Divine also known as Harris Glenn Milstead (1945-88), was a big, fat, bold performer!
From a young age he soon became overweight, this would be problem that he would have for the rest of his life. From this he was bullied at high school as well as the fact he wasn’t ‘tough and rough’ like the other boys.
From the age of 17 he came to realise his sexuality as he became interested in boys and girls, because of this his parents took him to see a psychiatrist (this was frowned upon at this time in America).
Shortly after this time he went to beauty school and learnt the trades that his whole career will depend on later.
Later on in life Divine had said he was most properly ‘your American spoilt brat’, he obviously got what he wanted from his parents if he thought this.
At the age of 21 he met John Waters, an aspiring film maker. Waters intended in making ‘the trashiest motion pictures in cinema history’.
From this meeting they became good friends and Waters came up with the name Divine that was used for the rest of his life.
Divine often appeared as bizarre acting roles in John Waters’s films; such as a smoking nun, Jackie Kennedy (where he kidnapped models and forced them to eat their makeup), Diana Linkletter (a teenager who rebelled against her parents then committed suicide) and a blonde bombshell (who ran other a hitchhiker). However it was not until “Multiple Maniacs’” hit the public did either of them become noticed. This was a movie in which Divine ran around on the streets threatening to kill anyone passing and at the end scene was shown being raped by a giant lobster. A quote said ‘Divine was incredible and could start a whole new trend in film’.
He was also described as ‘Trash. Filth. Obscenity.’ This was something that he decided to progress and stick to, this then became very popular.
At the age of 23 he moved to Massachusetts opening a vintage store that was short lived, he then travelled to San Francisco because of the renounced gay culture. At the age of 27 he moved back to Baltimore where he crashed his car and charged his parents the damage, they then cut him off taking his two dogs away, from this they didn’t talk for 9 years.
Up until the 1980’s he continued playing both male and female roles in cinema and theatre. This is when the New York Times wrote "Those who could get past the unremitting weirdness of Divine's performance discovered that the actor/actress had genuine talent, including a natural sense of comic timing and an uncanny gift for slapstick."
In the 1980’s he hit the club scene in Fort Lauderdale, Florida where he unscripted shouted at the audience ‘Fuck you’ at the audience then getting into a fight with another drag queen. Thankfully this proved popular and helped his career move along. Each show that he done the next had to be even more outlandish then the last, once he entered the stage on a baby elephant!
He then produced singles from and more disco shows; however in this time he came back into contact with his parents were he bought them expensive gifts and told them about his wealth, although according to his manager he was already in a great amount of debt because of his spending habits.
In 1988 Divine landed 2 massive roles in hairspray one female, (Edna Turnblad) and one male (Arvin Hodgepile). However one week after the release Divine died in his sleep due to an enlarged heart.
Milstead and Waters for Hairspray
Andy Warhol and Divine
Divine as jackie Kennedy
