‘A pioneer’: Mr. Charlie Brown, iconic Atlanta drag queen, dies at 74
By Hope Dean
Click here for updates on this story
ATLANTA, Georgia (WANF) — Atlanta is in mourning after Mr. Charlie Brown, an iconic drag performer and LGBTQ activist, died on Thursday.
Brown, whose birth name was Charles Dillard, passed away at Piedmont Atlanta Hospital surrounded by his husband, chosen family and friends, according to a social media post from the gay bar Atlanta Eagle. The 74-year-old had developed sepsis after a second heart valve replacement surgery.
Atlanta Eagle was just one of many of the venues Brown frequented over the decades. He was best known as the namesake of Charlie Brown’s Cabaret at Backstreet, Midtown’s 24-hour gay disco. The rooftop drag stage ran from 1990 to 2004, inspiring and shaping other drag queens.
Although he was born in rural Tennessee in 1949, Brown lived in Atlanta for most of his life. In 1974 — three years after starting drag — he climbed up on the bar at Atlanta’s Sweet Gum Head drag club and performed Della Reese’s “You Came a Long Way From St. Louis.”
“When the number was over, the club’s owner Frank Powell was coming at me 50 miles an hour. My first thought was, ‘He’s gonna make me pay for the drinks I had just kicked over,’” Brown later said, according to Atlanta Eagle. “Instead, he offered me a job. As big and as scary as Atlanta was, I immediately felt I belonged here.”
He would go on to perform at venues like Illusions, where a young RuPaul was in the audience, and Lips Atlanta, a drag show restaurant and bar. Celebrities like Janet Jackson, Elton John and Queen Latifah flocked to see him. In 2000, Brown was the Grand Marshal of Atlanta’s Pride Festival.
In 2022, Brown received the Phoenix Award, the city’s highest honor, from Mayor Andre Dickens for his work in entertainment, activism and AIDS fundraising.
“Thank you, Atlanta for all the years of support and everything that you’ve given me,” he said in his acceptance speech. “God bless you, Atlanta. I love you.”
Memorial posts from friends, fans and organizations have flooded social media since Brown’s death. Atlanta Pride called Brown “a pioneer in the Atlanta drag scene,” while the City of Atlanta’s LGBTQ affairs division said Brown was an “integral part of Atlanta’s vibrant cultural landscape.”
Brown had recently finished co-writing his memoir, “B**** of the South: How I Survived Vietnam, the AIDS Crisis and MAGA Drag Bans” with longtime Atlanta reporter Richard L. Eldredge, according to Atlanta Eagle. The book will be released to commemorate what would be Brown’s 75th birthday in December.
Atlanta Eagle said it will soon release details on a celebration of life.
Please note: This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.
