Lori Shannon (May 18, 1938 – February 13, 1984), born Don Seymour McLean, was a

gay ''Gay'' is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'. While scant usage referring to male homosexuality dates to the late 1 ...

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 ...

, most widely known for his recurring role from 1975 to 1977 as Beverly LaSalle on the popular sitcom ''

All in the Family ''All in the Family'' is an American television sitcom that aired on CBS for nine seasons, from January 12, 1971, to April 8, 1979. Afterwards, it was continued with the spin-off series '' Archie Bunker's Place'', which picked up where ''All in ...

.'' He was associated with the drag revues at

Finocchio's club Finocchio's Club was a former nightclub and bar in operation from 1936 to 1999 in North Beach, San Francisco, California. The club started as a speakeasy called the 201 Club in 1929, located at 406 Stockton Street. In 1933, with the repeal of pro ...

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 ...

, and wrote an entertainment column for the ''

Bay Area Reporter The ''Bay Area Reporter'' is a free weekly newspaper serving the LGBT communities in the San Francisco Bay Area. It is one of the largest-circulation LGBT newspapers in the United States, and the country's oldest continuously published newspaper ...

''.

Biography

Shannon stood in his heels and considered himself "a stand-up comic in a dress", who enjoyed startling tourists with one-liners at Finocchio's. Shannon appeared in three episodes of the

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainmen ...

sitcom ''

'' as Beverly LaSalle, a female impersonator: "Archie the Hero" (1975), in which

Archie Bunker Archie is a masculine given name, a diminutive of Archibald. It may refer to: People Given name or nickname *Archie Alexander (1888–1958), African-American mathematician, engineer and governor of the US Virgin Islands * Archie Blake (mathematici ...

gives him mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, not realizing he is male; "Beverly Rides Again" (1976), in which Archie uses him to play a practical joke on a friend; and "Edith's Crisis of Faith, Part 1" (1977), in which his murder leads

Edith Bunker Edith Bunker is a fictional character on the 1970s sitcom ''All in the Family'' (and occasionally '' Archie Bunker's Place''), played by Jean Stapleton. She is the wife of Archie Bunker, mother of Gloria Stivic, mother-in-law of Michael "Meathe ...

to question her faith in God. The role was noteworthy for its uncommonly respectful and sympathetic treatment of Beverly as a "

transvestite Transvestism is the practice of dressing in a manner traditionally associated with the opposite sex. In some cultures, transvestism is practiced for religious, traditional, or ceremonial reasons. The term is considered outdated in Western c ...

". On February 13, 1984, Shannon died of a heart attack at the age of 45 at Mission Emergency Hospital in San Francisco.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Shannon, Lori 1938 births 1984 deaths 20th-century American male actors Male actors from Santa Barbara, California Male actors from San Francisco American drag queens LGBT people from California American gay actors 20th-century American LGBT people