Jul 28, 1969

Los Angeles, California, USA

Perhaps the most enigmatic -- and unpredictable -- member of the Arquette acting
dynasty, Alexis Arquette has appeared in a huge variety of colorful supporting
roles that have highlighted both his range and eccentricity as a performer. The
grandson of vaudevillians, son of veteran character actor Lewis Arquette and poet
Mardi Arquette, and brother of Rosanna, Patricia, David, and Richmond Arquette, he
was born in L.A. in 1969. Like his siblings, Arquette broke into film at a young
age, mak... ... (read more...) ing his screen debut with a minor role in Down and out in Beverly Hills in
1986. He had his first breakthrough as Georgette, a sensitive young man with a
crush on a neighborhood thug in Last Exit to Brooklyn (1990).

Arquette went on to portray characters ranging from a gay university student in
Threesome (1994) to an unfortunate gunman summarily dispatched by John Travolta and
Samuel L. Jackson in Pulp Fiction (1994) to a Boy George-esque musician in The
Wedding Singer (1998). He also did a memorable turn as himself in Wigstock: The
Movie (1995), a documentary about New York's famed Outfest in which the actor
flaunted plenty of glorious plumage, to say nothing of attitude. His role in the
film was particularly appropriate, considering his well-known second job as a drag
performer by the name of Eva Destruction. Although Arquette's offscreen image
(fostered by his work as a drag performer and by appearances in a number of gay
magazines) has tended to win him a greater reputation than his onscreen work, he
remains one of the cinema's more engaging and underrated actors.