Peter Robinson (1962 - ) singer.

Peter was born in Kingston, Jamaica, where his father was a yacht salesman, and grew up in Hertfordshire. As a teenager he modelled himself on Marilyn Monroe.

Boy George and he, using the name, Marilyn, were Blitz Kids and part of the New Romantic movement. They lived in the same squat in Kentish Town, but were chased out by a lustful neighbour who assumed that Marilyn was a woman.

After Boy George went into Culture Club, Marilyn appeared in the Eurythmics’ video, Who’s That Girl. He was then signed and his first single, “Calling Your Name”, 1983, went to no 1 in Japan, and no 4 in the UK. He released two more singles in 1984, and his album, Despite Straight Lines in 1985.

In 1986 Marilyn and George’s brother, Kevin, were sentenced on a charge of possessing heroin. His career declined. A failed attempt to record a second album in Detroit drained his finances, and he cut his hair and quit the industry, until 2001 when he made some club appearances.

In 2002, his character was featured in the stage musical Taboo. In 2003 he was in a Channel 4 reality show based on hairdressing. In 2005 he was in the Channel 4 documentary Whatever Happened to the Gender Benders?, where, looking quite unwell and unglamorous, he discussed drugs and his agoraphobia.

*Not Peter Robinson, the crime novelist, nor the department store, nor the computer scientist, nor the poet.

• Kris Kirk & Ed Heath. Men In Frocks. London: Gay Men's Press. 159pp 1984:116-7.
• Andy Baybutt (dir). Whatever Happened to the Gender Benders? With Marc Almond, David Bowie, Boy George, Marilyn. UK 48 mins 2005 Channel 4.
• “Marilyn (singer)”. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marilyn_(singer).
• "Marilyn".  The Blitz Kids.   www.theblitzkids.com/site_archive/sharahmakeup/menumarilyn.html.