entertainer
Personal Information
Born RuPaul Andre Charles, November 17, 1960, in New Orleans, LA, son of Irving Charles (a beauty supply house owner) and Ernestine Charles (a clerk in the registrar's office at San Diego City College).
Career
Multimedia entertainer, actor, singer, dancer, talk show host, 1981--. Member of groups RuPaul and the U-Hauls (1982), Wee Wee Pole (1983); starred in several low-budget comedy films: Starrbooty, Starrbooty II, Starrbooty III, Trilogy of Terror, Terror 3D, Wild Thing, Connie Francis Story, Mahogany II, American Porn Star, Psycho Bitch, Voyeur, Police Lady, Police Lady II, In Ferno, Just Between Girlfriends (1984-1993); appeared in B-52's video "Love Shack", 1989; appeared in films Crooklyn (1994), To Wong Foo, Thanks For Everything! Julie Newmar (1995), Red Ribbon Blues (1995), A Mother's Prayer (1995), The Brady Bunch Movie (1995), Wigstock: The Movie (1995), Smoke (1995), Blue in the Face (1995), Fled (1996), A Very Brady Sequel (1996); recorded Sex Freak (Funtone, 1985), Starrbooty: Motion Picture Soundtrack (Funtone, 1986), "Ping Ting Ting" (Funtone, 1987), Starrbooty's Revenge (Funtone, 1990), "I've Got That Feeling" (Cardiac, 1991), "Supermodel-House of Love" (Tommy Boy, 1993), "Back To My Roots" (Tommy Boy, 1993), Supermodel of the World (Tommy Boy, 1993), "A Shade Shadey (Now Prance)" (Tommy Boy, 1993), "Little Drummer Boy" (Tommy Boy, 1993), (w/Elton John) "Don't Go Breakin' My Heart" (MCA, 1994), "What You See is What You Get" on Addams Family Values Soundtrack (Atlas, 1994), Foxy Lady (Rhino, 1996); spokesmodel for M.A.C. cosmetics, 1995--; spokesmodel for Baileys Irish Cream, 1995; co-chairperson of M.A.C. AIDS Fund, 1995--.
Life's Work
Other than his height, a considerable 6'7", RuPaul is an average- looking man with a pleasant, freckled face and an open smile. Dressed as a woman, with heels and bouffant hair, he is over seven feet tall and is absolutely drop-dead gorgeous. Despite the fact that society frowns on cross dressing, RuPaul has battled seemingly impossible odds to become an internationally famous pop culture icon. "He is," wrote Mim Udovitch in Rolling Stone, "...this nation's preeminent drag queen pop star." Although he seems suddenly ubiquitous, an overnight sensation, RuPaul's rise to stardom was over a decade in the making, and a goal he has had resolutely in sight since childhood. A relentless self-promoter, RuPaul has engineered a multimedia career as an actor, singer, author, talk show host, radio DJ, and product pitchperson.
Previously an androgynous, grunge-drag go-go dancer in the midtown Atlanta clubs, RuPaul discovered real drag in the mid-1980s. In his 1994 autobiography, Lettin' It All Hang Out, he wrote that "the impact it had on people was amazing. But the impact it had on me was even more amazing. I honestly didn't know I had a great pair of legs until I got into drag and slipped on those pumps." By 1993 he had been offered a recording contract with Tommy Boy Records and had a hit record in Supermodel (You Better Work!). Two years later he became the first drag queen ever to secure a cosmetics contract, with Toronto-based Makeup Art Cosmetics. Although he had starred in several low-budget comedy horror films, he landed his first mainstream movie role in 1994, when he did a cameo as the Bodega Woman in Spike Lee's Crooklyn. Other roles followed. The RuPaul Show, a late-night talk/variety show debuted in 1996 on cable's VH1.
