Cross-dressing and drag in film and television has followed a long history of cross-dressing and drag on the English stage , and made its appearance in the early days of the silent films. Charlie Chaplin and Stan Laurel brought the tradition from the English music halls when they came to the United States with Fred Karno 's comedy troupe in Both Chaplin and Laurel occasionally dressed as women in their films. Even the beefy American actor Wallace Beery appeared in a series of silent films as a Swedish woman.
The tradition has continued for many years, usually played for laughs. Only in recent decades have there been dramatic films which included cross-dressing, possibly because of strict censorship of American films until the mids. One early exception was Alfred Hitchcock 's thriller Murder! Cross-gender acting , on the other hand, refers to actors or actresses portraying a character of the opposite gender.
In Some Like It Hot , two struggling musicians have to dress as women to escape the ire of gangsters. The film is a remake of Viktor und Viktoria , a German film of David Henry Hwang 's play M.
Butterfly focuses on a love affair between a French diplomat and a male Beijing opera singer who plays dan , or female, roles. Robin Williams played a divorced father who dressed as a nanny to be with his children in the comedy Mrs. Dame Edna was an elderly drag queen with "wisteria-colored hair" who did international chat shows in the s. Movies that feature cross-dressing as a central plot element:. Most of the above films are comedies.
Films in which cross-dressing is treated in a more serious manner are relatively rare, although the list does include several dramas and biopics. Many other comedy films include instances of humorous cross-dressing, but do not feature it as a central plot element. Movies in which cross-dressing plays a minor but important role include:. In the documentary Giuliani Time there are excerpts from Rudy Giuliani 's appearance in a video, which was shown for the occasion of an Inner Circle press dinner.
