James Lee Williams, a drag performer and winner of the inaugural season of “RuPaul’s Drag Race UK” who was finest identified by the stage title The Vivienne, died over the weekend. They have been 32.
Williams’s demise was introduced in a press release by their supervisor, Simon Jones, which didn’t cite a trigger.
Williams, who adopted the stage title for a love of dressing in Vivienne Westwood garments, rose to prominence as one of many world’s most recognizable drag queens after successful the primary season of “RuPaul’s Drag Race UK.”
On the present, The Vivienne was identified for comedy and vocal impersonations — significantly that of Donald Trump — and opened up a couple of wrestle with substance abuse and restoration.
“The Viv is an ideal instance of a twenty first century British Queen,” RuPaul mentioned within the 2019 last.
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 the place they earned their nickname Vivienne for dressing “head to toe” Vivienne Westwood and found a ardour for drag, Williams mentioned in a 2020 interview with The Sunday Instances.
“I noticed some drag queens at a membership one evening and was shocked,” Williams mentioned within the interview. “These individuals have been getting paid to have an excellent evening and entertain individuals. I knew instantly that was what I wished to do.”
Williams started performing and leaned into the nickname for a stage title. “I didn’t need a kind of low-cost, nasty drag names,” Williams mentioned in The Sunday Instances interview.
In a 2019 interview with the BBC, Williams described The Vivienne as somebody “who has come into cash, she moved to LA and blew all of it after which she’s needed to transfer again to Liverpool.”
“I prefer to have a extremely fierce look, however I prefer to be hilarious on stage, so I’m type of an old style and the brand new faculty put collectively, which I believe works,” Williams mentioned within the interview.
In 2015, The Vivienne beat out 20 different performers in a daylong competitors hosted by RuPaul. 4 years later, Williams auditioned for and ultimately received the inaugural collection of “RuPaul’s Drag Race UK.”
Williams went on to look on the seventh season of “RuPaul’s Drag Race: All Stars” as The Vivienne and was a finalist within the British collection “Dancing on Ice” in 2023.
Williams had additionally constructed a profession in musical theater, showing because the Depraved Witch of the West in a British and Irish tour of “The Wizard Of Oz,” and on the West Finish’s Gillian Lynne Theater.
Williams had simply completed touring as The Vivienne with the manufacturing “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang,” taking part in the function of “the kid catcher” and was set to reprise the function on the tour in February, in response to WestEndTheatre.com, a British theater information website.
“I believe being an incredible performer is nice, however I simply suppose with the ability to relate to somebody who’s a bit widespread is simply a lot extra endearing than having all the talents beneath the world,” The Vivienne mentioned within the last for RuPaul’s Drag Race UK, in response to the BBC. “I haven’t bought all the talents beneath the world, however what I’ve bought is the instruments to make somebody really feel comfortable with themselves.”