Quentin Crisp was an English writer and raconteur. He became a
gay iconA gay icon is a public figure who is embraced by many within :lesbian, :gay, :bisexual and :transgender communities...
in the 1970s after publication of his memoir,
The Naked Civil ServantThe Naked Civil Servant is the first volume of an autobiography by the gay icon Quentin Crisp. It was later turned into a TV movie starring John Hurt, which was also titled The Naked Civil Servant....
.
Early life
Denis Charles Pratt was born in
SuttonSutton is a large suburban town in southwest London, England, and the administrative headquarters of the London Borough of Sutton. It is located south-southwest of Charing Cross and is one of the major metropolitan centres identified in the London Plan. The town was connected to central London by...
, Surrey, the fourth child of solicitor Spencer Charles Pratt (1871–1931) and former governess Frances Marion Pratt (née Phillips) (1873–1960); he changed his name to Quentin Crisp in his third decade after leaving home and cultivating his outlandishly effeminate appearance to a standard that both shocked contemporary Londoners and provoked
homophobicHomophobia is a term used to refer to a range of negative attitudes and feelings towards lesbian, gay and in some cases bisexual, transgender people and behavior, although these are usually covered under other terms such as biphobia and transphobia. Definitions refer to irrational fear, with the...
attacks.
By his own account, Crisp was effeminate in behaviour from an early age and found himself the object of teasing at Kingswood Preparatory School in
EpsomEpsom is a town in the borough of Epsom and Ewell in Surrey, England. Small parts of Epsom are in the Borough of Reigate and Banstead. The town is located south-south-west of Charing Cross, within the Greater London Urban Area. The town lies on the chalk downland of Epsom Downs.-History:Epsom lies...
, from where he won a scholarship to
Denstone CollegeDenstone College is an independent, coeducational boarding school in Denstone,Staffordshire, England and a member school of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference. It is also a Woodard school and as such has a strong Anglo-Catholic tradition. It has continued to show impressive academic...
,
UttoxeterUttoxeter is a historic market town in Staffordshire, in the West Midlands region of England. The current population is approximately 13,711, though new developments in the town will increase this figure. Uttoxeter lies close to the River Dove and is near the cities of Stoke-on-Trent, Derby and...
, in 1922. After leaving school in 1926, Crisp studied journalism at
King's College LondonKing's College London is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom and a constituent college of the federal University of London. King's has a claim to being the third oldest university in England, having been founded by King George IV and the Duke of Wellington in 1829, and...
, but failed to graduate in 1928, going on to take art classes at the
Regent Street PolytechnicThe University of Westminster is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom. Its origins go back to the foundation of the Royal Polytechnic Institution in 1838, and it was awarded university status in 1992.The university's headquarters and original campus are based on Regent...
.
Around this time, Crisp began visiting the cafés of
SohoSoho is an area of the City of Westminster and part of the West End of London. Long established as an entertainment district, for much of the 20th century Soho had a reputation for sex shops as well as night life and film industry. Since the early 1980s, the area has undergone considerable...
– his favourite being The Black Cat in
Old Compton StreetOld Compton Street runs east-west through Soho, London, England.- History :The street was named after Henry Compton. who raised funds for a local parish church, eventually dedicated as St Anne's Church in 1686...
– meeting other young homosexual men and rent-boys, and experimenting with make-up and
women's clothesTransvestism is the practice of cross-dressing, which is wearing clothing traditionally associated with the opposite sex. Transvestite refers to a person who cross-dresses; however, the word often has additional connotations. -History:Although the word transvestism was coined as late as the 1910s,...
. For six months he worked as a male prostitute, looking for love, he said in a 1999 interview, but finding only degradation.
Crisp left home to move to the
centre of LondonCentral London is the innermost part of London, England. There is no official or commonly accepted definition of its area, but its characteristics are understood to include a high density built environment, high land values, an elevated daytime population and a concentration of regionally,...
at the end of 1930 and, after dwelling in a succession of flats, found a
bed-sittingA bedsit, also known as a bed-sitting room, is a form of rented accommodation common in Great Britain and Ireland consisting of a single room and shared bathroom; they are part of a legal category of dwellings referred to as Houses in multiple occupation....
room in Denbigh Street, where he "held court with London's brightest and roughest characters." His outlandish appearance – he wore bright make-up, dyed his long hair crimson, painted his fingernails and wore sandals to display his painted toe-nails – brought admiration and curiosity from some quarters, but generally attracted hostility and violence from strangers passing him in the streets.
