James Lee Williams, a drag performer and winner of the primary season of “RuPaul’s Drag Race UK,” who was greatest recognized by the stage identify The Vivienne, died over the weekend. They have been 32.
Williams’ demise was introduced in a statement by their supervisor Simon Jones, who didn’t cite a purpose.
Williams, who adopted the stage name for her love of dressing up in Vivienne Westwood, rose to fame as one of many world’s most recognizable drag queens after profitable the primary season of RuPaul’s Drag Race UK.
On the present, Vivienne was recognized for her comedy and vocal imitations — particularly that of Donald Trump — and opened up for substance abuse and restoration.
“Viv is the proper instance of a twenty first century British queen,” RuPaul said at the 2019 finale.
James Lee Williams was born on April 12, 1992. in Colwyn Bay, Wales. At 16, Williams moved to Liverpool, England to pursue a profession as a make-up artist. It was in Liverpool where they earned their nickname Vivienne on dressing head-to-toe Vivienne Westwood and discovering her ardour for drag, Williams said in an interview with The Sunday Times in 2020.
“One evening I noticed drag queens in a membership and I used to be shocked,” Williams said in the interview. “These folks have been getting paid to have a fantastic evening and entertain folks. I knew straight away that this was what I needed to do.
Williams started performing and settled on the pseudonym for a stage identify. “I did not need a kind of low-cost, nasty names for drag,” Williams said in an interview with The Sunday Times.
c 2019 interview for the BBCWilliams described Vivienne as somebody “who made cash, she moved to LA and blew all of it, after which she had to return to Liverpool”.
“I wish to have a very fierce look, however I wish to be humorous on stage, so I am sort of old-fashioned and new college combined collectively, which I feel works,” Williams said in the interview.
In 2015The Vivienne beat out 20 different acts in a one-day competitors hosted by RuPaul. 4 years later, Williams auditioned and ended up profitable the inaugural sequence of RuPaul’s Drag Race UK.
Williams continued to appear on the seventh season of “RuPaul’s Drag Race: All Stars” as The Vivienne and was a finalist on the British sequence “Dancing on Ice” in 2023.
Williams had too build a career in musical theatre, showing because the Depraved Witch of the West within the UK and Irish tour of The Wizard of Oz and on the Gillian Lynne Theater within the West Finish.
Williams had simply completed his tour as The Vivienne within the manufacturing of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, taking part in the function of the ‘Baby Catcher’ and was because of reprise his function on the tour in February. according to WestEndTheatre.com, a British theater news site.
“I feel being an incredible performer is nice, however I simply suppose with the ability to relate to somebody who’s a bit unusual is so much nicer than having all the talents on the earth,” Vivienne stated on RuPaul’s Finale Drag Race UK, in keeping with The BBC. “I haven’t got all the talents on the earth, however what I do have are the instruments to make somebody really feel comfy with themselves.”
