Alexis Arquette

Perhaps the most enigmatic -- and unpredictable -- member of the Arquette acting dynasty, Alexis Arquette has appeared in a huge variety of colorful supporting roles that have highlighted both his range and eccentricity as a performer. The grandson of vaudevillians, son of veteran character actor Lewis Arquette and poet Mardi Arquette, and brother of Rosanna, Patricia, David, and Richmond Arquette, he was born in L.A. in 1969. Like his siblings, Arquette broke into film at a young age, making his screen debut with a minor role in Down and out in Beverly Hills in 1986. He had his first breakthrough as Georgette, a sensitive young man with a crush on a neighborhood thug in Last Exit to Brooklyn (1990).

Arquette went on to portray characters ranging from a gay university student in Threesome (1994) to an unfortunate gunman summarily dispatched by John Travolta and Samuel L. Jackson in Pulp Fiction (1994) to a Boy George-esque musician in The Wedding Singer (1998). He also did a memorable turn as himself in Wigstock: The Movie (1995), a documentary about New York's famed Outfest in which the actor flaunted plenty of glorious plumage, to say nothing of attitude. His role in the film was particularly appropriate, considering his well-known second job as a drag performer by the name of Eva Destruction. Although Arquette's offscreen image (fostered by his work as a drag performer and by appearances in a number of gay magazines) has tended to win him a greater reputation than his onscreen work, he remains one of the cinema's more engaging and underrated actors.

~ Rebecca Flint Marx, All Movie Guide