Alexis Arquette biography

Synopsis

Early Life

Actress, entertainer. Born Robert Arquette on July 28, 1969, in Los Angeles, California to veteran actor Lewis Arquette and poet Mardi Arquette. Part of the Arquette acting dynasty, Alexis Arquette has sometimes gained more notice for her personal life and persona than for her film and television work. Born a biological male, Alexis gravitated toward the feminine at an early age. “I remember Alexis growing up, and we’d be in school in kindergarten, and they’d say, ‘Get in line, boys here, girls here.’ Alexis would always get in the girls’ line,” his sister Patricia Arquette explained to the Los Angeles Times in 2008. Over time, Alexis chose to live her life as a transgendered female.

Acting Debut

Her father, Lewis, was a character actor who is perhaps best known for his recurring role as J.D. Pickett on the family drama The Waltons in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Her oldest sister Rosanna shot to fame in the mid-1980s with the hit film Desperately Seeking Susan. Her other siblings - Patricia, David, and Richmond - soon started trying to launch their own acting careers. Alexis also followed suit, landing a bit part in the comedy Down and Out in Beverly Hills (1986). She had a more substantial role a few years later in Last Exit to Brooklyn (1990), playing Georgette, a young man who becomes romantically interested in a local tough guy.

Arquette continued to work as an actress, appearing in a string of films over the years, most of them independent works. Some of her more notable roles include playing a gay college student in Threesome (1994) and a Boy George look-alike in the romantic comedy The Wedding Singer (1998), starring Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore. She also had a bit part as a failed assassin in the Quentin Tarantino film Pulp Fiction (1994), which also featured her sister Rosanna.

Performing in drag, Arquette built up quite a following with her stage alter ego Eva Destruction. She was featured in Wigstock: The Movie (1995) about New York’s annual drag festival. On the small screen, Arquette has done guest spots on numerous shows, including Felicity, Xena: The Warrior Princess, and Friends (which starred her sister-in-law Courteney Cox).

Recent Roles

More recently, Arquette had small parts in such films as Lords of Dogtown (2005). She also appeared as herself in the celebrity reality show The Surreal Life, which films the interactions between famous people who are forced to live in a house together. On the show, Arquette shared a home with a number of stars, including Florence Henderson of The Brady Bunch fame; rocker C. C. DeVille from the hair metal band Poison; and actress/model Tawny Kitaen.