Middle years
Crisp attempted to join the British army at the outbreak of World War II, but was rejected and declared exempt by the medical board on the grounds that he was "suffering from sexual perversion". He remained in London during
the 1941 BlitzThe Blitz was the sustained strategic bombing of Britain by Nazi Germany between 7 September 1940 and 10 May 1941, during the Second World War. The city of London was bombed by the Luftwaffe for 76 consecutive nights and many towns and cities across the country followed...
, stocked up on cosmetics, purchased five pounds of
hennaHenna is a flowering plant used since antiquity to dye skin, hair, fingernails, leather and wool. The name is also used for dye preparations derived from the plant, and for the art of temporary tattooing based on those dyes...
and paraded through the black-out, picking up
G.I.G.I. is a noun used to describe members of the United States armed forces or items of their equipment. The term is now used as an initialism of "Government Issue" , but originally referred to galvanized iron....
s, whose kindness and open-mindedness inspired his love of all things American.
In 1940 he moved into the bed-sitting room he would occupy for the next four decades, the first floor apartment at 129 Beaufort Street. Here he stayed until he emigrated to the United States in 1981. In the intervening years he never attempted any house-work, saying famously in his memoir that "After the first four years the dirt doesn't get any worse".
He left his job as
engineer's tracerTechnical drawing, also known as drafting or draughting, is the act and discipline of composing plans that visually communicate how something functions or has to be constructed.Drafting is the language of industry....
in 1942 to become a model in
life classA life class is a class held in art schools for the purpose of instructing art students on drawing or painting the human figure from live models, typically nude or with minimal clothing...
es in London and the
Home CountiesThe home counties is a term which refers to the counties of South East England and the East of England which border London, but do not include the capital city itself...
, and continued posing for artists for the next three decades. "It was like being a civil servant," he explained in his autobiography, "except that you were naked."
Pamela GreenPamela Green was an English glamour model and actress, best known at the end of the 1950s and early 1960s...
, who went on to be a famous glamour model of the 1950s and '60s, remembers him at St. Martin's School of Art, as “very thin with a skin so white it almost had a greenish tinge”.
Crisp had published three short books by the time he came to write the
The Naked Civil ServantThe Naked Civil Servant is the first volume of an autobiography by the gay icon Quentin Crisp. It was later turned into a TV movie starring John Hurt, which was also titled The Naked Civil Servant....
at the urging of agent
Donald CarrollDonald Carroll was an American author, editor, poet, columnist and humourist.-Early life:Born in Dallas, Texas in 1940, he was educated at the University of Texas, where he founded the poetry quarterly Quagga - which published the work of Richard Wilbur, e.e...
. After the work was completed, Crisp wanted to call it
I Reign in HellParadise Lost is an epic poem in blank verse by the 17th-century English poet John Milton. It was originally published in 1667 in ten books, with a total of over ten thousand individual lines of verse...
, but Carroll insisted on
The Naked Civil Servant (an insistence that later gave him pause when he offered the manuscript to
Tom MaschlerTom Maschler is a British publisher and writer. The son of Austrian Jews, he was five when his family fled the Nazis in Vienna and brought him to England...
of Jonathan Cape on the same day that
Desmond MorrisDesmond John Morris, born 24 January 1928 in Purton, north Wiltshire, is a British zoologist and ethologist, as well as a popular anthropologist. He is also known as a painter, television presenter and popular author.-Life:...
delivered
The Naked ApeThe Naked Ape: A Zoologist's Study of the Human Animal is a 1967 book by zoologist and anthropologist Desmond Morris which looks at humans as a species and compares them to other animals...
). The book was published in 1968 to generally good reviews. Subsequently, Crisp was approached by documentary maker
Denis MitchellDenis Mitchell was an award winning British documentary filmmaker, renowned for his innovative radio and television documentaries...
to be the subject of a short film in which he was expected to talk about his life, voice his opinions and sit around in his flat filing his nails. This broadcast brought enough attention to Crisp and his book that he soon entered talks about a dramatisation.
Fame
In 1975
The Naked Civil ServantThe Naked Civil Servant is a 1975 TV film based on the 1968 autobiography by the gay icon Quentin Crisp, also titled The Naked Civil Servant. It stars John Hurt in the title role....
was broadcast on British and US television and made both actor
John HurtJohn Vincent Hurt, CBE is an English actor, known for his leading roles as John Merrick in The Elephant Man, Winston Smith in Nineteen Eighty-Four, Mr. Braddock in The Hit, Stephen Ward in Scandal, Quentin Crisp in The Naked Civil Servant and An Englishman in New York...
and Crisp himself into stars. This success launched Crisp in a new direction: that of performer and lector. He devised a one-man show and began touring the country with it. The first half of the show was an entertaining monologue loosely based on his memoirs, the second half was a question-and-answer session with Crisp picking the audience's written questions at random and answering them in an amusing manner.
