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Best/Worst Men in Drag on Film

Best/Worst Men in Drag on Film

By EW Staff

Updated August 26, 2011 at 04:25 PM EDT

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Best: Tyler Perry in the Madea franchise

Credit: Alfeo Dixon

Keeping in mind the look that Perry was going for was kickass old black woman, not pretty old black woman, we have to say well done. —AW

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Best: Wesley Snipes, John Leguizamo and Patrick Swayze in To Wong Foo Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar

Credit: Lorey Sabastian

Yes, Snipes famously built a bonfire of his vanities, including his character Noxeema Jackson's bra and panties, when he wrapped. But let us not forget that Swayze (Vida Boheme) and Leguizamo (Chi Chi Rodriguez) both earned Golden Globe nominations for their efforts as drag queens whose road trip to Hollywood takes an unexpected turn. Swayze, in particular, impressed critics with the way he carried himself. As EW's Owen Gleiberman wrote, he ''looks more relaxed than I've ever seen him; his soul seems to be glowing with glamorous pleasure.'' As Swayze himself told EW, '''I don't have anything to prove. I'm as heterosexual as a bull moose. That's what made me so comfortable as Vida.'' —AW

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Best: Dustin Hoffman in Tootsie

Credit: Everett Collection

Hoffman earned an Oscar nomination for his turn as a difficult actor who couldn't get a job as himself, so he became Dorothy Michaels and landed a role on a hospital soap. The attention to detail was impeccable — production halted for a week over makeup that made his Dorothy look green. And Hoffman?s embodiment of a strong-willed but unattractive woman ran so deep, he teared up talking about the experience on the 25th anniversary DVD: ''[Men] look at me and I disappear. It's awful...to be just erased,'' he said. —MB

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Best: John Cameron Mitchell in Hedwig and the Angry Inch

Credit: Everett Collection

Even though Hansel's sex change operation didn't quite happen, he went on to make for one convincingly sexy rock chick. —AW

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Best: Jayce Davidson in The Crying Game

Come on. You know that unless you got a spoiler before watching this thriller, you had no idea.—AW

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Best: Gael Garcia Bernal in Bad Education

Credit: Diego Lopez Calvin

His turn as a tortured transexual named Zahara was utterly believable. —AW

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Worst: Johnny Depp in Ed Wood ?

Credit: Everett Collection

Johnny Depp is a beautiful man. But the only thing worse than Ed Wood's Plan 9 From Outer Space is the mustachioed director in drag. Props, though, for raiding fashionista Sarah Jessica Parker's closet. —Kate Ward

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Worst: Martin Lawrence in Big Momma's House

Credit: Everett Collection

As popular as Martin's creation was, she one momma you didn't want to look at too closely. —AW

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Worst: Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon in Some Like It Hot

Credit: Everett Collection

It's not easy to live up to Marilyn Monroe's beauty. So we have to credit Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis' Jerry and Joe for the sheer undertaking, even if the men on the run were far more handsome than beautiful as a pair of 1920s female musicians. But, hey, nobody's perfect.—KW

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Credit: Everett Collection

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Worst: Tim Curry in Rocky Horror Picture Show

Credit: Everett Collection

To be fair, he was meant to be a little scary looking, right?—AW

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Worst: Michael Fassbender in X-Men: First Class (deleted scene on the Bluray edition)

It would have been hilarious see Xavier create the illusion of Magneto dressed as a woman but with just that one glimpse of the hideous woman that Fassbender would have made, it might have ruined us for the rest of the movie. —AW

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Worst: Liev Schreiber in Taking Woodstock

Credit: Ken Regan

We're going to chalk up our trouble with Schreiber's Vilma to the fact that he was playing an transexual ex-Marine. —AW

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Credit: David James

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Best/Worst Men in Drag on Film

1 of 15

Best: Tyler Perry in the Madea franchise

1 of 15

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Best: Wesley Snipes, John Leguizamo and Patrick Swayze in To Wong Foo Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar

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Best: Dustin Hoffman in Tootsie

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Best: John Cameron Mitchell in Hedwig and the Angry Inch

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Best: Jayce Davidson in The Crying Game

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Best: Gael Garcia Bernal in Bad Education

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Worst: Johnny Depp in Ed Wood ?

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Worst: Martin Lawrence in Big Momma's House

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Worst: Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon in Some Like It Hot

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Worst: Tim Curry in Rocky Horror Picture Show

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Worst: Michael Fassbender in X-Men: First Class (deleted scene on the Bluray edition)

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Worst: Liev Schreiber in Taking Woodstock

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