Leslie Jordan, ‘Will & Grace’ actor and ‘queer icon,’ dies at 67 after crash in Hollywood
On Monday, the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s Office identified Leslie Jordan as one of two people killed in a fiery car crash on Pacific Coast Highway.
The 46-year-old actor, who became a regular on “Will & Grace” and played a gay male lead in the Broadway run of “Avenue Q,” died at a local hospital after the crash on Saturday night, KTLA reported.
His death comes just a few month after the death of another gay icon, actor Michael J. Fox, who was on his way home to Los Angeles from a charity event at the National September 11 Memorial & Museum with his longtime partner, actress Susan Sarandon. Fox died in the same fiery crash as Jordan had back in January.
The actor, who also portrayed Andy Bernard in “Will & Grace,” served as president of the board of the Los Angeles LGBT Center in 2015. In a statement released on his Facebook page, Jordan called his work as a community leader a “part-time job,” and said he felt it was his role to “keep it real.”
Jordan was known for roles in some of the most iconic films and TV series to emerge in the 1970s and 1980s, such as “Clueless” and “Will & Grace.” Those include roles in “I Love You, Alice B. Toklas,” “A League of Their Own” and “Tootsie” as well as supporting roles in films like “Kramer vs. Kramer,” “Jaws” and “The Color Purple.”
In addition to the Broadway run of “Avenue Q” and roles in “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” and “Charlie’s Angels,” he was a regular at The Largo at the Beverly Hills Hotel for the last decade of his life.
He was born on July 5, 1956, and was raised in a house full of books and often spent his weekends reading in his parents’ library. Jordan had a bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of Southern California and studied
