![]() social security system alongside fees for TV adverts and films.īut his will wasn't the only shock revelation. account contained tens-of-thousands of dollars he'd received from the U.S. The press, like everyone else, presumed he had died penniless.īut when Crisp's will was published the 'impoverished' icon, whom artists in the bohemian East Village of New York had arranged benefit performances for - had left almost £500,000.įlamboyant: Quentin Crisp playing Queen Elizabeth I in 1992 film OrlandoĪ bank account in Britain contained more than £50,000 - his British old age pension. The tributes focused on his eccentric lifestyle - and how he lived in poverty in his filthy one-room flat. Crisp replied: 'But if I die in America in my sleep, I'll only make page ten.'īy dying in the country he'd professed to hate, on the eve of his farewell tour and with a play about him on in London, he made certain his death became front-page news. In the final days before he left New York, his close friend Penny Arcade (played in ITV's new film by Sex And The City's Cynthia Nixon), pleaded with him not to make the journey. Ward says that once he had signed it he turned to him and said: 'Good, I can die now.' Revealingly, just six days before he left for Britain, Crisp redrew his will. and that he wanted to go to Britain and perform 'a deliberate dance with death'. His personal assistant and the executor of his will, Phillip Ward, believes that Crisp knew there was a possibility he would not return to the U.S. ![]() I am not alone in thinking he may have planned the whole thing. He would be outrageous just to get noticed. He said: 'I want to die a significant death, I don't want a lot of people to be stood round my bed saying: "Isn't he dead yet, I thought he'd died years ago."'Ĭrisp had a lifelong addiction to publicity. Why did he put himself through this? I believe the answer lies in something he told me just a few weeks earlier. The Manchester coroner's report put his death down to a heart attack. The next morning she found him dead, surrounded by his angina tablets and an empty brandy bottle. On the plane over he drank heavily, and according to the landlady of the guest house where he stayed, he continued to do so when he arrived. He had an enlarged heart, a 'hernia as big as an orange' and chronic eczema. No one thought he was well enough to make the journey to the UK or give the performances. Then, he arranged a series of performances of his own show, An Evening With Quentin Crisp, determined to tour the country. Despite initially giving me his blessing, Crisp had started to say he wasn't happy about it, fearing we were going to destroy his image. Does it reveal why the flamboyantly gay Crisp declared that homosexuality was a 'curse' that 'he wouldn't wish on his worst enemy'? Or the truth about the mysterious circumstances surrounding his death which, I believe, I have uncovered?ĭays before he died in November 1999, my play about him had just reached the London stage. The film's take on it all is being kept under wraps. Likeness: John Hurt as Quentin Crisp in ITV's new drama ![]() The sequel to the first film, which depicted his struggles growing up homosexual in defiance of the rigid mores and prejudice of post-war Britain, tells how, instead of being forced into the shadows by intolerance as he was in London, he was embraced by his adopted city.Ĭrisp himself said: 'In England no one is your friend, in America people will tell you the story of their lives while waiting for the traffic lights to change.' Once asked if he missed anything about England, he replied: 'My gas fire, that's all, England was a terrible place.' Yet, he was still living in squalor in a tiny one-room apartment in Manhattan's Lower East Side. There he flourished, becoming a favourite of the arty set, friends with Andy Warhol, eccentric film stars, and fans including President Carter. The new film, made by Leopardrama, which takes its title from Sting's 1987 song about Crisp, tells the story of what happened after he emigrated to New York in 1981. To mark this anniversary my play about him, Resident Alien, is being revived next week.Īs well as this, An Englishman In New York is the highlight of ITV's spring schedule, with John Hurt reprising his role as Crisp, 34 years after we last saw him in The Naked Civil Servant. Eccentric: To mark 100 years since Quentin Crisp was born, a play about him called Resident Alien will be revived this weekĬrisp, who died in 1999, was born 100 year ago.
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