Leslie Jordan ✝

Leslie Allen Jordan (April 29, 1955 – October 24, 2022) was an American actor, comedian, writer, and singer. His television roles include Beverley Leslie on Will & Grace (2001–2006 and 2017–2020), several characters on television in the American Horror Story franchise (2013–2019), Sid on The Cool Kids (2018–2019), Phil on Call Me Kat (2021–2022), and Lonnie Garr on Hearts Afire (1993–1995). On stage, he played Earl "Brother Boy" Ingram in the 1996 play Sordid Lives, later portraying the character in the 2000 film of the same name. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Jordan became an Instagram contributor, amassing 5.8 million followers in 2020, and published his autobiography How Y'all Doing? Misadventures and Mischief from a Life Well Lived in April 2021. Jordan was born on April 29, 1955, and was raised in Chattanooga, Tennessee. He graduated from Brainerd High School. Jordan said his mother, Peggy Ann Jordan (née Griffin; 1935–2022), was supportive and accepting, despite never truly understanding him. Jordan's father, Allen Bernard Jordan, was a major in the United States Army Reserve and died, along with two others, in the crash of a civilian Beechcraft Debonair airplane at Camp Shelby, Mississippi, on March 31, 1967, when Jordan was almost 12 years old. In a 2014 interview, Jordan said that he had a difficult time growing up Southern Baptist. "I was baptized 14 times. Every time the preacher would say, 'Come forward, sinners!' I'd say, 'Oooh, I was out in the woods with that boy. I better go forward.'" Jordan moved to Los Angeles in 1982, where he became involved with drugs and alcohol and was arrested several times. He began to journal daily, which helped him recover from drug and alcohol abuse. In 2010, Jordan told talk show host Wendy Williams that he had been sober for 13 years. In the same appearance, Jordan said that before he gave up drinking, he once shared a cell with Robert Downey Jr., and when they both appeared later on Ally McBeal, Downey couldn't quite place where they had met before.