RuPaul's phenomenal success is due in part to the spectacular illusion of femininity he creates in a three-hour transformation, but also owes much to his own bubbly personality. "I'm not the greatest actor, singer, or even drag queen," he told the Chicago Tribune. "I knew my biggest asset was my personality, but people couldn't see me just as I am." He explained a significant factor of his appeal to Liz Smith in Interview. "I think I've been able to slip through {to the mainstream}," he said, "because I've taken some of the sexuality out. Also, drag queens are known as bitchy- and I'm not."
RuPaul Andre Charles was born in New Orleans on November 17, 1960, the third of four children and the only boy. He was raised in San Diego. His father, Irving Charles, was originally an electrician and later, the owner of a beauty supply house. RuPaul's mother, Ernestine, a clerk in the registrar's office at San Diego City College, was a Creole native of St. Martinsville, Louisiana. Ernestine was Toni to her friends, but the neighborhood children called her Mean Miss Charles, according to RuPaul. All of Ernestine's children's initials were R.A.C. RuPaul told the Washington Post that his mother got his name from an article in Ebony magazine. "It was spelled Ripoll, but she's Creole, so she made it into this saucy, Frenchy concoction," he said.
RuPaul's childhood was difficult. His parents were emotionally distant and divorced when he was seven. He wrote in Lettin' It All Hang Out that he knew from early childhood that he was different, that he didn't belong. He was popular, however. "I was never anonymous," he wrote. "Everybody always knew who I was. I had a unique name ... and I was very feminine-looking. From being around girls all the time I acted feminine too, and was continually being mistaken for a girl. So I already had something of a name for myself as an androgynous enigma." He told the Washington Post he planned even as a small child to be famous one day. "It's all exactly what I projected for myself years ago," he said of his stardom. " At five-years-old, I realized I was a superstar trapped in a five-year-old's body. And I had to do something about that!" RuPaul's older sisters were twins, seven years his senior. From them he absorbed the minutiae of pop culture, even learning a runway walk from sister Renatta, a Barbizon-modeling-school graduate. His family was supportive. He told the New York Times that "everything I did was applauded. It was like, 'Yea, girl, yea!'"
After being asked to leave Patrick Henry High because of chronic truancy, RuPaul moved to the eastern suburb of El Cajon with Renatta and her new husband, and he went with them when they moved to Atlanta in 1976. There he attended the Northside School of Performing Arts, although he did not graduate. A pivotal event that year was seeing the Rocky Horror Picture Show. "I loved the freedom of it," he wrote in his autobiography. "I also loved the weird black humor, and it was the first time I really 'got' camp and that whole idea of adopting something based on how seriously it takes itself, while being totally whacked out and demented."
In 1982 RuPaul made his first foray into show business. Fascinated by a public access cable program called The American Music Show, he sent them a photo of himself and a request to appear on the show. He was promptly invited as a guest and soon became a regular. He formed a band called RuPaul and the U-Hauls, which appeared regularly on the show. During this period, his look was androgynous grunge-drag, featuring war paint, a mohawk, and costumes he created himself from whatever was handy, such as white Hefty bags. He stumbled onto the concept of real drag when he appeared dressed as a girl as part of a skit with a group called the Now Explosion. His evolution to glamour drag would not occur for another ten years, however. When RuPaul and the U-Hauls broke up, he formed Wee Wee Pole, which performed at various Atlanta clubs. In 1983 he appeared in the first of many low-budget campy films with titles like Trilogy of Terror and Terror 3D. RuPaul noted in his book that although "these films brought me a certain notoriety ... they weren't putting food on the table." In a dual effort at moneymaking and unabashed self-promotion, he sold postcards of himself as well as a series of two-dollar pamphlets-or "books," as RuPaul calls them-of about 20 pages. These little books featured photos of RuPaul with pithy anecdotes, and were a sell-out. That summer RuPaul and some other drag queens, including Jon Ingle, who would become famous as the "Lady" Bunny, creator of Wigstock, went up to New York. They performed at the Pyramid in the east Village. RuPaul was a go-go dancer for $40 a night, which was not an easy gig since the bar he had to dance on was only two feet wide, and the ceiling was not very high. "Most of us bigger gals had to duck the entire time or get a sprinkler stuck in our wig," he wrote of the experience.
