Born in Ireland as Daniel Patrick Carroll in 1927, La Rue had an unusual background for a drag queen. He moved to England at the age of six, first performing in drag as Juliet in a school Shakespeare play because 'there weren't enough girls.' He found he enjoyed the part, but any thoughts of being a drag performer were put on hold when he joined the Royal Navy. Eventually, the drag artist won out, and he went into theatre.
La Rue never embraced the term 'drag queen,' preferring to be thought of as a 'comic in a frock.' Much of La Re's work was impersonation, making a fortune impersonating Elizabeth Taylor, Judy Garland and Zsa Zsa Gabor in the 1950s and 60s, eventually opening a nightclub in London. When he replaced Avis Bunnage in 'Oh, What A Lovely War!' in the 1980s, he became the only man to take a woman's role in the history of the West End.