Sir Lady Java, ’60s Drag Star Who Challenged the Law, Dies

At first, it was lonely being Sir Lady Java.

She was a drag singer, an actress, an erotic dancer and a stage-patter comedian in mid-1960s Los Angeles before there was much of an open gay, lesbian or transgender community there.

So she flirted with nightclub audiences and sought to beguile them — and it worked.

She became a figure in the Black entertainment world, getting fond coverage from the Black press, appearing in a Blaxploitation movie and performing for or alongside entertainers like Richard Pryor, James Brown and Sammy Davis Jr. At the same time, she could draw a heterogenous audience, including L. Ron Hubbard, the founder of Scientology.

Lacking much ready-made language to define her, she invented her own identity as much as she invented her act. The world around her was not exactly welcoming, yet she wound up finding validation in unexpected places: a heartfelt compliment from a Hollywood star she idolized; a legal fight with the Los Angeles police that she lost before winning; and a public profile that seemed to collapse before she came to be considered, in recent years, a significant historical figure, worthy even of a biopic.

Java died on Nov. 16 in Los Angeles, according to the online news outlet Them. Her death was announced on social media by Hailie Sahar, a transgender actress and singer who was planning to play Java in a movie about her life, as Deadline reported in 2020.

Sources disagree about Java’s age, but Ms. Sahar said she was 82. The cause was a stroke, The Los Angeles Times reported.

Java got her start performing at Los Angeles-area clubs like Joe’s Nairobi Lounge and the Mermaid Room. Ads said her act included a “torrid, sexy dance” inside a cage; a solo fashion show; comedic impressions; stories about discrimination and becoming one’s true self; and a striptease, featuring a white lacy gown and a curvaceous figure.