īy the time of Divine's birth in 1945, the Milsteads were affluent and socially conservative Baptists. armed forces in the Second World War instead, he and Frances worked through the war years in what they considered "good jobs". Due to muscular dystrophy, Harris was not required to join the U.S.
After marrying in 1938, they were both hired at the Black & Decker factory in Towson.
When she was 16, she moved to Baltimore where she worked at a diner in Towson where she met Harris, a regular customer. Divine's mother, Frances Milstead ( née Vukovich April 12, 1920 – March 24, 2009), was one of 15 children born to an impoverished Serb immigrant couple who had grown up near Zagreb (in today's Croatia) before moving to the United States in 1891. His father, Harris Bernard Milstead (May 1, 1917 – March 4, 1993), after whom he was named, was one of seven children born in Towson, Maryland, to a plumber who worked for the Baltimore City Water Department. Various books and documentary films devoted to his life have also been produced, including Divine Trash (1998) and I Am Divine (2013).Įarly life Childhood: 1945–1965 Glenn "Divine" Milstead's high school yearbook photo at age 17 ĭivine was born as Harris Glenn Milstead on October 19, 1945, at Women's Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland. Stress on his enlarged heart led to a heart attack that killed him shortly after the release of Hairspray.ĭescribed by People magazine as the "Drag Queen of the Century", Divine has remained a cult figure, particularly within the LGBT community, and has provided the inspiration for fictional characters, artworks, and songs. Divine had a condition called cardiomegaly. He achieved international chart success with hits like " You Think You're a Man", " I'm So Beautiful", and " Walk Like a Man", all of which were performed in drag. In 1981, Divine embarked on a career in the then-wavering disco industry, performing on a number of Hi-NRG tracks, most of which were written by Bobby Orlando. Independent of Waters, he also appeared in a number of other films, such as Lust in the Dust (1985) and Trouble in Mind (1985), seeking to diversify his repertoire by playing male roles. Continuing his cinematic work, he starred in two more of Waters' films, Polyester (1981) and Hairspray (1988), the latter of which represented his breakthrough into mainstream cinema and for which he was nominated for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Male. He followed this with a performance in Tom Eyen's play Women Behind Bars and its sequel, The Neon Woman.
Divine royalty conjure queen group movie#
midnight movie circuit, became a cult classic, and established Milstead's fame in the American counterculture.Īfter starring as the lead role in Waters' next film, Female Trouble (1974), Divine moved on to theater, appearing in several avant-garde performances alongside San Francisco drag collective The Cockettes. Milstead next starred in Waters' Pink Flamingos (1972), which was a hit on the U.S. Again in drag, he took a lead role in both of Waters' early full-length movies, Mondo Trasho (1969) and Multiple Maniacs (1970), the latter of which attracted press attention for the group.
By the mid-1960s he had embraced the city's countercultural scene and befriended Waters, who gave him the name "Divine" and the tagline of: "The most beautiful woman in the world.almost." Along with his friend David Lochary, Milstead joined Waters' acting troupe, the Dreamlanders, and adopted female roles for their experimental short films Roman Candles (1966), Eat Your Makeup (1968), and The Diane Linkletter Story (1969). Closely associated with independent filmmaker John Waters, Divine was a character actor, usually performing female roles in cinematic and theatrical productions, and adopted a female drag persona for his music career.īorn in Baltimore, Maryland, to a conservative middle-class family, Milstead developed an early interest in drag while working as a women's hairdresser. Harris Glenn Milstead (Octo– March 7, 1988), better known by his stage name Divine, was an American actor, singer, and drag queen.
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