When his autobiography was reprinted in 1975 after the success of the television version of
The Naked Civil Servant,
Gay NewsGay News was a pioneering fortnightly newspaper in the United Kingdom founded in June 1972 in a collaboration between former members of the Gay Liberation Front and members of the Campaign for Homosexual Equality...
commented that the book should have been published posthumously (Crisp commented that this was a polite way of them telling him to drop dead). Gay rights campaigner
Peter TatchellPeter Gary Tatchell is an Australian-born British political campaigner best known for his work with LGBT social movements...
claimed to have met Crisp in 1974 and alleged that he was not sympathetic to the
Gay LiberationGay liberation is the name used to describe the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender movement of the late 1960s and early to mid 1970s in North America, Western Europe, and Australia and New Zealand...
movement of the time. Tatchell claimed that Crisp asked him "What do you want liberation from? What is there to be proud of? I don't believe in rights for homosexuals."
By now, Crisp was a theatre-filling raconteur. His one-man show sold out the
Duke of York's TheatreThe Duke of York's Theatre is a West End Theatre in St Martin's Lane, in the City of Westminster. It was built for Frank Wyatt and his wife, Violet Melnotte, who retained ownership of the theatre, until her death in 1935. It opened on 10 September 1892 as the Trafalgar Square Theatre, with Wedding...
in London in 1978. Crisp then took the show to New York. His first stay in the
Hotel ChelseaThe Hotel Chelsea, also known as the Chelsea Hotel, or simply the Chelsea, is a historic New York City hotel and landmark, known primarily for its history of notable residents...
coincided with a fire, a robbery, and the death of
Nancy SpungenNancy Laura Spungen was the American girlfriend of Sex Pistols bassist Sid Vicious. Spungen has been the subject of controversy among music historians and fans of the Sex Pistols.-Early life:...
. Crisp decided to move to New York permanently and set about making arrangements. In 1981 he arrived with few possessions and found a small apartment on East 3rd Street in Manhattan's
East VillageThe East Village is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, lying east of Greenwich Village, south of Gramercy and Stuyvesant Town, and north of the Lower East Side...
.
As he had done in London, Crisp allowed his telephone number to be listed in the telephone directory and saw it as his duty to converse with anyone who called him. For the first twenty or so years of owning his own telephone he habitually answered calls with the phrase "Yes, Lord?" ("Just in case," he once said.) Later on he changed it to "Oh yes?" in a querulous tone of voice. His openness to strangers extended to accepting dinner invitation from almost anyone. While it was expected that the inviter would pay for dinner, Crisp did his best to "sing for his supper" by regaling his hosts with wonderful stories and yarns much as he did in his theatrical performances. Dinner with him was said to be one of the best shows in New York.
He continued to perform his one-man show, published ground-breaking books on the importance of contemporary manners as a means of social inclusivity as opposed to etiquette, which he claimed is socially exclusive, and supported himself by accepting social invitations and writing movie reviews and columns for US and UK magazines and newspapers. He said that provided one could exist on peanuts and champagne, one could quite easily live by going to every cocktail party, premiere and first night to which one was invited.
Crisp also acted on television and in films. He made his debut as a film actor in the
Royal College of ArtThe Royal College of Art is an art school located in London, United Kingdom. It is the world’s only wholly postgraduate university of art and design, offering the degrees of Master of Arts , Master of Philosophy and Doctor of Philosophy...
's low-budget production of
HamletThe Tragical History of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, or more simply Hamlet, is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1599 and 1601...
(1976). Crisp played
PoloniusPolonius is a character in William Shakespeare's Hamlet. He is King Claudius's chief counsellor, and the father of Ophelia and Laertes. Polonius connives with Claudius to spy on Hamlet...
in the 65-minute adaptation of Shakespeare's play, supported by
Helen MirrenDame Helen Mirren, DBE is an English actor. She has won an Academy Award for Best Actress, four SAG Awards, four BAFTAs, three Golden Globes, four Emmy Awards, and two Cannes Film Festival Best Actress Awards.-Early life and family:...
