OBIT ~ Reg Bundy AKA Regina Fong, drag artist
Hyfler/Rosner
Drag artiste Regina Fong, who entertained with an often surreal
mime act
REG BUNDY was a female impersonator who attracted a large cult
following in London cabaret venues and gay bars in the guise of his
creation, Regina Fong.
With a flame-red wig and matching ballgown, Regina Fong was an
outrageous figure onstage, the self-styled "member of the Romanoff family
who escaped the storming of the Winter Palace in St Petersburg in 1917" only
to end up in Berkshire "under the protection of the British Royal family".
The audience was encouraged to join in the bizarre comic
routines of Regina's uniquely surreal stage act - a club full of people
joyfully raising their hands in the air to mime along to the manic
typewriter tune or clip-clippity-clopping to A Windmill in Old Amsterdam.
Before Regina Fong appeared on the drag scene, female
impersonation was largely confined to either the last remnants of British
music hall, with performers such as Mrs Shufflewick (Rex Jameson) and Mark
Fleming, or glamorously costumed divas who mimed to Shirley Bassey records.
In the 1980s acts such as Bundy and his rival, the then unknown
Paul O'Grady (Lily Savage) developed new characterisations who included
references to contemporary culture such as television. Bundy would often
interweave jingles and ditties into his act and audiences were quick to sing
along with him.
Born in 1946, Reginald Bundy originally trained as a dancer. He
worked as a dresser on several West End shows and later as a dancer in
musicals in the 1970s. He also appeared in a dancing role in the Bryan
Forbes film The Slipper and The Rose (1976).
In the early 1980s he formed a drag act, The Disappointer
Sisters (with David Dale and Roy Powell) and the trio performed in London
clubs and pubs. He began to develop his act as Regina Fong in 1985 and
appeared in a weekly spot at the Black Cap public house in Camden Town,
North London. Four years later the playwright and director Neil Bartlett
cast him in the play Vision of Love Revealed in Sleep in which Bundy
appeared alongside another drag icon, Bette Bourne.
In 1993 Bundy, as Regina Fong, starred in Elegies for Angels,
Punks and Raging Queens (Criterion Theatre), a musical celebration in memory
of Aids victims. He worked again with Neil Bartlett in 1995 in the homage to
West End musicals, Night After Night, which was presented at the Edinburgh
Festival. The show was later adapted for BBC Radio 4.
A tireless worker for Aids charities, Bundy made numerous
fundraising appearances throughout the country. He recently appeared at the
Royal Albert Hall with Sir Ian McKellen to raise funds for the lesbian and
gay campaigning organisation, Stonewall.
Reginald Bundy, female impersonator, was born in 1946. He died
from cancer on April 15, 2003, aged 56.
