Alexis Arquette was born on July 28, 1969, into Hollywood royalty. Her father, Lewis Arquette, was an actor and director, and her mother, Brenda “Mardi” Nowak, was an actress and activist who taught acting classes and ran a theater. Her siblings, Rosanna, Patricia, and David Arquette, would each carve a successful path for themselves to acting stardom. At 12 years old, Alexis took the plunge into professional acting, starring in a music video for the song “She’s a Beauty” by The Tubes.
Born Robert Arquette, Alexis knew she was transgender from a young age. Arquette had sex reassignment surgery in 2006 and supported other celebrities, like Chaz Bono, who wanted to do the same.
In the 1980s, she broke ground for transgender youth. At 19, she played a transgender sex worker in the film “Last Exit to Brooklyn” (1989). Arquette starred in over 40 films through her prolific career — although most were small, independent movies. In the 1990s, Arquette appeared in supporting roles in “Threesome,” “The Wedding Singer,” and “Pulp Fiction.”
After contracting HIV in 1987, Arquette went through long periods of poor health. In 2013, she decided to live once more as a man. But Arquette’s increasing health decline could not be reversed. On September 11, 2016, at 47, Alexis Arquette died after being placed in a medically-induced coma due to HIV complications. The official cause of death was cardiac arrest.