Howard Rollins was one of the young performers whose career was cut short by drug abuse and lymphoma associated with AIDS. He died on December 8th, 1998.
Howard Rollins disguised as a sassy woman in his final days. People started to assert that he was a gay personality as a result.
Howard Rollins, also known as Howard Ellsworth Rollins Jr., had a covert double life. Although Rollins pretended to be a male in front of the audience, he frequently dressed as a sassy woman.
The American actor’s metamorphosis into a woman was only made public after his untimely death on December 8, 1996.
When he passed away, he was sporting a wig and star-adorned clothing.
Furthermore, his friends and neighbors later divulged precise details of his change, suggesting that he may have been a gay man all along.
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By disguising himself as a woman, Howard Rollins felt “relief.”
Howard Rollins was a secret keeper who mostly guarded his sexual orientation and personal life.
But upon Rollins’ passing, the secrets were made public thanks to revelations made by his closest friends and neighbors in an interview with the GLOBE on December 24, 1996.
One of the late actor’s friends admitted that Rollins found solace in disguising himself as a woman.
As a result, he used to dress in drag, put his hands on his hip, and identify as a woman named Tooraloora Goldfarb.
If someone called him Howard while he was in that get-up, he would respond, “Excuse me! Tooraloora Goldfarb here.
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The heat of the Night by Howard Rollins
Another friend of Rollins, Bright, who lived next door to him for 18 years, confessed to GLOBE that the actor loved to flaunt his new feminine attire to his friends and that he frequently went straight to transvestite clubs in costume in search of male companions.
When he was feeling well, he loved to dress in a stunning woman’s outfit and go to transvestite clubs hunting for male partners.
His favorite thing in the entire world was showing off a new outfit to a buddy — especially winter ensembles like a women’s coat over a skirt and stockings.
His friend Franco even noted that he had a collection of six wigs—four blonde, one brunette, and one redhead—and that the late stage actor would stand in front of his mirror in his dresses, straightening his artificial bosoms and arranging his seams.
He desired to be buried wearing a gold beaded cocktail dress
Rollins had allowed his neighbor Marcie Hirsch to see him in feminine clothing when dumping his groceries.
He was eating Haagen-Dazs and watching his show’s reruns while wearing a dress and a blonde wig at the time.
A mere coincidence, but after a few weeks of such demands, Rollins died. He was discovered unconscious in his apartment with a spangled dress and wig.
Additionally, the Ragtime star had asked his best friends to bury him as a female, specifically requesting to be buried in a black and gold-beaded cocktail dress, with makeup and fake eyelashes.
His remains were ultimately flown to his hometown of Baltimore and given to his family, who cremated him.
Despite the paramedics’ best efforts, he passed away from AIDS-related lymphoma complications at the St. Luke’s Roosevelt Hospital Center.
All things considered, Rollins’ actions—such as his transformation into a woman—his friends’ comments, and the fact that he passed away wearing feminine attire—indicate that he might have been homosexual.
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