Doris Fish

Doris Fish
Born	11 August 1952 Sydney, New South Wales
Died	22 June 1991 San Francisco, California
Other names	Philip Mills
Occupation	Artist Actor Writer Performer
Years active	1977 - 1991

Doris Fish was an artist, drag queen, actress, writer, art director, painter, greeting card model, makeup artist, costume designer, stand-up comedienne. columnist, set designer, wigmistress, animal rights activist, go-go dancer and prostitute. She was not a singer. She wrote and starred in Vegas In Space.

Early Life

Philip Mills was originally from Sydney, New South Wales, where in 1972 he was in the political drag group, Sylvia and the Synthetics.

Art and Performance

In 1976 he moved to San Francisco. At an audition for the rock group, The Tubes, Doris met fellow drag queen, Tippi, and they became roommates. At a come-as-your-favorite-Fellini-character party in 1979 he met Miss X who wasn’t yet serious about doing drag, but by the end of the year the three were performing as Sluts-A-Go-Go.

In 1977 San Francisco gay leaders urged no drag on Gay Freedom Day. Doris and the Sluts and many other drags turned out in force. Through the 1980s the Sluts appeared in a series of theatrical nightclub spectacles.

She was the star of movies, television, theater and nightclubs. On stage, she performed for over ten years in San Francisco with Miss X and "Tippi" as Sluts A-Go-Go. In 1986, Doris and Tippi did a weekly cable news show about the gay community, and some viewers complained that she was a negative stereotype.

As a visual artist she painted hyper-realistic canvases depicting stunning queens in drag. Her favorite subject was herself, although later she painted many commissions. Doris was perhaps, her own greatest work, her face and body receptacles for the paint and powder she used to create herself as a "Fucking Goddess".

As she once said, "If I could, I would paint my eyeballs."^[1]

Her major legacy is the film Vegas In Space, which she co-wrote and starred in with Phillip Ford, which is now a classic camp bad movie.

Death

She died from complications from AIDS in San Francisco in 1991.^[2]

References

1. ^ "Facebook: Doris Fish". http://www.facebook.com/pages/DORIS-FISH/127128723966337. 
2. ^ "A Gender Variance Who's Who: Doris Fish". http://zagria.blogspot.com/2008/08/doris-fish-1952-1991-australia-usa.html. 

External links

• Doris Fish at the Internet Movie Database
• http://www.facebook.com/pages/DORIS-FISH/127128723966337
• http://zagria.blogspot.com/2008/08/doris-fish-1952-1991-australia-usa.html

Persondata
Name	Fish, Doris
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	11 August 1952
Place of birth	Sydney, New South Wales
Date of death	22 June 1991
Place of death	San Francisco, California