Outrageous!
1977 film by Richard Benner

Outrageous! is a 1977 Canadian comedy-drama film written and directed by Richard Benner. The film stars Craig Russell as female impersonator Robin Turner, and Hollis McLaren as Turner's schizophrenic roommate Liza Conners. The plot begins in Toronto, with later scenes in New York City.
The film is based on "Making It", a short story by writer Margaret Gibson from her 1976 collection The Butterfly Ward; Russell and Gibson were roommates in real life.
Outrageous! was one of the first gay-themed films ever to receive widespread theatrical release in North America. The sequel Too Outrageous! was released in 1987. A stage musical that was adapted from the film was produced by Canadian Stage in 2000.
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Reception evidence should be dated and situated: later canonical status may differ sharply from the work’s initial circulation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 20, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q778664. 7 of 7 selected statements include explicit references; 7 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1977, 1976, 1987 and 2000.
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This entry incorporates text from “Outrageous!” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.