Leslie Jordan gets Instagram wish for Palm Springs Walk of the Stars inclusion
Two and a half years after his Instagram plea to be included on the Palm Springs, California, Walk of the Stars, former Chattanoogan Leslie Jordan was awarded the honor posthumously Friday.
“Leslie’s up there twirling right now, he’s so happy,” said his sister, Cricket Jordan, according to comments compiled at the ceremony by HollywoodIndie.com publicist Ed Baran and shared via email.
The Emmy-winning actor and comedian, known for his quick wit, Southern drawl and ability to steal any scene he was in, was remembered by family, friends and fans at the gathering, which came four days before the first anniversary of his death. Jordan died Oct. 24, 2022, in a car crash in Los Angeles. He was 67.
Baran described the induction as “a final goodbye to a friend, by his friends, closing the year of tributes and celebrations of his life.”
Jordan grew up in Chattanooga’s Woodmore community, attending Brainerd High School and the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, where he discovered theater. He became known to the world for his roles in such television series as “Murphy Brown,” “Reba,” “Boston Legal,” “American Horror Story” and “Hearts Afire.” He won an Emmy in 2006 for his work on “Will & Grace.”
During the pandemic, he became an online sensation when he began posting humorous updates on his Instagram account. Many of those were done from his temporary home in Chattanooga while he was visiting his mother and twin sisters.
He filmed his request to be added to the Walk of Stars in March 2020 while in Palm Springs, standing over the star for his friend Del Shores and wondering why the writer and director of “Sordid Lives,” which Jordan starred in, had a star and he didn’t. He “accidentally” spilled his tea on Shores’ star as he walked out of camera range.
“He was a fearless performer,” his “Sordid Lives” co-star Rosemary Alexander remembered during the ceremony.
It was her home he chose to renovate with “Property Brothers” Drew and Jonathan Scott for an episode of “Celebrity IOU” that aired in November 2022. Alexander described that time together as a gift beyond the show because “the last two months of his life, I probably would never have seen him because he was flying to New York, he was flying to Tennessee. One of his baby sisters passed away, his mother passed away. And during those times, I got to put my arms around him and hold him and cry with him and share a special love borne of all of that time together over 40 years.”
Jordan’s star is the 462nd bestowed by the Palm Springs Chamber of Commerce and the fourth star at the intersection of Museum Way and Museum Drive. That location is at “the heart of the Downtown Palm Springs Park, a coveted location for all recipients,” said Evan Gray, the chamber’s director of programs.
Emerson Collins, an actor and producer of “A Very Sordid Wedding,” told the crowd Shores had Jordan’s Instagram post as proof that Walk of the Stars would be a fitting remembrance for Jordan. The Del Shores Foundation put out a notice for anyone wanting to donate in Jordan’s honor to help fund the star, priced at $15,000 for its creation, installation and maintenance.
Fundraising efforts were so successful, the foundation also was able to fund a $10,000 playwriting grant to help the next generation of LGBTQ+ writers from the South, naming it in Jordan’s honor, according to Collins.
“Leslie was not only a brilliant actor and storyteller on stage and screen, but he was also an accomplished writer of books and plays, so this grant in his name is perfect,” Collins said.
Jordan was the author of two memoirs, “My Trip Down the Pink Carpet” in 2009 and “How Y’All Doing?: Misadventures and Mischief from a Life Well Lived,” which made the New York Times bestseller list in 2021. He also recorded a well-received gospel album in 2021, “Company’s Comin’.”
Cheyenne Jackson, who costarred with Jordan on “Call Me Kat” and “American Horror Story: Roanoke,” said his memories of Jordan included this advice: “Make the most of your time and laugh. And he told me to wear tighter pants.”