, who doubled as
OpheliaOphelia is a fictional character in the play Hamlet by William Shakespeare. She is a young noblewoman of Denmark, the daughter of Polonius, sister of Laertes, and potential wife of Prince Hamlet.-Plot:...
and
GertrudeIn William Shakespeare's play Hamlet, Gertrude is Hamlet's mother and Queen of Denmark. Her relationship with Hamlet is somewhat turbulent, since he resents her for marrying her husband's brother Claudius after he murdered the King...
. He appeared in the 1985 film
The BrideThe Bride is an adaptation of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, released in 1985 and directed by Franc Roddam. The film stars Sting as Baron Charles Frankenstein and Jennifer Beals as Eva, a woman he creates in the same fashion as his infamous monster....
, which brought him into contact with Sting, who played the lead role of Baron
FrankensteinFrankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus is a novel about a failed experiment that produced a monster, written by Mary Shelley, with inserts of poems by Percy Bysshe Shelley. Shelley started writing the story when she was eighteen, and the novel was published when she was twenty-one. The first...
. He appeared on the television show
The EqualizerThe Equalizer is an American television series that ran for four seasons, initially on CBS, between 1985 and 1989. It starred Edward Woodward as an aging New York vigilante with a mysterious past...
in the 1987 episode "First Light" and as the narrator of director
Richard KwietniowskiRichard Kwietniowski is an English film director and screenwriter of Polish descent. During the 1980s he was a film lecturer at Bulmershe College of Higher Education Richard Kwietniowski (born 17 March 1957) is an English film director and screenwriter of Polish descent. During the 1980s he was a...
's short film
Ballad of Reading Gaol (1988), based on the
poemThe Ballad of Reading Gaol is a poem by Oscar Wilde, written in exile either in Berneval or in Dieppe, France, after his release from Reading Gaol on or about 19 May 1897. Wilde had been incarcerated in Reading, after being convicted of homosexual offences in 1895 and sentenced to two years' hard...
by
Oscar WildeOscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde was an Irish writer and poet. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of London's most popular playwrights in the early 1890s...
. Four years later he was cast in a lead role, and got top billing, in the low-budget
independent filmAn independent film, or indie film, is a professional film production resulting in a feature film that is produced mostly or completely outside of the major film studio system. In addition to being produced and distributed by independent entertainment companies, independent films are also produced...
Topsy and Bunker: The Cat KillersTopsy and Bunker: The Cat Killers is a 1992 mystery/drama film released by Top Bunk Films, the first feature film directed by underground cine-video artist Thomas Massengale.-Synopsis:...
, playing the door-man of a flea-bag hotel in a run-down neighbourhood quite like the one he dwelled in. According to director Thomas Massengale, Crisp was a delight to work with.
The 1990s would prove to be his most prolific decade as an actor as more and more directors offered him roles. In 1992, he was persuaded by
Sally PotterCharlotte Sally Potter is an English film director and screenwriter.-Career:Having left school at sixteen to become a filmmaker, Potter joined the London Film-Makers' Co-op and started making experimental short films, including Jerk and Play...
to play
Elizabeth IElizabeth I was queen regnant of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death. Sometimes called The Virgin Queen, Gloriana, or Good Queen Bess, Elizabeth was the fifth and last monarch of the Tudor dynasty...
in the film
OrlandoOrlando is a 1992 film based on Virginia Woolf's novel Orlando: A Biography, starring Tilda Swinton as Orlando, Billy Zane as Marmaduke Bonthrop Shelmerdine, and Quentin Crisp as Queen Elizabeth. It was directed by Sally Potter....
. Although he found the role taxing, he won acclaim for a dignified and touching performance. Crisp next had an uncredited cameo in the controversial 1993 AIDS drama
PhiladelphiaPhiladelphia is a 1993 American drama film that was one of the first mainstream Hollywood films to acknowledge HIV/AIDS, homosexuality and homophobia. It was written by Ron Nyswaner and directed by Jonathan Demme. The film stars Tom Hanks and Denzel Washington...
. Some other small bit parts and cameos were also accepted by Crisp, such as a pageant judge in 1995's
To Wong Foo Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar. Crisp's last role was in an independent film called
American Mod (1999), and his last full-feature movie was
HomoHeights (also released as
Happy Heights, 1996). He was chosen by
Channel 4Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
to deliver the first "Alternative Christmas Speech", a counterpoint to the
Queen's Christmas speechThe Queen's Christmas Message is a broadcast made by the sovereign of the Commonwealth realms to the Commonwealth of Nations each Christmas. The tradition began in 1932 with a radio broadcast by George V on the British Broadcasting Corporation Empire Service...
