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The first time I laid eyes on Alan Cumming was in the movie "Romy and Michele's High School Reunion." It was exciting to discover a wonderful new character actor. A few years later he triumphed on Broadway as the Emcee in Cabaret.

It took me a while to figure out that those two actors were indeed the same person. But that's the thing; Alan is several actors in one. He's a chameleonlike transformational character actor par excellence and also a fabulous star personality. That is the true rara avis. He has created a memorable gallery of characters in film, theatre, and television and also has found a singular place in popular culture as Alan Cumming: entrepreneur, bon vivant and activist. He is a role model for the LGBTQ community by leading an honest, open life and actively working for change. Last year he wrote a moving and powerful memoir, "Not My Father's Son," that should be read by every gay kid who feels adrift.

Alan is also a lot of fun. He's very interested in other people, and consequently has a lot of friends. He's got to be the only theatrical personality who turned his dressing room into an after-hours bar with a liquor sponsor! And he's very seductive. When you're around him, you find yourself doing things that are completely out of character. Once at his house upstate, I found myself squinting my eyes like Bonnie Parker and shooting beer cans with a BB gun, and, more amazingly, shedding my Garbo-like shyness by singing a duet with him of “Losing My Mind” at Marie's Crisis Café, as a ruse to distract an inebriated cohort from being 86'd into the street.

Alan is a man of many accomplishments. But personally, I thank him for being true to his outrageous, sweet, intelligent self: both an insider and an outsider, and one who provides a bit of glitter and glamour in a frequently cold modern world.