Leslie Jordan, the goofy comedian actor maybe greatest identified for his Emmy-winning flip as Beverley Leslie, the cynical foil to Megan Mullally’s Karen Walker, on Will & Grace, has died. He was 67.
Jordan was on the wheel of a BMW when he crashed into the facet of a constructing at Cahuenga Boulevard and Romaine Street in Hollywood on Monday morning. He was declared lifeless on the scene and will have suffered a medical emergency beforehand.
Jordan recurs as Phil, the homosexual baker on the café owned by Mayim Bialik’s character, on the Fox sitcom Call Me Kat, which returned for its third season final month. He appeared in all 5 of the brand new season’s episodes thus far.
His different latest work consists of activates FX’s American Horror Story — enjoying totally different characters over three seasons — and the 2018-19 Fox sitcom The Cool Kids.
The 4-foot-11 Jordan, a local of Chattanooga, Tennessee, first confirmed up because the socialite Beverley throughout the third season of NBC’s Will & Grace in 2001 and returned for the present’s reboot in 2017, showing on 17 episodes of the sequence in all. He gained his Emmy in 2006.
Will & Grace star Sean Hayes lamented his loss of life on Twitter, noting that Jordan was “one of the funniest people I ever had the pleasure of working with.”
And co-star Eric McCormack referred to as him the “funniest & flirtiest southern gent I’ve ever known.”
Many others paid tribute to the actor as nicely.
Jordan additionally recurred from 1993-95 as Lonnie Garr on the Linda Bloodworth-Thomason/Harry Thomason created CBS sequence Hearts Afire, starring John Ritter and Markie Post.
In one other notable position, he performed Earl “Brother Boy” Ingram on the stage and reprised the character — a cross-dressing gay obsessive about Tammy Wynette — for the 2000 indie movie written and directed by Del Shores and for a 2008 sequence. Both the film and TV present featured Olivia Newton-John.
He additionally stood out because the newspaper editor Mr. Blackly in The Help (2011), directed by Tate Taylor.
Jordan’s reputation grew throughout the pandemic, when his foolish Instagram posts grew his followers to five.8 million. He not too long ago rang within the new 12 months with Andy Cohen and Anderson Cooper on CNN, appeared on Fox’s The Masked Singer and guest-hosted on The Talk.
“For someone 65 years old to all of a sudden be, like, an internet star?” he stated in a 2020 interview with The New York Times. “I’ve loved attention, wanted it my whole career, and I’ve never gotten this kind of attention. I mean, even on Will & Grace, winning an Emmy, it wasn’t anything like when you have social media. When you’ve become a success there, it’s unbelievable.”
Leslie Allen Jordan was born on April 29, 1955, in Chattanooga. His father, a lieutenant colonel with the U.S. Army, was killed in a airplane crash in Mississippi when Leslie was 11.
He moved to Atlanta, the place he went again to highschool to check journalism and took a theater class, which satisfied him to pursue performing. That introduced him to Los Angeles, and in 1982, he appeared on an episode of The Fall Guy in 1986 and within the Richard Pryor film Moving On in 1987. He additionally did plenty of commercials.
Two years later, he was hilarious as Kyle, a wrongly imprisoned inmate who’s launched due to Murphy Brown and employed as her secretary, on a traditional 1989 episode of the Candice Bergen sitcom.
“I think that was probably my kind of break,” he stated. “After that aired, my agent called me. He said, ‘I’ve never had this happen. I’ve been in this business for 30 years.’ He goes, ‘Burt Reynolds wants to see you, can you do a sitcom with his wife, Loni Anderson? Mr. Spielberg’s people want to meet you for this project. Peewee Herman wants to put you on his kids show.’ I mean, it was all like one day. I had a break, a true break. I’ve just been working ever since.”
Starting in 1993, Jordan starred within the autobiographical off-Broadway present Hysterical Blindness and Other Southern Tragedies That Have Plagued My Life Thus Far. He then wrote and starred within the stage manufacturing My Trip Down the Pink Carpet, produced by Lily Tomlin and Jane Wagner; that premiered in 2010.
His résumé additionally included common or recurring TV stints on The People Next Door, Top of the Heap, Reasonable Doubts, Bodies of Evidence, Boston Public, Boston Legal, Con Man and Living the Dream.
After battling drug and alcohol abuse, Jordan stated he was sober for greater than 20 years. Last 12 months, he obtained the Timeless Star award from GALECA: The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics for an “exemplary career that has been marked by character, wisdom and wit.”
Sarah Kate Ellis, president and CEO of GLAAD, stated Jordan was a “true class act when it got here to sharing his platform and celeb to assist elevate consciousness and funds for our work to speed up acceptance for the LGBTQ group.
“As someone who was very proud of their Tennessee roots, he made it a priority to help increase visibility for LGBTQ for people in the South by participating in The Concert for Love & Acceptance and serving as grand marshal at the Nashville AIDS Walk last year.”
Survivors embrace his sister, Jana. Her twin, Janet, died in April, and their mom, Peggy Ann, died in May.
“The world is definitely a much darker place today without the love and light of Leslie Jordan,” David Shaul, his agent, stated in a press release. “Not only was he a mega talent and joy to work with, but he provided an emotional sanctuary to the nation at one of its most difficult times. What he lacked in height he made up for in generosity and greatness as a son, brother, artist, comedian, partner and human being. Knowing that he has left the world at the height of both his professional and personal life is the only solace one can have today.”
