Doris Fish (born Philip Clargo Mills; 11 August 1952 – 22 June 1991) was a

drag queen A drag queen is a person, usually male, who uses drag clothing and makeup to imitate and often exaggerate female gender signifiers and gender roles for entertainment purposes. Historically, drag queens have usually been gay men, and part o ...

, artist, actor and writer, based in

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

, Australia, and

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

, United States. As Doris Fish, Mills wrote and starred in the

cult movie A cult film or cult movie, also commonly referred to as a cult classic, is a film that has acquired a cult following. Cult films are known for their dedicated, passionate fanbase which forms an elaborate subculture, members of which engage in ...

classic ''

Vegas in Space ''Vegas in Space'' is a 1991 science fiction/comedy film directed by Phillip R. Ford and starring Doris Fish, Tippi, Miss X, Ramona Fischer, and Lori Naslund. The plot concerns three male space travelers who must become women in order to complete ...

''.

Early life

Philip Clargo Mills was born in Sydney on 11 August 1952, the middle child of six in a Catholic family that allowed a

marijuana Cannabis, also known as marijuana among other names, is a psychoactive drug from the cannabis plant. Native to Central or South Asia, the cannabis plant has been used as a drug for both recreational and entheogenic purposes and in various tra ...

plant on its property. He grew up in the suburb of

Manly Vale Manly Vale is a suburb of northern Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia 17 kilometres north-east of the Sydney central business district in the local government area of Northern Beaches Council, in the Northern Beaches region ...

Career

Sydney

Mills began performing using the

stage name A stage name is a pseudonym used by performers and entertainers—such as actors, comedians, singers, and musicians. Such professional aliases are adopted for a wide variety of reasons and they may be similar, or nearly identical, to an individu ...

Doris Fish in Sydney in 1972 as one of the three core performers of the political drag group Sylvia and the Synthetics (1972–1974), along with Miss Abood (Danny Abood, Daniel Archer) and Jacqueline Hyde. In 1975 Mills visited San Francisco for the first time on holiday, before moving there permanently the following year. Doris regularly returned to Sydney, Australia in the late 1970s, comparing shows for ''Cabaret conspiracy'', performing in the Sydney Gay Theatre Group's production of Noel Greig's ''As Time Goes By'' (1979), or performing at venues such as Garibaldi's along with the Doreens. During 1978–1979 Mills as Doris was also the American West-Coast Correspondent for Campaign, a national gay and lesbian newspaper in Australia. With the development of the Sydney Gay Mardi Gras Workshop by

Peter Tully Peter Tully (1947-1992), was a jeweller, designer and artistic director, notable for his influence on jewellery design in Australia through the utilisation of found and non-precious materials, as well as his artistic direction of the Sydney Mard ...

in 1983, Mills would return annually to volunteer in the Workshop building community floats and creating costumes for Doris' individual and group floats. Doris also continued to host events, including the first Mardi Gras Awards at Kinselas in 1987.

San Francisco

In 1976 at an audition for the rock group

The Tubes The Tubes are a San Francisco-based rock band. Their eponymous 1975 debut album included the single "White Punks on Dope," while their 1983 single "She's a Beauty" was a top-10 U.S. hit and its music video was frequently played in the early day ...

, he met fellow drag queen Tippi, and they became roommates. In 1977 San Francisco gay leaders urged no drag on Gay Freedom Day. Doris and many other drags turned out in force. Also in 1977, Doris was cast in the James Moss directed feature-length film ''Magazine movie'', a magazine format film about San Francisco, playing herself, "a fake woman from Australia who has won the heart of San Francisco". At a come-as-your-favorite-Fellini-character party in 1979. Mills met Miss X who wasn't yet serious about doing drag, but by the end of the year Doris Fish, Tippi and Miss X were performing as ''Sluts-A-Go-Go''. Throughout the 1980s Doris Fish was one of the more prominent drag queens in San Francisco. On stage, Doris Fish performed for over 10 years in San Francisco with Miss X and Tippi as Sluts A-Go-Go. Sluts A-Go-Go performed in venues like Club 181 with shows such as Marc Huestis' Naked Brunch series and the Phillip R. Ford Happy Hour series culminating in Nightclub of the Living Dead, along with other performers such as Sandelle Hebert and Tommy Pace. In 1986, Doris and Tippi did a weekly cable news show about the gay community, although some viewers complained that Doris was a negative stereotype. As a visual artist, Mills painted hyper-realistic canvases depicting of drag queens, although he once said "If I could, I would paint my eyeballs".

Death and legacy

Mills died from complications from

AIDS Human immunodeficiency virus infection and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) is a spectrum of conditions caused by infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), a retrovirus. Following initial infection an individual m ...

in San Francisco in 1991. Mills' major legacy is the cult camp classic film ''

'', which he co-wrote and starred in with Phillip Ford.

Australian Lesbian and Gay Archives The Australian Queer Archives (AQuA) (formerly the Australian Lesbian and Gay Archives - ALGA) is a community-based non-profit organisation committed to the collection, preservation and celebration of material reflecting the lives and experienc ...

holds material relating to Doris Fish.

Recognition

The life of Philip Mills as Doris featured in the one-act play ''Simply Stunning: The Doris Fish Story'', which was performed at the

Theatre Rhinoceros Theatre Rhinoceros or Theatre Rhino is a gay and lesbian theatre based in San Francisco. It was founded in the spring of 1977 by Lanny Baugniet (who became the theater's General Manager) and his partner Allan B. Estes, Jr. (who became the theater' ...

Studio in San Francisco in September 2002. The script was adapted by Phillip R. Ford from biographical remarks Fish made in stage shows and in the column Fish wrote for the gay newspaper ''The Sentinel'' in the late 1980s. Ford (who also directed Mills' movie ''Vegas in Space'') directed the play, which starred Arturo Galster. In 2002, artworks by Doris were included in the exhibition ''Dead Gay Artists'' at the

Tin Sheds The Tin Sheds was the common name of the Sydney University Art Workshop was an Australian art workshop in Sydney, New South Wales, founded in 1969. Its name lives on in the Tin Sheds Gallery at the University of Sydney School of Architecture, ...

University of Sydney The University of Sydney (USYD), also known as Sydney University, or informally Sydney Uni, is a public research university located in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and is one of the country's si ...

, curated by Robert Lake. The exhibition also included the works of fellow artists Doug Erskine, Eddy Hackenberg, Jasper Havoc, Brad Levido, David McDiarmid, Brenton Heath Kerr and

. In 2023, a biography of Mills by Craig Seligman was published, called ''Who does that bitch think she is? Doris Fish and the Rise of Drag''. The book highlights Mills' time flourishing as drag queen Doris Fish in AIDS-era San Francisco. It was reviewed in ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

''.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Fish, Doris 1952 births 1991 deaths American drag queens Australian gay actors Actresses from Sydney Australian drag queens AIDS-related deaths in California 20th-century Australian LGBT people