The Vivienne, Winner of RuPaul’s Drag Race UK, Dies

James Lee Williams, a drag performer and winner of the inaugural season of “RuPaul’s Drag Race UK” who was best known by the stage name The Vivienne, died over the weekend. They were 32.

Williams’s death was announced in a statement by their manager, Simon Jones, which did not cite a cause.

Williams, who adopted the stage name for a love of dressing in Vivienne Westwood clothes, rose to prominence as one of the world’s most recognizable drag queens after winning the first season of “RuPaul’s Drag Race UK.”

On the show, The Vivienne was known for comedy and vocal impersonations — particularly that of Donald Trump — and opened up about a struggle with substance abuse and recovery.

“The Viv is a perfect example of a 21st century British Queen,” RuPaul said in the 2019 final.

James Lee Williams was born on April 12, 1992, in Colwyn Bay, Wales. At 16, Williams moved to Liverpool, England, to pursue a career as a makeup artist. It was in Liverpool where they earned their nickname Vivienne for dressing “head to toe” Vivienne Westwood and discovered a passion for drag, Williams said in a 2020 interview with The Sunday Times.

“I saw some drag queens at a club one night and was stunned,” Williams said in the interview. “These people were getting paid to have a great night and entertain people. I knew immediately that was what I wanted to do.”

Williams began performing and leaned into the nickname for a stage name. “I didn’t want one of those cheap, nasty drag names,” Williams said in The Sunday Times interview.

In a 2019 interview with the BBC, Williams described The Vivienne as someone “who has come into money, she moved to LA and blew it all and then she’s had to move back to Liverpool.”

“I like to have a really fierce look, but I like to be hilarious on stage, so I’m kind of an old school and the new school put together, which I think works,” Williams said in the interview.

In 2015, The Vivienne beat out 20 other performers in a daylong competition hosted by RuPaul. Four years later, Williams auditioned for and eventually won the inaugural series of “RuPaul’s Drag Race UK.”

Williams went on to appear on the seventh season of “RuPaul’s Drag Race: All Stars” as The Vivienne and was a finalist in the British series “Dancing on Ice” in 2023.

Williams had also built a career in musical theater, appearing as the Wicked Witch of the West in a British and Irish tour of “The Wizard Of Oz,” and at the West End’s Gillian Lynne Theater.

Williams had just finished touring as The Vivienne with the production “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang,” playing the role of “the child catcher” and was set to reprise the role on the tour in February, according to WestEndTheatre.com, a British theater news site.

“I think being an amazing performer is great, but I just think being able to relate to someone who is a bit common is just so much more endearing than having all the skills under the world,” The Vivienne said in the final for RuPaul’s Drag Race UK, according to the BBC. “I haven’t got all the skills under the world, but what I have got is the tools to make someone feel at ease with themselves.”