, in 1993.
Last years
Crisp remained fiercely independent and unpredictable into old age. He caused controversy and confusion in the homosexual community by jokingly calling AIDS "a fad", and homosexuality "a terrible disease". Crisp commented after the death of
Diana, Princess of WalesDiana, Princess of Wales was the first wife of Charles, Prince of Wales, whom she married on 29 July 1981, and an international charity and fundraising figure, as well as a preeminent celebrity of the late 20th century...
: "She could have been Queen of England – and she was swanning about Paris with Arabs. What disgraceful behaviour! Going about saying she wanted to be the queen of hearts. The vulgarity of it is so overpowering." He was continually in demand from journalists requiring a sound-bite, and throughout the 1990s his commentary was sought on any number of topics.
In 1996 he was among the many people interviewed for
The Celluloid ClosetThe Celluloid Closet is a 1996 American documentary film directed and written by Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman. The film is based on the 1981 book of the same name written by Vito Russo, and on previous lecture and film clip presentations given in person by Russo 1972–82.Russo researched the...
, a historical documentary on how Hollywood films have depicted homosexuality. In his third volume of memoirs,
Resident Alien, published in the same year, Crisp stated that he was close to the end of his life, but in June of that year, he was one of the guest entertainers at the second Pride Scotland festival in Glasgow.
In December 1998, he celebrated his ninetieth birthday performing the opening night of his one-man show,
An Evening with Quentin Crisp, at The Intar Theatre on Forty-Second Street in New York City (produced by
John GlinesJohn Glines is an American playwright and producer.-Playwright and producer:Glines graduated from Yale in 1955 with a BA in drama. As a writer in children’s television, he worked for seven years on Captain Kangaroo and for four years on Sesame Street...
of
The GlinesFounded in 1976 by John Glines, Barry Laine and Jerry Tobin, The Glines is an American not-for-profit organization based in New York City, New York, devoted to creating and presenting gay art to develop positive self-images and dispel negative stereotyping....
organisation). A humorous pact he had made with
Penny ArcadeSusana Ventura , better known by her stage name Penny Arcade, is an American performance artist, actress, and playwright based in New York City.-Career:...
to live to be a century old, with a decade off for good behaviour, proved
propheticProphecy is a process in which one or more messages that have been communicated to a prophet are then communicated to others. Such messages typically involve divine inspiration, interpretation, or revelation of conditioned events to come as well as testimonies or repeated revelations that the...
: in November 1999, Quentin Crisp died, nearly one month before his 91st birthday, in
Chorlton-cum-HardyChorlton-cum-Hardy is a suburban area of the city of Manchester, England. It is known locally as Chorlton. It is situated about four miles southwest of Manchester city centre. Pronunciation varies: and are both common....
in Manchester, on the eve of a nationwide revival of his one-man show. He was cremated with a minimum of ceremony as he had requested, and his ashes flown back to Phillip Ward in New York. He bequeathed all future UK-only income (but not the copyrights which belong to Stedman Mays, Mary Tahan and Phillip Ward and managed by Mr. Ward) from his entire literary estate to the two men he considered to have had the greatest influence on his career: Richard Gollner, his long-time agent, and Donald Carroll. His estate at death was valued in excess of $600,000.
Influence and legacy
Sting dedicated his song "
Englishman in New York"Englishman in New York" is a song by Sting, from his 1987 album ...Nothing Like the Sun. The "Englishman" in question is the famous eccentric Quentin Crisp. Sting wrote the song not long after Crisp moved from London to an apartment in New York's Bowery...
" (1987) to Crisp. He had remarked jokingly "... that he looked forward to receiving his naturalization papers so that he could commit a crime and not be deported." In late 1986 Sting visited Crisp in his apartment and was told over dinner – and the next three days – what life had been like for a homosexual man in the largely homophobic Great Britain of the 1920s to the 1960s. Sting was both shocked and fascinated and decided to write the song. It includes the lines:
- It takes a man to suffer ignorance and smile,
- Be yourself no matter what they say.
Sting says, "Well, it's partly about me and partly about Quentin. Again, I was looking for a metaphor. Quentin is a hero of mine, someone I know very well. He is gay, and he was gay at a time in history when it was dangerous to be so. He had people beating up on him on a daily basis, largely with the consent of the public."
Crisp was the subject of a photographic portrait by
Herb RittsHerbert "Herb" Ritts was an American fashion photographer who concentrated on black-and-white photography and portraits, often in the style of classical Greek sculpture.-Early life and career:...
and was also chronicled in
Andy WarholAndrew Warhola , known as Andy Warhol, was an American painter, printmaker, and filmmaker who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art...
