Eddie Izzard - Biography

Called "the funniest man in England" by John Cleese, actor-comedian (and transvestite) Eddie Izzard refined his shtick as a street performer in Covent Garden, sitting on a unicycle, performing handcuff escapes and engaging in heavy-duty swordfights ("Our deaths for your entertainment" was the shill) while developing the ability to "talk and talk and talk and just not stop." Although he has starred in the 1994 world premiere of David Mamet's "The Cryptogram" (as a gay man) and played the title role of Christopher Marlowe's "Edward II", he far prefers a world of his own "carefully crafted rubbish" to that of serious acting, playing his various one-man shows to sold-out houses in England, France (in French) and, most recently, the USA. It is not transvestite humor; he just happens to be a cross-dresser who does comedy, specializing in stream-of-conscious fare that rarely touches on sexuality ("I'd be the perfect one-parent family").

Izzard made his feature acting debut (sans purple nail polish and Jean Paul Gaultier Chinese housecoat) as the devious anarchist-ambassador Vladimir of "The Secret Agent" (1996), Christopher Hampton's take on the Joseph Conrad novel. He later played a gum-chewing, old lady-thumping bad guy in "The Avengers", the disappointing feature based on the 60s series, and wore fantastic 70s suits (and, ironically, less makeup than anyone else in the film) as "a very can-do, gonna-make-you-a-star" band manager in Todd Haynes' "Velvet Goldmine" (both 1998). Something of a cult figure in England, Izzard was the subject of "TX", a BBC documentary made of him on tour, as well as Peter Richardson's behind-the-scenes film "Glorious: The Road Movie", which aired on Channel 4. For American TV, he acted in a 1996 episode of HBO's "Tales From the Crypt", performed on HBO's "Comic Relief VIII" and narrated the "David Bowie" segment of VH1's documentary "Legends" (both 1998). Izzard also portrayed evil disco king Tony Pompadour in the feature "The Mystery Men" (1999), battling a host of cast-off comic book superheroes played by Ben Stiller, Geoffrey Rush and Janeane Garofalo, among others. In 2002, he portrayed Tony Parker in the war-comedy feature, "All The Queen's Men", co-starring with Matt LeBlanc.