Quentin Crisp
| Quentin Crisp | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born | Denis Charles Pratt 25 December 1908 Sutton, Surrey, England, United Kingdom |
| Died | 21 November 1999 (aged 90) Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Manchester, England, United Kingdom |
| Occupation | Writer, illustrator, actor, artist's model |
| Notable works | The Naked Civil Servant |
|
|
|
| Signature |  |
Quentin Crisp (born Denis Charles Pratt; 25 December 1908 – 21 November 1999) was an English writer and raconteur.
From a conventional suburban background, Crisp enjoyed wearing make-up and painting his nails, and worked as a rent-boy in his teens. He then spent thirty years as a professional model for life-classes in art colleges. The interviews he gave about his unusual life attracted increasing public curiosity and he was soon sought after for his highly individual views on social manners and the cultivating of style. His one-man stage show was a long-running hit both in Britain and America and he also appeared in films and on TV. Crisp defied convention by criticising both gay liberation and Diana, Princess of Wales.
Denis Charles Pratt was born in Sutton, South London, on Christmas Day 1908, the fourth child of solicitor Spencer Charles Pratt (1871–1931) and former governess Frances Marion Pratt (née Phillips; 1873–1960). His elder siblings were Katherine (1901–1976), Gerald (1902–1983) and Lewis (1907–1968). He changed his name to Quentin Crisp in his twenties after leaving home and cultivating his effeminate appearance to a standard that both shocked contemporary Londoners and provoked homophobic attacks.
By his own account Crisp was effeminate in behaviour from an early age and found himself the object of teasing at Kingswood House School in Epsom, from which he won a scholarship to Denstone College, Uttoxeter, in 1922. After leaving school in 1926 Crisp studied journalism at King's College London but failed to graduate in 1928 going on to take art classes at the Regent Street Polytechnic.
Around this time Crisp began visiting the cafés of Soho – his favourite being The Black Cat in Old Compton Street – meeting other young homosexual men and rent-boys, and experimenting with make-up and women's clothes. For six months he worked as a male sex worker, looking for love, he said in a 1999 interview, but finding only degradation.
...
Wikipedia