's diaries. At one point, author
William S. BurroughsWilliam Seward Burroughs II was an American novelist, poet, essayist and spoken word performer. A primary figure of the Beat Generation and a major postmodernist author, he is considered to be "one of the most politically trenchant, culturally influential, and innovative artists of the 20th...
also launched a verbal assault directed at Crisp and his endeavours.
In his 1995 autobiography
Take It Like a Man,
Boy GeorgeBoy George is a British singer-songwriter who was part of the English New Romantic movement which emerged in the early 1980s. He helped give androgyny an international stage with the success of Culture Club during the 1980s. His music is often classified as blue-eyed soul, which is influenced by...
discusses how he had felt an affinity towards Crisp during his childhood, as they faced similar problems as young homosexual people living in homophobic surroundings.
Crisp was the subject of a play,
Resident Alien, by Tim Fountain and starring his friend
Bette BourneBette Bourne is a British actor, drag queen and equal rights activist.-Early life:Born Peter Bourne in Hackney, east London, he made his stage debut at the age of four as one of the members of Madame Behenna and her Dancing Children...
in 1999. The play opened at the Bush Theatre in London and transferred to New York Theatre Workshop in 2001, where it won two Obies (for performance and design). It went on to win a Herald Angel (Best actor) at the Edinburgh Festival in 2002. Subsequent productions have been seen across the US and Australia. A film of the same name was released by Greycat Films in 1990.
The song "The Ballad of Jack Eric Williams (and Other Three-Named Composers)" from
William FinnWilliam Alan Finn is an American composer and lyricist of musicals. His musical Falsettos received the 1992 Tony Awards for Best Music and Lyrics and for Best Book.-Biography:...
's song-cycle
Elegies refers to him.
In 2009, a television sequel to
The Naked Civil Servant was broadcast. Entitled
An Englishman in New YorkAn Englishman in New York is a 2009 biographical drama film that chronicles the English gay writer Quentin Crisp's later years spent in New York City. It is a follow-up to the 1975 TV movie The Naked Civil Servant with John Hurt reprising his role as Crisp...
, the production documented Crisp's later years in Manhattan. 34 years after his first award-winning performance as Crisp,
John HurtJohn Vincent Hurt, CBE is an English actor, known for his leading roles as John Merrick in The Elephant Man, Winston Smith in Nineteen Eighty-Four, Mr. Braddock in The Hit, Stephen Ward in Scandal, Quentin Crisp in The Naked Civil Servant and An Englishman in New York...
returned to play him again. Other co-stars included
Denis O'HareDenis O'Hare is an American actor noted for his award winning performances in Take Me Out and Sweet Charity as well as the HBO television show True Blood. He is also known for his supporting roles in the films Charlie Wilson's War and Milk...
as Phillip Steele (an amalgam character based on Crisp's friends Phillip Ward and Tom Steele),
Jonathan TuckerJonathan Moss Tucker is an American film and television actor, best known for his roles in the movies The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Hostage, In the Valley of Elah and The Ruins, and The Black Donnellys on television....
as artist
Patrick AngusPatrick Angus , a late 20th century American painter, among many other works, created a number of oil or acrylic paintings of the interior of the Gaiety Theater and some of its dancers and customers in the 1980s....
,
Cynthia NixonCynthia Ellen Nixon is an American actress, known for her portrayal of Miranda Hobbes in the HBO series Sex and the City . She has received two Screen Actors Guild Awards, two Emmy Awards, a Tony Award, and a Grammy Award....
as
Penny ArcadeSusana Ventura , better known by her stage name Penny Arcade, is an American performance artist, actress, and playwright based in New York City.-Career:...
, and
Swoosie KurtzSwoosie Kurtz is an American actress. She began her career in theater during the 1970s and shortly thereafter began a career in television, garnering ten nominations and winning one Emmy Award. Her most famous television project was her role on the 1990s NBC drama Sisters...
as
Connie ClausenConnie Clausen was an actress, author, and literary agent....
. The production was filmed in New York in August 2008 and completed in London in October 2008. The film was directed by British director Richard Laxton, written by Brian Fillis, produced by Amanda Jenks, and made its premiere at the Berlinale, the Berlin International Film Festival, in early February 2009 before being shown on television later that year.
Works
- Lettering for Brush and Pen, (1936), Quentin Crisp and A.F. Stuart, Frederick Warne Ltd. Manual on advertising fonts.
