| 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.
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Philip Mills was originally from Sydney, New South Wales, where in 1972 he was in the political drag group, Sylvia and the Synthetics.
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.
She died from complications from AIDS in San Francisco in 1991.[2]