Where Will & Grace cast are now as Leslie Jordan dies in car crash – from bitter feud to shoplifting scandal
WILL and Grace fans are mourning the loss of actor Leslie Jordan, who was tragically killed in a car crash on Monday.
The Tennessee-born star, who won an Emmy for his portrayal of pretentious social climber Beverley Leslie, died aged 67 after slamming his BMW into a building in Hollywood.
His Will and Grace co-stars were quick to pay tribute to Leslie, who had many ups and downs over the years.
He’s been open about his struggles with drink and drugs, and once told how he ended up in a prison cell next to Robert Downey Jnr while he too was battling addiction.
While serving time for three counts of driving under the influence in just a year in 1997, he decided it was time to clean up his act.
Leslie joined the Will and Grace cast – which included Debra Messing, Will McCormack, Megan Mullally and Leslie Jordan – in 2001, three years after it premiered.
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The show ran until 2006, but returned for three more seasons in 2017.
After Will and Grace, Leslie, who was openly gay after struggling to accept his sexuality for years, starred in American Horror Story and Call Me Kat.
In 2010, he told talk show host Wendy Williams that he had been sober for 13 years.
During the Covid-19 pandemic Leslie experienced a surge in popularity thanks to a series of hilarious videos he posted on Instagram.
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Here we look back at what happened to the rest of Leslie’s former Will and Grace cast mates.
Debra Messing
Debra, 54, played interior designer Grace Adler, who lived with her gay best friend Will in New York.
She was nominated for numerous Golden Globes awards and Screen Actors Guild Awards, and won an Emmy in 2003.
Debra went on to land roles in the mini-series The Starter Wife, musical drama Smash, and the 2020 film The Dark Divide.
In 2011 she separated from her husband, fellow actor Daniel Zelman, after 11 years of marriage, but they remained living together for the sake of their son Roman.
Later that year it emerged she’d been secretly dating her married Smash co-star Will Chase. They stayed together for two-and-a-half years.
Debra sparked a feud with Kim Kardashian in October 2021 after the reality star hosted an episode of Saturday Night Live.
Unimpressed by Kim’s performance, Debra tweeted asking why she’d been given the opportunity, to which Kim hit back: “A girl from Will and Grace came out and said she has no idea why I would be chosen as a host, but it’s like, why do you care?”
Eric McCormack
Eric played Debra’s gay best friend Will, a successful corporate lawyer.
The 59-year-old American-Canadian received praise for his portrayal, despite being a heterosexual man himself, and was nominated for several awards.
After Will & Grace Eric moved away from comedy and focused his attention on more complex roles in TV dramas such as The Andromeda Strain and Netflix’s Travelers.
Since 1997 he has been married to Janet Leigh Holden, who he met on the set of the 1994 western mini-series Lonesome Drive. They share a son, Finnigan, who is now 20.
In 2019 he came under fire for claiming US Conservatives who attended a Trump fundraiser in Beverly Hills should be blacklisted in Hollywood – comments he later backtracked on.
Megan Mullally
Megan, 63, played Grace’s assistant Karen Walker, who relished the job for giving her time away from her wealthy husband Stan and their kids.
After the sitcom she hosted her own talk show, but it was cancelled after a year.
Since then she’s appeared in TV shows such Children’s Hospital, In the Motherhood, and Breaking In.
She’s been married three times – her current husband Nick Offerman, who she wed in 2003, appeared on an episode of Will and Grace while they were dating.
After the show returned for the revival, rumours began to surface that she was embroiled in a bitter feud with co-star Debra.
It was claimed the pair couldn’t stand each other, with Debra accused of being jealous of Megan’s popularity and her two Emmy wins.
Rumours intensified when Megan took a leave of absence during the show’s last season and stopped appearing in cast photos.
In 2020, Megan added fuel to the fire when she mentioned in her podcast with her husband that she had been involved in a situation where she was bullied at work.
While the two women have not come out to confirm the existence of a feud, they haven’t denied it either.
Sean Hayes
Sean played Will’s flamboyant friend Jack McFarland, who he met while in college.
He became one of the best-loved cast members, winning an Emmy, four SAG awards, and six Globe nominations.
After the show the 52-year-old appeared in movies such as Lazy Susan and has a main role in the adult animated comedy series Q-Force.
For many years he hid his own sexuality, saying he wanted the audience to be more open-minded about the characters he plays.
But in 2010 he came out as gay amid controversy over straight men playing gay characters.
He married his long-time partner Scott Icenogle in November 2014.
In 2017, he revealed he was rushed to the hospital after his small intestine burst. He said: “I went to the ER and… thank God I did. I had a very rare thing where my small intestine burst open and it was poisoning my body.”
Shelley Morrison
Shelley played the role of Rosario Salazar on a recurring basis for the first two seasons, but was given a larger role after proving popular with fans.
In 2003 she was caught trying to shoplift $500 worth of jewellery from a department store in West Los Angeles, and handed a $300 fine, a year’s probation and ordered to keep away from the store.
Bizarrely, Shelley maintained she had no recollection of the incident.
In 1999 she was diagnosed with breast cancer and had to undergo a double mastectomy – and stunned fans when she returned to work just two weeks after the op.
When the show was revived she refused to return as she’d retired from acting.
After a brief illness, Shelley died aged 83 at a hospital in Los Angeles after suffering heart failure following a brief illness.
Debbie Reynolds
Legendary actress Debbie Reynolds was already a huge name in Hollywood and the music industry before frequently appearing on the show as Grace’s mum Bobbi.
With a career that began in 1948, she appeared in numerous films and television shows and was awarded a Humanitarian Award at the Oscars in 2015.
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On December 27, 2016, Debbie’s daughter, actress Carrie Fisher, died after suffering a heart attack while on a flight from London to Los Angeles.
It became a double tragedy when Debbie died from a stroke just a day later, aged 84.