Andy Halliday, 1953 – 2026

Actor and playwright Andy Halliday, 73, died of Parkinson’s disease on May 5. Halliday costarred in Charles Busch's high-camp 1980s shows Vampire Lesbians of Sodom, Theodora, She Bitch of Byzantium, Psycho Beach Party, Pardon My Inquisition, or, Kiss the Blood off My Castanet, and The Lady in Question, and wrote the more recent shows Nothing but Trash, Up the Rabbit Hole, and Those Musclebound Cowboys from Snakepit Gulch. He also appeared in the TV shows Law & Order, Gossip Girl, Blue Bloods and Elementary, and in the TV-movie An Englishman in New York. Halliday started his career as a dancer, meeting Busch at theater camp (and a more camp camp I can’t imagine). Busch said of him, “Andy was all opposites.  Beautiful and very eccentric looking. Terribly shy and tender and solitary, but with an outrageous stage presence. He had great strength of character, but he needed a lot of encouragement.” Halliday himself said, “I think I have a great face, and I can make it go three or four places at once. But I’m so off-the-wall that people don’t know what to do with me.”