- Colour in Display, (1938) Quentin Crisp, 131 pages, The Blandford Press. Manual on the use of colour in window displays.
- All This And Bevin Too (1943) Quentin Crisp, illustrated by Mervyn Peake
Mervyn Laurence Peake was an English writer, artist, poet and illustrator. He is best known for what are usually referred to as the Gormenghast books. They are sometimes compared to the work of his older contemporary J. R. R...
, Mervyn Peake Society ISBN 0-9506125-0-2. Parable, in verse, about an unemployed kangaroo.
- The Naked Civil Servant, (1968) Quentin Crisp, 222 pages, HarperCollins, ISBN 0-00-654044-9. Quentin Crisp's witty and wise account of the first half of his life.
- Love Made Easy, (1977) Quentin Crisp, 154 pages, Duckworth, ISBN 0-7156-1188-7. Fantastical, semi-autobiographical novel.
- How to Have a Life Style, (1975), Quentin Crisp, 159 pages, Cecil Woolf Publishing, ISBN 0-900821-83-3. Elegant and insightful essays on charisma and personality.
- Chog: A Gothic Fable, (1979), Quentin Crisp, Methuen, London. Illustrated by Jo Lynch, Magnum (1981).
- How to Become a Virgin, (1981) Quentin Crisp, 192 pages, HarperCollins, ISBN 0-00-638798-5. Second instalment of autobiography, describing the fame his first book and its dramatisation brought.
- Doing It With Style, (1981) Quentin Crisp, with Donald Carroll, illustrated by Jonathan Hills, 157 pages, Methuen, ISBN 0-413-47490-9. A guide to thoughtful and stylish living.
- The Wit and Wisdom of Quentin Crisp, (1984) Quentin Crisp, edited by Guy Kettelhack, Harper & Row, 140 pages, ISBN 0-06-091178-6. Compilation of Crisp's essays and quotations.
- Manners from Heaven: a divine guide to good behaviour, (1984) Quentin Crisp, with John Hofsess, Hutchinson, ISBN 0-09-155810-7. Insightful instructions for compassionate living.
- How to Go to the Movies (1988) Quentin Crisp, 224 pages, St. Martin's Press, ISBN 0-312-05444-0. Movie reviews and essays on film.
- Quentin Crisp's Book of Quotations, also published as The Gay and Lesbian Quotation Book: a literary companion, (1989) edited by Quentin Crisp, Hale, 185 pages ISBN 0-7090-5605-2. Anthology of gay-related quotes.
- Resident Alien: The New York Diaries (1996) Quentin Crisp, 225 pages, HarperCollins, ISBN 0-00-638717-9. Diaries and recollections from 1990–94.
- Dusty Answers, (unpublished) edited by Phillip Ward. Quentin Crisp's final collection of writings, which will include his collected poetry and script of his one-man show.
Filmography
- The Naked Civil Servant
The Naked Civil Servant is a 1975 TV film based on the 1968 autobiography by the gay icon Quentin Crisp, also titled The Naked Civil Servant. It stars John Hurt in the title role....
(1975) (introduction)... himself
- Hamlet
The Tragical History of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, or more simply Hamlet, is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1599 and 1601...
(1976) .... Polonius
- The Bride
The Bride is an adaptation of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, released in 1985 and directed by Franc Roddam. The film stars Sting as Baron Charles Frankenstein and Jennifer Beals as Eva, a woman he creates in the same fashion as his infamous monster....
.... Dr. Zalhus
- The Equalizer
The Equalizer is an American television series that ran for four seasons, initially on CBS, between 1985 and 1989. It starred Edward Woodward as an aging New York vigilante with a mysterious past...
.... Ernie Frick (episode, First Light (1987)
- Ballad of Reading Gaol (short) (1988) .... Narrator
- Resident Alien (movie) (1990) (autobiography) .... Himself
- Topsy and Bunker: The Cat Killers
Topsy and Bunker: The Cat Killers is a 1992 mystery/drama film released by Top Bunk Films, the first feature film directed by underground cine-video artist Thomas Massengale.-Synopsis:...
(1992) .... Pat the Doorman
- Orlando
Orlando is a 1992 film based on Virginia Woolf's novel Orlando: A Biography, starring Tilda Swinton as Orlando, Billy Zane as Marmaduke Bonthrop Shelmerdine, and Quentin Crisp as Queen Elizabeth. It was directed by Sally Potter....
