The late Leslie Jordan was a lot to many people, including comedians, character actors, amateur musicians, Instagram sensations, gay icons and more.
For the Los Angeles Times, which has interviewed the beloved celebrity multiple times over the years, he’s always been a fitting quote for an exciting Hollywood anecdote or a glamorous transition.
Tennessee-born actor known for his roles in “Will and Grace” and “American Horror Story”, Died Monday after crash His BMW entered a building on Cahuenga Boulevard and Romaine Street in Hollywood. He was 67 years old.
Here are some thoughts on the celebrity’s personal life and career, who spoke to The Times in an instantly recognizable voice in a 1994 interview.
chasing a dream in LA
“I couldn’t decide where I wanted to go. It was New York or Los Angeles. But I decided to go tanning if I was going to starve to death.” Jordan in April 1994. “I went to town when it came out that … the white trash look from the hill, boy, did I have it!”
“When I got off the bus in 1982, I had $1,200. I came to LA from Tennessee, I had some money, and I got a degree in theater.” Jordan said in April 2021. “I couldn’t pronounce it. I called it ‘THEE-ate-er’. So I had a list of things I wanted to accomplish. I wanted to be in movies and TV, but this was too far away. It’s not about sitting down and thinking, ‘What’s the next big challenge?’ It always happened to me. I have a truly blessed career. I’m just going to ride.”
Beginning his career as a commercial actor
“I played Aunt Jemima Lite Syrup, and I was a pip-boy for years. I started the Del Taco ‘Same Time, Same Place’ beat. . . In 1994, Jordan said:
“I’m the elevator driver who went to the hamburger hell I went to if I didn’t eat Taco Bell” Jordan said in January 2021. “People knew me.”
About being a character actor
“I’m not going to be Meryl Streep or Robert De Niro who can disappear as a character,” Jordan said in January 2021. “I have a lot of things that I want to disappear. I’m more like Dolly Parton. Do you know what I’m talking about? There A lot of me.”
in his voice
“I don’t like my voice. even alittle. Because I have that accent, you know? “I’m not talking about my southern accent,” Jordan said in April 2021. “If you have any doubts about me, open your mouth and you’ll find 50 yards of purple chiffon.”
LGBTQ+ community representatives and related
“I think we have a message for that young gay man or young gay woman behind us.” Jordan in November 2004. “As I was wondering, can they find their tribe above all else? …and second, is there a God who loves them?”
“I am undoubtedly the most cheerful man I know.” In May 2008, Jordan.
Filming a rough ‘American Horror Story’ scene with Lady Gaga
“She had to hold me and decapitate me,” Jordan said in January 2021. “You’re just like, ‘How did I get into this situation?’
As Instagram Becomes Famous During the COVID-19 Pandemic
“My friend called me from California and said: went viral.‘ And I said, ‘No, honey, I’m fine. I don’t get corona,’ Jordan said in January 2021. …every day I’m like, ‘Oh my God! must be posted. What should I come up with?’
Leslie Jordan, filmed in Los Angeles in 2021, died Monday.
(Damian Dovarganes/AP)
Travis Howard and his popular Instagram duet
Jordan said in April 2021, “Travis and I have been friends for many years and we’ve been on a similar journey through church. Mine was because I was gay. I didn’t feel like hugging [it]. How do you hug something that doesn’t hug you? never been ugly There was no big ax to grind into. I just wandered around and that was all.
“But I grew up in a church. We went to church whenever the door opened. So was Travis. So we started singing hymns on Sunday. And the response on Instagram has been huge. Thousands of comments were posted and people said, ‘This is such a comfort.’ or ‘I’m a theist, but I still want to hear this music.’ So I thought you could find some comfort in this music, you know what you grew up with, Jews, Buddhists, Muslims.”
When I was young, I sang in a choir
Jordan said in April 2021, “I can’t read sheet music or anything like that, but I sang while growing up. Rolling Stone said. ‘His voice is competent.’ [Laughs] but you know what I had no fear. I think it came from a choir. We always say, ‘You are singing for the Lord. So just sing.’”
Leslie Jordan attends the 2018 PaleyFest in Beverly Hills.
(Richard Shortwell / Envision / Associated Press)
about his taste in music
“I’ve always liked girl singers and girl groups, the Ronettes and everything,” Jordan said in April 2021.
“I like S&M: Streisand and Midler. Oh, and I loved Laura Niro. But right now, I’m too reclusive about music. I couldn’t name a Billie Eilish song. Terrible. I used to follow. What I knew on the radio.”
“I needed two things. ‘Mime Bialik’, ‘A room full of cats in a cat cafe’, [and] “I said, ‘I’m on the boat,'” Jordan said in January 2021. [Bialik] From the moment I saw her playing baby Betty Midler in ‘The Beach.'”
While making a country gospel album in 2021
“I want to call it ‘company of the company,” he said, and when I was young, my uncle and cousin played banjos and guitars and we sat at a family reunion, Jordan said in April 2021, “I sang a lot, but it always ended with a hymn. it happened Mike Lotus, one of our executive producers, said, ‘Why are you talking? When Brandy Carlyle is about to sing, you mustn’t speak.’ And I said, ‘Oh, you don’t understand. That is part of the church. We will shout and shout.’”
Meeting Dolly Parton
“I’ve wanted to see Dolly since I first saw her in the movies. [the early ‘70s]’ said Jordan in April 2021. [Parton’s Tennessee hometown] from Chattanooga. she heard she go Appear in her high school auditorium. She was on my wish list to meet and over the years I became friends with Steve Summers. [Parton’s creative director].
“I was in Nashville and he said, ‘If you want to come up, Dolly is in the studio very close to you.’ I couldn’t even breathe. I went there and she was all dolled up for her one Christmas special she did. And we sat there, wore masks and socially distanced, but only blurted out each other. People said, ‘What kind of person is she?’ Well, you know exactly who she is. You don’t have to meet her to know who she is. I just loved her.”
On Monday, Parton was one of many fellow entertainers. pay tribute to jordan on social media.
“Leslie and I had a special bond and I think the world felt they had a special bond with him.” she wrote in the statement. He said, “I will miss everyone who knew him personally and everyone who entertained him. Rest in peace, brother.”
On his journey to sobriety and self-acceptance
“Suddenly you took this drug that I had anesthetized, and I have an inner homophobia.” Jordan in November 2004. “If you get drunk at the age of 42 and say, ‘Are you proud gay?’ I would say, ‘Honey, I’m on a cart.’ But I was carrying the burden the whole time!”
“My journey towards sobriety, but more importantly, it has been my journey towards homosexuality since I was 42,” Jordan said in January 2021.
“During 22 years of recovery, we had to write a lot and do a lot of things,” Jordan said in April 2021. “Happiness is a habit. It’s a choice. It’s an effort. …I’ve been baptized 14 times. Every time I go there, Brother Baker, the preacher, says, ‘I believe I baptized you at revival this summer. ‘ I would say, ‘I don’t think it’s necessary.’ I had so many secrets and so much shame and now it’s all gone.
“A very wise man in recovery who was my supporter died this year. I told him, ‘When I go home, my mother sometimes wants me to go to church.’ And he said, ‘Go to church. When you hear something that works for you, get it. keep it But if you go, ‘Oh, please! [when something bothers you], put it under the seat in front of you, because it could be the key to the truth others need.’ So I left a lot of stuff in the seat in front of me.”
while making your dreams come true
“I’m in actor heaven.”
