House Dress by Craig Highberger based on Jackie Curtis' life.