Elizabeth Coffey is an American

actress An actor or actress is a person who portrays a character in a performance. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. The analogous Greek term is (), li ...

. She had notable roles in four of the early films of

John Waters John Samuel Waters Jr. (born April 22, 1946) is an American filmmaker, writer, actor, and artist. He rose to fame in the early 1970s for his transgressive cult films, including '' Multiple Maniacs'' (1970), '' Pink Flamingos'' (1972) and '' Fe ...

. Coffey is a transgender woman.

Biography

Coffey was born in 1948 in

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

, NY. She is considered one of the

Dreamlanders Dreamlanders are the cast and crew of regulars whom John Waters has used in his films. The term comes from the name of Waters' production company, Dreamland Productions. Many of the original Dreamlanders were friends of Waters from his native Bal ...

, Waters'

ensemble Ensemble may refer to: Art * Architectural ensemble * Ensemble (album), ''Ensemble'' (album), Kendji Girac 2015 album * Ensemble (band), a project of Olivier Alary * Ensemble cast (drama, comedy) * Ensemble (musical theatre), also known as the ...

of regular cast and crew members. At the time of her first film appearance in Waters' ''

Pink Flamingos ''Pink Flamingos'' is a 1972 American film directed, written, produced, narrated, filmed, and edited by John Waters. It is part of what Waters has labelled the "Trash Trilogy", which also includes '' Female Trouble'' (1974) and '' Desperate Liv ...

'' (

1972 Within the context of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) it was the longest year ever, as two leap seconds were added during this 366-day year, an event which has not since been repeated. (If its start and end are defined using mean solar tim ...

), Coffey was a pre-operative transgender woman who had already undergone hormone therapy to develop breasts and female features. She played the part of a beautiful woman who turns the tables on a perverted flasher/

voyeur Voyeurism is the sexual interest in or practice of watching other people engaged in intimate behaviors, such as undressing, sexual activity, or other actions of a private nature. The term comes from the French ''voir'' which means "to see". ...

by exposing herself and flashing him, sending him fleeing in shock. Coffey underwent gender confirmation surgery a week after her scene was filmed. She was one of the first trans women to get

gender confirmation surgery Gender-affirming surgery (GAS) is a surgical procedure, or series of procedures, that alters a transgender or transsexual person's physical appearance and sexual characteristics to resemble those associated with their identified gender, and alle ...

from

Johns Hopkins Hospital The Johns Hopkins Hospital (JHH) is the teaching hospital and biomedical research facility of the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, located in Baltimore, Maryland, U.S. It was founded in 1889 using money from a bequest of over $7 million (1873 m ...

. She also appears in Waters' film, ''

Female Trouble ''Female Trouble'' is a 1974 American dark comedy film co-composed, photographed, co-edited, written, produced, and directed by John Waters and starring Divine, David Lochary, Mary Vivian Pearce, Mink Stole, Edith Massey, Michael Potter, Cook ...

'' ( 1974) playing Earnestine, the sorrowful death row cellmate of Dawn Davenport (

Divine Divinity or the divine are things that are either related to, devoted to, or proceeding from a deity.divine< ...

). She also appeared in Waters’ films ''

Desperate Living ''Desperate Living'' is a 1977 American comedy film directed, produced, and written by John Waters. The film stars Liz Renay, Mink Stole, Edith Massey, Susan Lowe, Mary Vivian Pearce, and Jean Hill. It is the third installment of what Water ...

'' and ''

Hairspray Hairspray may refer to: * Hair spray, a personal grooming product that keeps hair protected from humidity and wind * ''Hairspray'' (1988 film), a film by John Waters ** ''Hairspray'' (1988 soundtrack), the film's soundtrack album ** ''Hairspray ...

''. Coffey is currently divorced, with one adopted child. She remains in contact with Waters, and has worked with several AIDS-related charities. She currently lives in

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...

in the John C. Anderson Apartments, an LGBTQ-friendly senior living community, where she co-facilitates TransWay, a trans and gender non-conforming support group. She once lived in Rockford, Illinois.

Filmography

*''

'' (

) as trans flasher *''

'' ( 1974) as Earnestine *''

'' (

1977 Events January * January 8 – Three bombs explode in Moscow within 37 minutes, killing seven. The bombings are attributed to an Armenian separatist group. * January 10 – Mount Nyiragongo erupts in eastern Zaire (now the Democrat ...

) as bartender *''

'' (

1988 File:1988 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The oil platform Piper Alpha explodes and collapses in the North Sea, killing 165 workers; The USS Vincennes (CG-49) mistakenly shoots down Iran Air Flight 655; Australia celebrates its Bicenten ...

) as Dance kid mom

References

External links

*
Dreamland website
American film actresses Transgender actresses Living people American LGBT actors LGBT people from New York (state) 1948 births {{US-film-actor-stub