Will & Grace actor Leslie Jordan dies aged 67

Jordan died following a car crash on Monday, according to reports from TMZ and Los Angeles Times.

“The world is definitely a much darker place today without the love and light of Leslie Jordan. Not only was he a mega talent and joy to work with, but he provided an emotional sanctuary to the nation at one of its most difficult times,” a representative for Jordan said in a statement on Monday.

“Knowing that he has left the world at the height of both his professional and personal life is the only solace one can have today.”

The Tennessee native won an outstanding guest actor Emmy for Will & Grace and recently appeared on the Mayim Bialik comedy Call Me Kat and co-starred on the sitcom The Cool Kids.

Stars of Will & Grace have paid tribute to the actor.

Leslie Jordan arrives at the 29th annual GLAAD Media Awards in Beverly Hills (Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP/PA) (Image: Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP/PA)

“My heart is broken,” Sean Hayes tweeted. “Everyone who ever met him, loved him. There will never be anyone like him. A unique talent with an enormous, caring heart. You will be missed, my dear friend.”

“Crushed to learn about the loss of @thelesliejordan, the funniest & flirtiest southern gent I’ve ever known,” tweeted Eric McCormack. “The joy and laughter he brought to every one of his #WillandGrace episodes was palpable.”

In 2021, Jordan gained an unexpected following during the pandemic lockdown when he took to Instagram to post daily videos while he was near family in his hometown.

Many of Jordan’s videos included him asking “How ya’ll doin?” and some included stories about Hollywood or his childhood growing up with identical twin sisters and their “mama,” as he called her. Other times he took on challenges like completing an indoor obstacle course.

By the time of his death, he amassed 5.8 million followers on Instagram and another 2.3 million on TikTok.

“Someone called from California and said, ‘Oh, honey, you’ve gone viral’. And I said, ‘No, no, I don’t have Covid. I’m just in Tennessee,” said Jordan.

He received comments from the likes of Michelle Pfeiffer, Jessica Alba and Anderson Cooper as well as from brands such as Reebok and Lululemon.

Earlier this month he released Company’s Comin’, a gospel album, featuring Dolly Parton, Chris Stapleton, Brandi Carlile, Eddie Vedder and Tanya Tucker.

He wrote a new book titled How Y’all Doing?: Misadventures and Mischief from a Life Well Lived. This was his second book following the release of his 2008 memoir, My Trip Down the Pink Carpet.

“That sort of dealt with all the angst and growing up gay in the Baptist Church and la, la, la, la, la. And this one, I just wanted to tell stories,” he told The Associated Press in 2021.

In a 2014 interview with Philadelphia magazine, Jordan was asked how he related to his role in the 2013 film Southern Baptist Sissies, which explores growing up gay while being raised in a conservative Baptist church.

“I really wanted to be a really good Christian, like some of the boys in the movie. I was baptised 14 times,” Jordan said. “Every time the preacher would say, ‘Come forward, sinners!,’ I’d say ‘Oooh, I was out in the woods with that boy, I better go forward.’

“My mother thought I was being dramatic. She’d say, ‘Leslie, you’re already saved,’ and I’d say, ’Well, I don’t think it took.”

In 2007, Jordan discussed how a role as an Alcoholics Anonymous sponsor in the teen drama Hidden Palms reflected his life and included a valuable lesson.

“If there is anything that kids could walk away with it is that people who use drugs and alcohol are masking something,” Jordan told the AP. “With me, it was my homosexuality. It was just easier to be gay when I was high. So I stayed high for 33 years.

“I don’t know when it went from recreational to medicinal, but that’s the line you cross where I needed a drink to get to a party, to be funny, to be me.”

The actor changed course after a drink-driving incident in December of 1997.

“I stayed sober, didn’t take an aspirin. Nothing. And … my career began to blossom.”

Jordan proved people wrong when he arrived in Los Angeles in 1982, hoping to make it as an actor. He was told his 4’11” stature and accent would hold him back.

His big break came playing the role of a hapless ex-con in a 1989 episode of Murphy Brown.

He said: “When that episode aired, my agent called the next day and said, ‘I’ve never seen anything like this. The phone is ringing off the hook’.”