With his beauty spots and arched eyebrows, Julian Clary is well known for his camp television compéreing in outrageous lycra, rubber & sequin costumes (how unaspected-Uranus-in-Leo can you get!) and for his endless stream of sexual double entendres and puns (Uranus ruling 3rd House which contains witty Chiron). Facing the British, Australian and American publics as an out gay man, Clary has been upfront and hilarious in his frank discussions of sex and sexuality (Pluto on MidHeaven square and dispositing Jupiter in Scorpio which conjuncts and rules his Sagittarian Ascendant).

Brought up in Teddington, London, Clary has two older sisters. His father was a traffic policeman and his mother a probabation officer, and he went to a strict Catholic school in Ealing, London (see photos). His campery may have received useful early influence from his sister who began her career as a Tiller girl when he was 13 (Progressed Uranus -- ruler of his unaspected Uranus in Leo -- square natal sibling Mercury).

Clary completed his studies in drama and English at Goldsmith's College, in south London, in 1983, then had a variety of jobs including a guard on the London Underground and a singing telegram. At the age of 19 he had a girlfriend but after she left him he started a relationship with a barman at the Old Vic (progressed Sun at 22° Gemini in 7th quincunx natal Moon). Clary started on the London comedy circuit as a drag act, "Gillian Pie-Face", wearing a kaftan, beads, and pink wig. His début television appearance however was on Channel 4 in Cabaret at the Jongleurs in 1988 as "The Joan Collins Fan Club" -- dressed in PVC and rubber, and accompanied by his dear companion, Fanny the Wonderdog (progressed Uranus at his Venus/Neptune Midpoint).

In 1989, he began hosting Sticky Moments with Julian Clary -- a unique television quiz show series in which he wore ever more outrageous costumes (as viscous and glamorous progressed Neptune conjunct his Ascendant), then carrying on much the same way in Terry and Julian (1992). In the film Carry on Columbus (1992), he plays the prison governor Don Juan Diego (progressed Mars conjunct natal Pluto on Midheaven).

Clary's 1992 book, How to Be a Real Man -- a glorious spoof on (hetero)masculinity in which he guarantees "to help the most hopeless specimen [of manhood] realise his full, throbbing potential" -- was published as the progressed Sun (maleness) on his 8th House cusp (burgeoning sexuality) opposed his natal Saturn (biting sarcasm). The video of his 1993 tour is called, My Glittering Passage.

In 1993, Clary compéred the live telecast of the British Comedy Awards. A sexual joke involving Norman Lamont, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, received uproarious laughter from the celebrity audience. Although there were only 12 complaints from a viewing audience of 3 million, the next day's press was indignant and called for him to be banned from television! As a result, Clary went on tour in Australia, starring in packed-out shows, and causing a modicum of controversy (amongst a few local gays at least) for comments he made while co-hosting the national telecast of the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras parade (progressed Pluto on the cusp of the 11th House of television, square natal Saturn) -- unfortunately some silly Down Under queens just can't take his razor-sharp humour!

With an angular Grand Cross pattern in his chart (with Chiron at its base ruling his 10th House of public recognition and fame), along with a near-unaspected Saturn as Final Dispositor, Clary (as a self-described "renowned homosexual" or "that poof from the telly") has thus weathered a few storms in both public (and no doubt his private) life. Such features in a chart generally bring at least one cross to bear in life, if not more. Clary lost his lover Christopher to complications caused by the AIDS virus in 1991 (as progressed Mercury -- ruler of his 7th House of partners -- reached 25° Gemini and semi-sextiled his Mars in the 8th House of death). And the retired Fanny died a few days after Clary's 40th birthday (as progressed Venus -- ruler of his 6th House of animal companionship -- opposed Chiron, the dispositor of his unaspected Uranus, and "wounded healer" planet at the base of his Grand Cross).

Fortunately, by drawing on his happy-go-lucky Sagittarius Ascendant & rising Jupiter, Clary has always moved on with life. After co-hosting the Sydney Mardi Gras, he returned to Britain in 1995 and took up acting and compéreing again. He was also the subject of a biographical programme in the series First on Four, shown on Channel 4 television in 1998. Having judged t.v. 'mock court' show, All Rise for Julian Clary (1996), he more recently camped it up on t.v. shows such as Prickly Heat (1998+, as host), Cinderella (2000, as the Good Fairy) and Dick Whittington (2002, as Chris the Cat). He even appears in the film, The Baby Juice Express (2001) as a gay gangster!

Anyone with an optimistic Sagittarian Ascendant ruled by Jupiter rising in Scorpio in a Boomerang pattern, would always keep bouncing back with a quip, whatever the odds. This seems to be so in Julian Clary's case, because after all, the best way to deal with setbacks and the at times overbearing straightness of the world is to kick back with a few sharp jokes, however bitchy. And by using these features of his chart to his best advantage in this way, this is what Julian Clary does so superbly!

* Clary, Julian. How To Be a Real Man. London: Virgin, 1992.

---. The Joan Collins Fan Club: 'My Life with Fanny the Wonderdog.' London, 1989.

* Duncan, Andrew. "Julian Clary" (interview). Radio Times (BBC) 10 - 16 April 1999.

* Hay, Ashley. "That Poof from the Telly." Independent Monthly. April 1993, pp. 36-37.

* Julian Clary @ The Knitting Circle.

* Moore, Dermod. "An Interview with Julian Clary" Bootboy (Hot Press) 21 Sept. 1995.