Divine

Harris Glenn Milstead grew up in a conservative Baltimore household, worked as a hairdresser, and by the mid-1960s had fallen in with filmmaker John Waters, who christened him Divine and billed him as "the most beautiful woman in the world, almost." He joined Waters's Dreamlanders troupe in drag for experimental shorts, then took leads in Mondo Trasho and Multiple Maniacs before Pink Flamingos made him a cult hero on the midnight circuit in 1972. After Female Trouble he moved into avant-garde theater with The Cockettes and Tom Eyen's Women Behind Bars, then returned to Waters for Polyester and Hairspray, the latter earning him an Independent Spirit nomination and marking his first real crossover. He also chased range in non-Waters films like Lust in the Dust, playing men. Starting in 1982 he recorded hi-NRG tracks with Bobby Orlando and scored international hits including "You Think You're a Man" and "Walk Like a Man." He died March 7, 1988, three weeks after Hairspray opened.