This was published 9 months ago
Leslie Jordan, versatile Emmy-winning actor, dies at 67
By Lynn Elber and Mark Kennedy
Los Angeles: Leslie Jordan, the Emmy-winning actor whose wry Southern drawl and versatility made him a comedy and drama standout on TV series including Will & Grace and American Horror Story, has died. He was 67.
“The world is definitely a much darker place today without the love and light of Leslie Jordan. 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,” a representative for Jordan said in a statement.
“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.”
Jordan died on Monday in a single car crash in Hollywood, according to reports by celebrity website TMZ and the Los Angeles Times, citing unnamed law enforcement sources.
The Tennessee native, who won an on outstanding guest actor Emmy in 2005 for Will & Grace, appeared recently on the Mayim Bialik comedy Call me Kat and co-starred on the sitcom The Cool Kids.
Stars of “Will & Grace” mourned his death.
“My heart is broken,” Sean Hayes tweeted. “Everyone who ever met him, loved him.”
Jordan earned an unexpected new following in 2021 when the longtime Los Angeles resident area spent time during the pandemic lockdown near family in his hometown. He broke the sameness by posting daily videos of himself on Instagram.
Many of Jordan’s videos included him asking “How ya’ll doin?” and some included stories about Hollywood or his childhood growing up with identical twin sisters and their “mama,” as he called her. Other times he did silly bits, such as complete an indoor obstacle course.
“Someone called from California and said, ‘Oh, honey, you’ve gone viral.’ And I said, ’No, no, I don’t have COVID. I’m just in Tennessee,” said Jordan. Celebrities including Michelle Pfeiffer, Jessica Alba and Anderson Cooper, along with brands such as Reebok and Lululemon, would post comments.
He said he soon he became fixated with the number of views and followers he had, because there wasn’t much else going on.
“For a while there, it was like obsessive. And I thought, ‘This is ridiculous. Stop, stop, stop.’ You know, it almost became, ‘If it doesn’t happen on Instagram, it didn’t happen.’ And I thought, ‘You’re 65, first of all. You’re not some teenage girl’.”
The spotlight led to new opportunities. Earlier this month he released a gospel album called Company’s Comin’, featuring Dolly Parton, Chris Stapleton, Brandi Carlile, Eddie Vedder and Tanya Tucker. He also wrote a new book, How Y’all Doing?: Misadventures and Mischief from a Life Well Lived.
Leslie Jordan carries his award for outstanding guest actor in a comedy series, for his work on Will & Grace, during the Creative Arts Emmy Awards in Los Angeles in 2006.Credit: AP
It was Jordan’s second book, following his 2008 memoir, My Trip Down the Red Carpet.
“That sort of dealt with all the angst and growing up gay in the Baptist Church and la, la, la, la, la. And this one, I just wanted to tell stories,” he said in a 2021 interview.
Among the anecdotes: working with Lady Gaga on American Horror Story; how meeting Carrie Fisher led to Debbie Reynolds calling his mother; and the Shetland pony he got as a child named Midnight.
Jordan said he considered himself a storyteller by nature.
Leslie Jordan in April last year while promoting his book How Y’all Doing?: Misadventures and Mischief from a Life Well Lived. The Emmy-winning actor has died at 67. Credit: AP
“It’s very Southern. If I was to be taught a lesson or something when I was a kid, I was told a story,” he said.
In a 2014 interview with Philadelphia magazine, Jordan was asked how he related to his role in the 2013 film Southern Baptist Sissies, which explores growing up gay while being raised in a conservative Baptist church.
“I really wanted to be a really good Christian, like some of the boys in the movie. I was baptised 14 times,” Jordan said. “Every time the preacher would say, ‘Come forward, sinners!,’ I’d say ‘Oooh, I was out in the woods with that boy, I better go forward.’ My mother thought I was being dramatic. She’d say, ‘Leslie, you’re already saved,’ and I’d say, ‘Well, I don’t think it took’.”
In 2007, Jordan discussed how a role as an Alcoholics Anonymous sponsor in the CW teen drama Hidden Palms reflected his life and included a valuable lesson.
“If there is anything that kids could walk away with it is that people who use drugs and alcohol are masking something,” Jordan told the Associated Press. “With me, it was my homosexuality. It was just easier to be gay when I was high. So I stayed high for 33 years. ... I don’t know when it went from recreational to medicinal, but that’s the line you cross where I needed a drink to get to a party, to be funny, to be me.”
Jordan arrived in Los Angeles in 1982 hoping to make it as an actor. He was told his 4-foot-11 stature and accent would hold him back. His big break came playing the role of a hapless ex-con in a 1989 episode of “Murphy Brown.”
“When that episode aired, my agent called the next day and said, ‘I’ve never seen anything like this. The phone is ringing off the hook.’”
With Alicia Rancilio
AP