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Quentin Crisp

(1908-1999), Writer

Quentin Crisp (Dennis Charles Pratt)

Sitter in 21 portraits
Quentin Crisp was a writer and actor. Born Dennis Pratt in Surrey, he studied journalism and art. His home at 129 Beaufort Street, London inspired Pinter's The Room but despite the squalor he chose to live in, Quentin Crisp (as he became in 1931) was always well dressed and made-up. During the Second World War Crisp wrote the antiwar All this and Bevin too and also worked as an artist's model. His acclaimed autobiography The Naked Civil Servant was published in 1968 and was made into a film in 1975. In 1978 Crisp became the star of his own show An Evening With Quentin Crisp and he continued to write and act including a role as Elizabeth I in Sally Potter's Orlando (1993).

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Quentin Crisp, by Anthony Montague ('A.M.' or 'Tony' or 'Monty') Parkin - NPG D2226

Quentin Crisp

by Anthony Montague ('A.M.' or 'Tony' or 'Monty') Parkin
etching and drypoint, 1978 (1963)
NPG D2226

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