(1992) .... Queen Elizabeth I
- Philadelphia
Philadelphia is a 1993 American drama film that was one of the first mainstream Hollywood films to acknowledge HIV/AIDS, homosexuality and homophobia. It was written by Ron Nyswaner and directed by Jonathan Demme. The film stars Tom Hanks and Denzel Washington...
(1993) (uncredited) .... Guest at Party
- Red Ribbons (1994) (Video) .... Horace Nightingale III
- Aunt Fannie (1994) (Video) .... Aunt Fannie
- Natural Born Crazies (1994) .... Narrator
- To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar
To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar is a 1995 American comedy film, starring Wesley Snipes, Patrick Swayze, and John Leguizamo as three New York drag queens who embark on a road trip...
(1995) .... New York pageant judge
- Taylor Mead Unleashed, (documentary-1996) Himself. Sebastian Piras director
- Little Red Riding Hood
Little Red Riding Hood is a 1997 black and white short movie . Written and directed by David Kaplan and with cinematography of Scott Ramsey, it features then-teenage Christina Ricci in the title role and is narrated by Quentin Crisp....
(1997) (voice) .... Narrator
- Famous Again (1998)
- Men Under Water (1998) .... Joseph
- Barriers
Barriers is a British children's television series, created and written by William Corlett, and made by Tyne Tees Television for ITV between 1981 and 1982....
(1998) .... Nathan
- Homo Heights (1998) .... Malcolm
- American Mod (2002) .... Grandma
- Domestic Strangers (2005) .... Mr. Davis
Discography
- "An Evening with Quentin Crisp" (2008) .... Cherry Red Records (U.K.) .... Double C.D. featuring live recordings made at Columbia Recording Studios, New York, on 22 February 1979. Also includes a 35-minute interview with Morgan Fisher
Morgan Fisher is an English keyboard player / composer, and is most known for being a member of Mott the Hoople in the early 1970s. However, his career has covered a wide range of musical activities, and he is still highly active in the music industry...
, recorded in Quentin's Chelsea flat in June 1980.
- "Miniatures 1 & 2" (2008) .... Cherry Red Records (U.K.) .... Double C.D. of one-minute tracks by many muses, poets, et cetera Produced by Morgan Fisher
Morgan Fisher is an English keyboard player / composer, and is most known for being a member of Mott the Hoople in the early 1970s. However, his career has covered a wide range of musical activities, and he is still highly active in the music industry...
in 1980 (Pt.1) and 2000 (Pt. 2). Quentin's track is titled "Stop the Music for a Minute." See www.cherryred.co.uk
Biographies
- The Stately Homo: a celebration of the life of Quentin Crisp, (2000) edited by Paul Bailey
Paul Bailey is a British writer and critic, author of several novels as well as biographies of Cynthia Payne and Quentin Crisp.-Biography:...
, Bantam, 251 pages, ISBN 0-593-04677-3. Collection of interviews and tributes from those who knew Crisp.
- Quentin Crisp, (2002), Tim Fountain, Absolute Press, 192 pages, ISBN 1-899791-48-5. Biography by dramatist who knew Crisp in the last few years of his life.
- Quentin & Philip, (2002), Andrew Barrow, Macmillan, 559 pages, ISBN 0-333-78051-5. Dual biography of Crisp and his friend Philip O'Connor
Philip O'Connor was a British writer and surrealist poet, who also painted. He was one of the 'Wheatsheaf writers' of 1930s Fitzrovia...
.
- Quentin Crisp: The Profession of Being, (2011), Nigel Kelly, McFarland, ISBN 978-0-7864-6475-3. Biography of Mr Crisp by Nigel Kelly who runs the www.quentincrisp.info website.
External links
- Official site Crisperanto: The Quentin Crisp Archives ~ All Things Quentin Crisp!
- Obituary in the online magazine Salon.com
Salon.com, part of Salon Media Group , often just called Salon, is an online liberal magazine, with content updated each weekday. Salon was founded by David Talbot and launched on November 20, 1995. It was the internet's first online-only commercial publication. The magazine focuses on U.S...
- Interview from 1997 in Spike Magazine
Spike Magazine is an internet cultural journal which began in 1996, founded by its editor Chris Mitchell in Brighton, England. Updated monthly, its motto is "picking the brains of popular culture", though it has an intellectual inclination.-Description:...
- One-hour radio interview from 1989 from Bob Claster's Funny Stuff – KCRW Santa Monica
- Memoir of Quentin Crisp by Guy Kettelhack
- Website about Resident Alien the stage show
- Cherry Red Records, who have released recordings by Quentin