Alexis Arquette, pioneering transgender actress, is dead at 47

Alexis Arquette, a member of Hollywood's prominent Arquette family, died on Sunday at age 47, her siblings Rosanna, Patricia, David, and Richmond said in a statement. They did not give a cause of death. Alexis, born Robert, announced that she was a transgender woman in 2006, and underwent sex reassignment surgery. "Alexis was a brilliant artist and painter, a singer, an entertainer, and an actor," her siblings said. "Her career was cut short, not by her passing, but by her decision to live her truth and her life as a transgender woman. Despite the fact that there are few parts for trans actors, she refused to play roles that were demeaning or stereotypical. She was a vanguard in the fight for understanding and acceptance for all trans people."

Earlier in her career, Alexis Arquette was in films including Last Exit to Brooklyn, Of Mice and Men, and Pulp Fiction, but she was perhaps best known for her role as George in The Wedding Singer (1998), playing a character inspired by Boy George. "R.I.P my sister Alexis Arquette. Another bright light gone out far too soon," Boy George tweeted, adding in a statement that "Alexis Arquette was a force of nature" whose portrayal of him in The Wedding Singer "had me rolling on the floor with laughter."

After Bruce Jenner transitioned into Caitlyn Jenner in 2015, according to David Arquette, Alexis said she was "gender suspicious" and would sometimes feel like both and man and woman. She died, her siblings said, "surrounded by love" with David Bowie's "Starman" playing. The family asked fans to donate to an organization that supports the LGBTQ community. Peter Weber

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