American Entertainer. Born James William Bailey, in his teens he studied opera at the Philadelphia Conservatory of Music, and was cast on the television program ‘The Children’s Hour’ for almost a year, where he performed by acting, singing and dancing. During the mid-1960s, he performed in New York, mostly in summer stock and began honing his skills as a female impersonator. In 1968, he moved to Los Angeles and put together a nightclub act impersonating Phyllis Diller and Judy Garland. When Garland herself came to see his show, she joined him on stage and they sang a duet of one of her songs. In 1970, he was booked in Las Vegas and appeared on ‘The Ed Sullivan Show’, where his performance as Garland singing “The Man that Got Away” was so well received that he was asked back a couple of months later to perform as Peggy Lee. In 1973, he teamed with Liza Minnelli at The Flamingo to re-create performances she did with her late mother in London. He recorded several albums, including ‘Jim Bailey Live at Carnegie Hall’, ‘Mostly Mercer’, ‘Club Verbotten’, ‘Voices’ and ‘Judy Jim Judy’ and would go on to perform in such celebrated venues as the Palladium in London, Carnegie Hall in New York, the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles and in 1978, he did a Barbra Streisand tribute at the Super Bowl. On television, among shows he appeared in were ‘Here’s Lucy’, ‘The Dean Martin Show’, ‘Night Court’, ‘The Rockford Files’, ‘The Mike Douglas Show’, ‘Switch’, ‘Vega$’, ‘The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson’, ‘The Carol Burnett Show, ‘The Merv Griffin Show’, ‘Late Night with David Letterman’, ‘The Joan Rivers Show’ and ‘Ally McBeal’. Bailey died of cardiac arrest from pneumonia complications. (bio by: Louis M.)