LILY RAVAGED
Comedian and drag star Paul O’Grady has gone to the dogs aged 67. O’Grady started off as a social worker who rescued multiple children from abusive situations before intermingling with the Liverpudlian gay scene. He was working as a barman when remarking he could do a better job hosting ladies’ night than those who were currently in the job. With the club’s encouragement, he took up the tart-tongued peroxide alter ego Lily Savage, inspired by the vibrant women in his own family lineage, and his act proved so popular it spread like wildfire across clubs and was key to catapulting drag into the mainstream.
Throughout the 80s, the Royal Vauxhall Tavern became his home for much of the decade. He used his act to raise awareness of the horrors of AIDS and Thatcher’s bigotry while never losing his humour, quipping “it looks like we’ve got help with the washing up” when police wearing rubber gloves raided the RVT. In the 90s he, still as Lily Savage, gained a national audience hosting multiple programmes often flanked by his beloved dogs – The Lily Savage Show, The Big Breakfast, Blankety Blank. Two heart attacks in the early aughts interrupted his career, and in the interim he ditched the wig, retired Savage, and focused solely on acting and presenting as Paul O’Grady such as in The Paul O’Grady Show.
In the 2010s he frequently hosted animal programmes, and intermittently revived Lily Savage for special occasions. Offscreen he continued to do a lot of good for the world – both with his devoted animal rights activism (raising tonnes for charities) and his unwavering support of all stripes of the LGBT community. O’Grady was also noted for his close friendship with Cilla Black. To nick a line from another drag cornerstone, nobody’s perfect!
Despite the surprise of his death, his past ticker issues always meant he was going to be on a team or two, and he drags Gay-Tes of Heaven and Two Coins & A Punt onto the scoreboard.
Paul O’Grady
14 June 1955 – 28 March 2023, aged 67
2 TEAMS (💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀 8 POINTS)