39 Facts About Quentin Crisp

Quentin Crisp afterwards became a gay icon due to his flamboyant personality, fashion sense, and wit.

Quentin Crisp then spent thirty years as a professional model for life classes in art colleges.

Quentin Crisp's one-man stage show was a long-running hit both in Britain and America, and he appeared in films and on television.

Quentin Crisp changed his name to Quentin Crisp in his twenties after leaving home, and expressed a feminine appearance to a degree that shocked contemporary Londoners and provoked "gay-bashing" assaults.

Around this time, Quentin Crisp began visiting the cafes of Soho, his favourite being The Black Cat in Old Compton Street, meeting other young gay men and rent boys, and experimenting with make-up and women's clothes.

Quentin Crisp left his job as an engineer's tracer in 1942 to become a model in life classes in London and the Home Counties.

Quentin Crisp wanted to call his book I Reign in Hell, a reference to Milton's Paradise Lost, but his agent insisted on The Naked Civil Servant, an insistence that later gave him pause when he offered the manuscript to Tom Maschler of Jonathan Cape on the same day that Desmond Morris delivered The Naked Ape.

Quentin Crisp was then approached by the documentary film maker Denis Mitchell to be the subject of a 1968 short film in which he discussed his life and lifestyle.

Quentin Crisp 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, while the second half was a question-and-answer session with Quentin Crisp picking the audience's written questions at random and answering them in an amusing manner.

Quentin Crisp's first stay in the Hotel Chelsea coincided with a fire, a robbery, and the death of Nancy Spungen.

Quentin Crisp decided to move to New York permanently and, in 1981, found a small apartment at 46 East 3rd Street in Manhattan's East Village.

Quentin Crisp continued to perform his one-man show, published books on the importance of contemporary manners as a means of social inclusion, and supported himself by accepting social invitations and writing film reviews and columns for UK and US magazines and newspapers.

Quentin Crisp 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.

Quentin Crisp made his debut as a film actor in the Royal College of Art's low-budget production of Hamlet.

Quentin Crisp played Polonius in the 65-minute adaptation of Shakespeare's play, alongside Helen Mirren, who played both Ophelia and Gertrude.

Quentin Crisp appeared in the 1985 film The Bride, which brought him into contact with Sting, who played the lead role of Baron Frankenstein, and who in 1987 wrote the song "Englishman in New York" for and about Crisp.

Quentin Crisp appeared on the television show The Equalizer in the 1987 episode "First Light", and as the narrator of director Richard Kwietniowski's short film Ballad of Reading Gaol, based on the poem by Oscar Wilde.

Director Thomas Massengale reportedly said that Quentin Crisp was a delight to work with.

Quentin Crisp next had an uncredited cameo in the 1993 AIDS drama Philadelphia.

Quentin Crisp was chosen by Channel 4 to deliver the first Alternative Christmas Speech, a counterpoint to the Queen's Christmas speech, in 1993.

Quentin Crisp caused controversy and confusion in the gay community by calling AIDS "a fad", and homosexuality "a terrible disease".

Quentin Crisp was continually in demand from journalists requiring a sound-bite, and throughout the 1990s his commentary was sought on any number of topics.

Quentin Crisp was a stern critic of Diana, Princess of Wales, and her attempts to gain public sympathy following her divorce from Prince Charles.

Quentin Crisp was Lady Diana before she was Princess Diana, so she knew the racket.

Quentin Crisp knew that royal marriages have nothing to do with love.

In 1997 Quentin Crisp was crowned king of the Beaux-Arts Ball run by the Beaux Arts Society.

Quentin Crisp presided alongside Queen Audrey Kargere, Prince George Bettinger and Princess Annette Hunt.

At the age of 90 Quentin Crisp said in his book The Last Word that he had come to the conclusion that he was transgender.

Quentin Crisp died of a heart attack on 21 November 1999, at age 90, while staying at the home of a friend in Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Manchester, on the eve of a nationwide revival of his one-man show.

Quentin Crisp was cremated with a minimum of ceremony as he had requested, and his ashes were flown back to his personal assistant and travel companion Phillip Ward in New York.

Quentin Crisp bequeathed his rights in three books to his respective collaborators: Phillip Ward for Crisp's final book The Last Word and the book And One More Thing ; Guy Kettelhack for The Wit and Wisdom of Quentin Crisp and John Hofsess for Manners from Heaven.

Quentin Crisp is a hero of mine, someone I know very well.

Quentin Crisp is gay and he was gay at a time in history when it was dangerous to be so.

Quentin Crisp had people beating up on him on a daily basis, largely with the consent of the public.

Quentin Crisp was the subject of a photographic portrait by Herb Ritts and was chronicled in Andy Warhol's diaries.

Quentin Crisp was then the subject of the play Resident Alien, by Tim Fountain, which starred his friend Bette Bourne.

Thirty-four years after his first award-winning performance as Quentin Crisp, John Hurt returned to play him again.

Halford views himself as a rock version of Quentin Crisp, and refers to himself as the "stately homo of heavy metal".