Walter Cole, world’s oldest drag queen as Darcelle XV, dies at 92

Walter Cole, better known as the iconic drag queen who performed for decades as Darcelle XV and a fearless advocate for the LGBTQ community, has died of natural causes in Portland, Ore. He was 92.

Darcelle, who died Thursday, was crowned the world’s oldest working drag performer in 2016 by Guinness World Records and was regaling audiences until the very end. As a performer, Darcelle was known for hosting the longest-running drag show on the U.S. West Coast. Offstage, Cole, an Army veteran, championed LGBTQ rights and charitable work.

The nightclub that Darcelle opened more than 50 years ago in downtown Portland, Darcelle XV Showplace, posted a statement on Facebook expressing grief and asking for privacy and patience.

The club, which had become a Portland cultural institution by the 1970s, was listed in 2020 on the National Register of Historic Places, making it the first site in Oregon to be nominated specifically for its significance in LGBTQ history. In the venue’s early days in the 1970s and ’80s, it was seen as taboo and protesters picketed outside, the Oregonian reported.

It provided a lifeline for many in the city’s LGBTQ community, including Cole, he told the newspaper in a 2010 interview. Cole preferred female pronouns when performing, but told the Oregonian he preferred male pronouns offstage.

“If I hadn’t admitted who I was, I’d probably be dead now,” he told the paper. “I’d be sitting on a couch retiring from … management. Not for me.”

“She touched the lives of so many, not only through her performances but also through her fearless community advocacy and charitable works,” said Todd Addams, the interim executive director of Basic Rights Oregon. “She was nothing short of an icon.”

Writer Susan Stanley described the club as a place of “warmth and affection” where performers were “glittering in sequins and satin and a shimmering froth of feathers,” in what’s credited as the first profile of Darcelle XV, published in Willamette Week in 1975.

When speaking of Darcelle, Cole, a gay man, referred to his persona in the third person using female pronouns. “I’m an entertainer with a capital E,” Cole told Stanley. “Darcelle is a character — like in a play — and I work very hard at her.”

Stanley wound up briefly working at the club and becoming Cole’s close friend. She described the performer not only as a talented artist, who also sewed many of the club’s costumes, but as a caring person deeply invested in the LGBTQ community and the fight against the social stigma of the time.

“[Darcelle] was just a very, very nurturing person,” Stanley said. “She encouraged other guys to perform and get out of their shells.”

After decades of advocacy by LGBTQ activists organizing for civil rights and freedoms, Stanley said she was saddened to see how drag has become so polarized in the current political climate.

“It bespeaks a really, really big misunderstanding,” she said. “Politicians wanting to step back decades in attitudes. … It’s mystifying and horrifying to me at the same time.”

Cole was born in 1930 and raised in Portland’s Linnton neighborhood. He served in the U.S. Armed Forces and was discharged in the late 1950s, according to the club’s website, which says he used money he received from the military to start his first business.

After dabbling in a coffee store and a jazz club, Cole purchased the space that would become Darcelle XV Showplace in 1967.

Two years later, he developed the “alter ego” named Darcelle and came out as gay, according to a profile on the club’s website.

He left his wife and began a relationship with his artistic director. During the 1970s, the Showplace became a popular destination for cabaret and drag performance.

In 1999, Darcelle became the oldest drag performer on the West Coast, after the closing of San Francisco’s drag venue Finocchio’s Club.

On Friday, fans, including Portland’s mayor, mourned Cole’s death on social media. U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) said in a social media post that “Darcelle carved out an unforgettable chapter in Portland’s history” with “pioneering courage.”

Darcelle XV Showplace said details of a public memorial will be announced and that all shows will go on as scheduled, as per Darcelle’s wishes.