The drag community is in mourning following the passing of RuPaul’s Drag Race UK season one winner, The Vivienne, but for now we will remember them as the queen who paved the way for UK drag.
James Lee Williams’ publicist Simon Jones confirmed the heartbreaking news on Sunday evening, as he described Vivienne as a “incredibly loved, warm-hearted and amazing person.”
The drag icon has a large catalogue of experience, and performances, so lets look back on their most iconic moments.
RuPaul’s Drag Race UK
During the first season of RuPaul’s Drag Race UK The Vivienne had the nation laughing with her straight talking, winning them over with her unapologetically unique personality and constantly staying true to herself.
The drag artist adopted the name The Vivienne after her love for the British designer Vivienne Westwood and her unique fashion designs.
The most notable thing The Vivienne did whilst on season one of Drag Race UK was play Donald Trump in one of the shows challenges, The Snatch Game, complete with orange makeup and a floppy blonde wig.
The performance wad described as “the best Snatch Game character in history of the show” and all of the franchise by Michelle Visage.
It wasn’t only her humour that gained her attention as whilst on the show the Vivienne continued to perfect her makeup. She constantly received complements from the judges RuPaul, Michelle Visage, Graham Norton and Alan Carr, praising the queen on just how gorgeous their makeup was.
On the show, they described their drag style as being “like a Scouse wife who has come into money, she moved to LA and blew it all and then she’s had to move back to Liverpool”.
The Vivienne then went on to become a contestant in the seventh season of RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars in 2022 in an all winners series. Again, stealing the hearts of viewers across the glob with their humour, loving personality and gorgeous makeup artistry.
Dancing on Ice
The Vivienne was the first ever drag star to appear on the hit ITV show Dancing on Ice in 2023 and was paired with American skater Colin Grafton and the pair finished in third place overall.
The star did not appear in the bottom two of the competition once, and never dropped lower than third place on the leader board throughout the whole season.
In week five of the competition Viv surprised everyone by deciding to skate out of drag, preforming to Beyonce’s Halo as James.
Theatre and TV Appearances
The Vivienne had immense success following Drag Race, and channeled their love for drag into acting skills.
Most notably the drag icon appeared as the Wicked Witch of the West in the revival of The Wizard of Oz musical, staring alongside JLS’s Aston Merrygold in the UK and Ireland tour. As well as preforming on London’s West End at the Gillian Lynne Theatre.
Although they did not stop there when it came to theatre productions, as the star most recently preformed as the Childcatcher on tour with Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, only just preforming in Blackpool a week ago.
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Viv also appeared on the Big Brother Late and Live panel with Drag Race winner Danny Beard, and caused quite a stir with witty one liners and hilarious opinions, leaving fans wanting to more.
Most recently The Vivienne appeared on the 2024 Christmas special of BBC’s Blankety Blank with Oti Mabuse, Jane McDonald, Joel Dommet, Jonathan Ross and Sara Pascoe.
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