Danny La Rue

When he started out, La Rue liked to call himself a “comic in a frock.” Becoming one of Britain’s highest-paid entertainers in the 1960s, La Rue was famous for his impersonations of women such asElizabeth Taylor, Marlene Dietrich, and Margaret Thatcher. He appeared in several films and was a pantomime regular. During his career, he became known as “thegrande dame of drag.” He was appointed OBE in the 2002 Birthday Honours List, which he described as “the proudest day of his life.”