Quentin Crisp
English writer, raconteur and actor
Died when: 90 years 331 days (1090 months)Star Sign: Capricorn
Quentin Crisp (born Denis Charles Pratt; 25 December 1908 – 21 November 1999) was an English raconteur, whose work in the public eye included a memoir of his life and various media appearances.
Before becoming well-known, he was an artist's model, hence the title of his most famous work, The Naked Civil Servant.
He afterwards became a gay icon due to his flamboyant personality, fashion sense and wit.His iconic status was occasionally controversial, due to remarks about subjects like the AIDS crisis.
This invited censure from gay activists, including human-rights campaigner Peter Tatchell.During his teen years, he worked briefly as a rent boy.
He then spent thirty years as a professional model for life-classes in art colleges.The interviews he gave about his unusual life attracted great curiosity, and he was soon sought after for his personal views on social manners and the cultivation of style.
His one-man stage show was a long-running hit both in Britain and America, and he also appeared in films and on television.
Crisp defied convention by criticising both gay liberation and Diana, Princess of Wales.Despite considering himself a gay man for most of his life, just before his death, Crisp wrote in an autobiography that it had been "explained" to him that he was "not really homosexual", but was transgender.
