This week's Out Spotlight will focus on Quentin Crisp, author, actor, artist's model, raconteur, prostitute, dinner guest, and gay icon. Crisp was gay before there was gay culture and he was never in the closet. Crisp dressed femininely and in outlandish costumes from the time he was very young. He frequented the rough neighborhoods of London and held his own. He lived in a flat in London for 40 years and said he never cleaned it once, and that the dirt didn't get any worse after the first 4 years. Crisp wrote a book about his experiences called The Naked Civil Servant, which was made into a successful movie with John Hurt. (I highly recommend this movie; Hurt is spectacular!) The title refers to Crisp's experiences as an artist's model. He said it was like being a civil servant except you're naked.
Crisp moved to New York in the early '80s and did a series of one-man shows recounting his life. Crisp always had his phone number listed and said he felt it was his duty to talk to anyone who called. He often answered the phone with, "Yes, God?" (Just in case, he said.) He also accepted dinner invitations from almost anyone who asked. Crisp lived in the Chelsea Hotel through both a fire and the murder of Nancy Spungen (girlfriend of punk rocker Sid Vicious).
Crisp was in several movies, most famously playing Elizabeth I in Orlando (yet another reason to see it!). He was one of many people interviewed for the documentary The Celluloid Closet. Crisp once said he would live to 100, with 10 years off for good behavior, and in 1999 he died at the age of 90.
"I have always lived my life in the profession of being."- Quentin Crisp
Quentin Crisp in 1941.
Quentin Crisp in later years.
Quentin Crisp's website- http://www.crisperanto.org/