Returning to Atlanta, RuPaul tried his hand at many different things at the margins of show business. He would later call this time his "college years." He recorded an album for Funtone called Sex Freak, a title he would later regret. "The title was meant to say that I am a sexual oddity, an androgyne. People saw it as ... 'I'm a ... freak for sex,'" he wrote. He also acted in plays, in addition to working as a dancer. In 1986 he created the Starrbooty persona, a supermodel-turned-superspy, which gave birth to spoofs of the 1970s Blaxploitation films, Starrbooty I, II, and III. Starrbooty: The Motion Picture Soundtrack followed. He reprised the Diana Ross role in Mahogany II.
The winter of 1988 was a bad time for RuPaul. He had moved to New York again and started over from square one, but the do-it-yourself starmaking was not working. At last he returned to California. Although he had suicidal thoughts, he credits Oprah Winfrey with sustaining him during those dark days. He wrote that he would usually watch her show in one of the department stores in Beverly Center. January of 1989 marked a turning point in RuPaul's career; he returned to New York and, abandoning the fright look, threw himself completely into glamour drag. He performed for the first time at Wigstock, the annual Labor Day drag queen festival in Manhattan. He was named Queen of Manhattan in 1990, perhaps a dubious honor to outsiders, but he made the most of it, and his career started to take off. He appeared in the B-52s' "Love Shack" video. A demo tape he had sent out ended up at Tommy Boy Records, and a contract soon followed in 1992. He released an album in 1993, a pop-dance mix called Supermodel of the World, which produced smash hits and videos. He recorded a duet and video with Elton John in 1994, a reprise of "Don't Go Breakin' My Heart." He made the rounds of the talk show circuit, and wrote his autobiography. He began to receive roles in several mainstream movies, beginning in 1994 with Spike Lee's Crooklyn. He also appeared in To Wong Foo, Thanks For Everything! Julie Newmar (1995), The Brady Bunch Movie (1995), Fled (1996), and A Very Brady Sequel (1996), among others.
In 1995 RuPaul was named spokesmodel for Canadian Makeup Art Cosmetics, the first drag queen ever to hold such a position. M.A.C. founder Frank Toskan told Entertainment Weekly, "Why not? Who better than RuPaul to show what makeup can really do?" Who indeed? A print-ad endorsement deal with staid Baileys Irish Cream followed. Carol Moog, a psychologist and head of an advertising consulting company explained RuPaul's crossover appeal in the Wall Street Journal. "RuPaul has managed to create a hip, yet clean image for himself. This is a way for mainstream Americans to experience the outlandish and do it safely, and in a nonthreatening way," she said. In 1996 RuPaul became a talk show hostess when cable's VH1 decided to go forward with The RuPaul Show, a late- night gabfest with guests like Dennis Rodman, Cher, and Diana Ross.
Citing Diana Ross as his number-one influence and stating that beauty knows no pain, it usually takes RuPaul three hours to transform himself into his glamorous alter ego. This process includes extensive shaving, crotch-tucking panties, a corset that nips his waist in, and careful makeup. He explained to Liz Smith, "If I'm on the road, and I don't have a goatee or eyebrows, I can do it in an hour and a half. But I like to take three hours, not because I'm a man, but because it takes that long to do all that stuff-the lashes, the hair, lining the lips, contouring my nose ...." When asked about his size-13 heels, he told Rolling Stone, "I haven't found a heel that's been too high for me yet. The highest I've found are eight inches. Now if you have pumps that are closed, that can be painful. But if you have open-toed shoes, it's no problem." These days RuPaul's costumes are couture outfits created by stylists Zaldy and Mathu. RuPaul points out that they are, however, just costumes. "It's taken me awhile to accept the fact that I'm a big ole Black man who, like a nurse, fireman, or any other professional, wears a uniform to work-only mine is drag," he told Essence. Noting that drag is not necessarily about lipsynching cross dressers or a sexual fetish, he told the Chicago Tribune, "It's not a lifestyle to me. You won't find me at home alone in drag watching television."
