What Happened to Freddie Stroble?

NOTE: I will be using present tense for Freddie and male pronouns until I both know he is still alive or deceased and if he’s male or female identifying.

Freddie Stroble as Transvestite in The Last Dragon (1985)

Freddie Stroble is an American actor most known for his second and final film role in 1985’s kung fu comedy film “The Last Dragon” credited as Transvestite, Freddie appears in the movie theater scene when character Sho’Nuff approaches the main character in the front of the theater. Stroble’s character can be seen getting out of their seat to exclaim “Don’t hurt the face, baby!” and in the next frame can be seen putting their hands over their face and exclaiming “Ooh!” The scene is memorable as it shows a diverse group of people featured in a mainstream movie, something not often done in big budget movies, especially in the 1980’s.

Freddie’s first film is the 1984 (other places listed as 1983) erotic drama feature “New York Nights” (also titled “Shackin’ Up”) where he plays a club transvestite character. He does have lines in this film and can be seen in the film’s trailer saying “You’re new here! You’re nice!!” to Frank Patton’s character in the film.

Freddie with co-star Frank Patton in “New York Nights” (1984)

After “The Last Dragon” was released it seemed like Freddie fell off of the face of the Earth. He had a steady acting career then just seemingly disappeared. When doing research on Stroble, I could only find an obituary for another Freddie Stroble who died in 2019. I also discovered that most of the people who would have interacted with Freddie in his movies (hair, makeup, costume department, etc.) have either passed away or are no longer active in the entertainment industry. People who I assumed would know him such as Ruby Rims, a popular New York City nightclub emcee, and Glamorous Monique, a popular model and recording artist who was active in New York’s nightlife scene, may have run into or even worked with Freddie, didn’t know him at all.

Other elders in the LGBT community didn’t seem to know him, but did offer names of other people who may have known Freddie. When I reached out to them for comment, they did not return my emails.

It’s possible that Freddie wasn’t actually transgender or even in the LGBT community. I have found through doing talent work (and predominantly representing transgender clients) that transgender actresses don’t often want to be cast for roles that are either stereotypical to or making fools out of transgender people. So playing roles like a sex club or night club transvestite (transvestite being language mostly used in the 1980’s) or playing an eccentric movie theater goer, even in a mainstream movie, may not be something of interest to a transgender actress, but appealing to a cisgender male actor. This can be proven by a film I got a client cast in, in 2015 entitled “Dead Sexy” where the transgender character Bunny, portrayed by A.J. Villarreal is actually a male identifying actor. So Stroble could easily be heterosexual and may have done other projects that just aren’t listed on IMDb. Or he could be going by another name? I did have to add his New York Nights credit to IMDb. So it’s possible that he’s still acting. 

If anybody knows Freddie Stroble, please don’t hesitate to comment!