Armistead Maupin pays tribute to iconic actress Olympia Dukakis
Author Armistead Maupin has joined the chorus of fans who are paying tribute to Olympia Dukakis, the pioneering actress who brought trans landlady Anna Madrigal to life when his Tales of the City novel became a television series. “She was my fierce friend and beloved muse who swept into my life almost thirty years ago,” Maupin said in a statement on social media about Dukakis, who passed away in New York City on May 1 at age 89. “She could cuss like a sailor and love like an angel and weep for you in sorrow and in joy,” he said. “There was no one like Olympia. I’ll see you in the stars, old girl.”
Dukakis, who had been in failing health, became one of the first actresses to portray a trans character on American television when she took on the role of Anna Madrigal, owner of the fictional apartment building at 28 Barbary Lane that housed an eccentric roster of residents. Dukakis reprised the role three more times, including a 2019 Netflix miniseries in which her character died.
Tales of the City was published in 1978, based on articles Maupin had written for The San Francisco Chronicle starting in 1976. It was the first of nine novels that have won a cult-like following for their depictions of queer life in San Francisco ... The original Tales of the City was turned into a television miniseries that was produced in 1992 by Channel 4 in the United Kingdom and aired on PBS in 1993, with Dukakis as the marijuana-growing matriarch who was born a man and transitioned. The name Anna Madrigal is an anagram for A Man and a Girl.
When Dukakis took the role in 1992, “no one else would touch it,” Linney said in an interview on KQED radio. “What she was able to do for the trans community then is something that had not been done before.”
https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2021/05/armistead-maupin-cher-pay-tribute-iconic-actress-olympia-dukakis/
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