Cross-dressing in film and television

Cross-dressing and drag in film and television has followed a long history of cross-dressing and drag on the English stage, and made its appearance in the early days of the silent films. Charlie Chaplin and Stan Laurel brought the tradition from the English music halls when they came to the United States with Fred Karno's comedy troupe in 1910. Both Chaplin and Laurel occasionally dressed as women in their films. Even the beefy American actor Wallace Beery appeared in a series of silent films as a Swedish woman. The Three Stooges, especially Curly (Jerry Howard), sometimes appeared in drag in their short films. The tradition has continued for many years, usually played for laughs. Only in recent decades have there been dramatic films which included cross-dressing, possibly because of strict censorship of American films until the mid-1960s. One early exception was Alfred Hitchcock's thriller Murder!, where the murderer is a transvestite who wears particularly frilly dresses and petticoats. Cross-gender acting, on the other hand, refers to actors or actresses portraying a character of the opposite gender.
In Some Like It Hot (1959), two struggling musicians have to dress as women to escape the ire of gangsters. The film is a remake of a 1935 French movie, Fanfare of Love, from the story by Robert Thoeren and Michael Logan, which was remade in 1951 by German director Kurt Hoffmann as Fanfares of Love.
In Blake Edwards's 1982 musical comedy film Victor/Victoria, Victoria Grant, a struggling soprano, is unable to find work but she finds success when she becomes "Count Victor Grazinski", a female impersonator. The film is a remake of Viktor und Viktoria, a German film of 1933.
David Henry Hwang's 1988 play M. Butterfly focuses on a love affair between a French diplomat and a male Beijing opera singer who plays dan, or female, roles.
Dr. Frank 'n' Furter in The Rocky Horror Picture Show wore nothing but women's clothing the entire film/play.
In The Drew Carey Show, Drew's brother, Steve Carey, is a cross-dresser.
Robin Williams played a divorced father who dressed as a nanny to be with his children in the 1993 comedy Mrs. Doubtfire.
Dame Edna was an elderly drag queen with "wisteria-colored hair" who did international chat shows in the 1990s.
Movies that feature cross-dressing as a central plot element:
Most of the above films are comedies. Films in which cross-dressing is treated in a more serious manner are relatively rare, although the list does include several dramas and biopics.
Many other comedy films include instances of humorous cross-dressing, but do not feature it as a central plot element. Movies in which cross-dressing plays a minor but important role include:
In the documentary Giuliani Time there are excerpts from Rudy Giuliani's appearance in a video, which was shown for the occasion of an Inner Circle press dinner.
The 1936 Polish film Bohaterowie Sybiru has an episode where Polish insurgents exiled to Siberia are partying with Siberian peasants. Two Polish officers make a mock performance of a Polish folk dance, with one of them making a makeshift impersonation of a woman.
There are quite a few adaptations of the 1892 farce Charley's Aunt. In the original, a teenager impersonates his friend's aunt.