TRANSGENDER, ACTRESS, CABARET PERFORMER, MUSICIAN ALEXIS ARQUETTE DIES AT 47

Transgender actress, musician, and cabaret performer Alexis Arquette — sister to actors Rosanna, Patricia, David, and Richmond Arquette — has passed away at age 47.

Richmond confirmed the news via his personal Facebook page Sunday morning.

“Our brother Robert, who became our brother Alexis, who became our sister Alexis, passed this morning September 11, at 12:23am,” Richmond posted.

 “He was surrounded by all of his brothers and sisters, one of his nieces and several other loves ones. We were playing music for him and he passed during David Bowie’s ‘Starman.’ As per his wishes, we cheered at the moment that he transitioned to another dimension.”

 Alexis Arquette was born Robert Arquette in Los Angeles on July 28, 1969, and transitioned to female in 2006. (Her transition was the subject of the film Alexis Arquette: She’s My Brother, which debuted at the 2007 Tribeca Film Festival.) Arquette’s first professional acting job, at age 12, was playing the boy on the carnival ride in the Tubes’ “She’s a Beauty” music video, a major MTV hit in 1983.

 Arquette later went on to score roles in the Bette Midler comedy Down and Out in Beverly Hills, Last Exit to Brooklyn, Pulp Fiction, Bride of Chucky, and more than 40 other independent films. She also memorable played a Boy George impersonator in two movies, 1998’s The Wedding Singer and 2014’s Blended. Boy George tweeted upon hearing the news of Arquette’s death.

 Arquette was introduced to a wider audience in 2006, when she co-starred on the VH1 reality show The Surreal Life with Poison guitarist C. C. DeVille and Whitesnake video vixen Tawny Kitaen. Her TV appearance brought the transgender community increased visibility and awareness, years before Caitlin Jenner had her own reality show — most memorably in a scene depicting Arquette being harassed at a restaurant.

 Arquette was also a popular drag and cabaret artist on the L.A. club circuit, sometimes performing as her drag alter ego, Eva Destruction. She was a regular at the hugely popular late-‘90s/early-2000s glam nightspot Club Makeup, created by Psychotica frontman Pat Briggs, which hosted all-star revues featuring Linda Perry, the Cult, Ice-T, Marilyn Manson, Ann Magnuson, Gilby Clarke, and other rockers.

 Richmond Arquette’s Facebook post said Alexis’s passing was “fast and painless,” but did not provide details as to the cause of death. Alexis’s other siblings have not commented at press time. TMZ reports that Alexis had been “battling an illness.”