While RuPaul's success has not erased the cultural taboo on cross dressing, it has raised awareness, and has perhaps put a human face on it. His popularity stands as a tribute to his remarkable power of self-invention, perseverance, and sheer nerve. David Keeps summarized RuPaul's achievement in a New York Times article. "RuPaul's success moves the entertainment industry two steps forward," he wrote. "As a pop performer he is a de facto social activist. As a recording artist, RuPaul marks the next step in the evolution of drag. Unlike Lypsinka, his act is not dependent on the voices of others; unlike Jimmy James, he is not trying to look or move like Marilyn Monroe. RuPaul is his own woman." You go, girl.
Works
Selective Discography
- Sex Freak, Funtone, 1985.
- Starrbooty: Motion Picture Soundtrack, Funtone, 1986.
- "Ping Ting Ting", Funtone, 1987.
- Starrbooty's Revenge, Funtone, 1990.
- "I've Got that Feeling", Cardiac, 1991.
- "Supermodel-House of Love", Tommy Boy, 1993.
- "Back to my Roots", Tommy Boy, 1993.
- Supermodel of the World, Tommy Boy, 1993.
- "A Shade Shadey (Now Prance)", Tommy Boy, 1993.
- "Little Drummer Boy", Tommy Boy, 1993.
- With Elton John, "Don't Go Breakin' My Heart", MCA, 1994.
- "What You See is What You Get," on Addams Family Values Soundtrack, Atlas, 1994.
- Foxy Lady, Rhino, 1996.
- "Love Shack" (B52's), 1989. "Good Stuff" (B52's). "Supermodel (You Better Work)," 1993. "Back to My Roots," 1993. "A Shade Shadey (Now Prance)," 1993. "Little Drummer Boy," 1993. "Don't Go Breakin' My Heart" (with Elton John), 1994.
- Crooklyn, 1994. To Wong Foo, Thanks For Everything! Julie Newmar, 1995. Red Ribbon Blues, 1995. A Mother's Prayer, 1995. The Brady Bunch Movie, 1995. Wigstock: The Movie, 1995. Smoke, 1995. Blue in the Face, 1995. Fled, 1996. A Very Brady Sequel, 1996.
Further Reading
Books
- RuPaul: Lettin' It All Hang Out, New York: Hyperion, 1995.
- Who's Who in America, 1998, Vol. 2, 52nd Ed. New Providence, NJ: Marquis, 1997.
- Booklist, May 15, 1995, p. 1619.
- Chicago Tribune, March 16, 1995, sec. 5 p. 7; June 29, 1995, sec. 5 pp.1-2.
- Entertainment Weekly, March 10, 1995, p. 13.
- Essence, August, 1995, p. 59.
- Harper's Bazaar, February, 1996, pp.176-80.
- Interview, January, 1997, pp.33-35.
- Knight-Ridder/Tribune News Service, April 11, 1996, p. 411.
- Maclean's, October 16, 1995, p. 83.
- New Yorker, March 22, 1993, pp. 49-54.
- New York Times, July 11, 1993, sec. 2, p. 23; June 9, 1995, p. C5; October 20, 1996, pp. I41, 44.
- People Weekly, July 26, 1993, pp. 147-48; June 12, 1995, p. 18; July 10, 1995, p. 27; September 23, 1996, p. 148.
- Playboy, October, 1993, p. 17; July, 1995, p. 20.
- Publishers Weekly, April 24, 1995, p. 52.
- Rolling Stone, August 5, 1993, p. 24.
- Time, October 4, 1993, p. 93.
- Wall Street Journal, September 1, 1995, p. B7.
- Washington Post, September 17, 1993.
— Ellen Dennis French
