He was one of the first openly gay performers in Prohibition -era Speakeasy culture. As a child, Malin attended P. As a teenager, he was already winning prizes for his costumes at the elaborate Manhattan drag balls of the s. Around the same period, Malin worked at several Greenwich Village clubs as a drag performer, most notably the Rubaiyat.
Although Malin was at times assisted by Helen Morgan, Jr. Francis Dunn and Lestra LaMonte the paper-gown-wearing Lester LaMonte , popular drag artists of the day, he did not appear in female attire other sources, however, state that he impersonated Gloria Swanson and Theda Bara. Malin moved on stage and amongst the audience members as an elegant, witty, wisecracking emcee, affecting a broad exaggerated swishing image associated with the "Pansy acts" that followed.
He once punched a disruptive patron during a performance, prompting Ed Sullivan to write, "Jean Malin belted a heckler last night at one of the local clubs. All that twitters isn't pansy. Malin reportedly was the highest-paid nightclub entertainer of , "a six-foot-tall, pound bruiser who also had an attitude and a lisp". Kahane , disgusted by Malin's flamboyance, noted, "I do not think we ought to have this man on the lot on any pictureβshorts or features.
Malin and Heiman had known each other from his days performing in drag at the Rubaiyat. At the time of his death, the couple still were married. Between and , Malin's widow served stints in prison for operating high priced brothels which the press called "exclusive call houses" on Central Park West , Park Avenue , and 57th Street and for violating the Mann Act.
In the early hours of August 10, , Malin was involved in a fatal automobile accident. He piled into his sedan with Jimmy Forlenza newspapers referred to Forlenza as Malin's "close friend" and comedic actress Patsy Kelly.
