Some of the most successful gender-bending performances are meant to bring on the laughs: Viewers recognize that the flamboyant woman on the screen is one of their favorite actors (and the more macho, the better). In movies like Tootsie, it's the fellow characters who have the chiffon pulled over their eyes, to equally hilarious effect. But these parts are not always played for comedy -- for some characters, the dress up is their only outlet for escape and expression. These ten represent a cross-section of cross-dressing roles, sometimes campy, sometimes tragic -- but never (forgive us!) -- a drag.

10. John Travolta, Hairspray (2007)
When it comes to cross-dressing for comic effect, the irony factor is crucial. How surprising is it to see that actor play the opposite gender -- and how well does he pull it off? Tough guy John Travolta succeeds on both counts in the 2007 version of Hairspray, fully embracing the campy, bubblegum aesthetic of '60s-era Baltimore. His Edna Turnblad sashays across the screen proving that even as a woman, Mr. Saturday Night Fever still knows how to move.

9. Robin Williams, Mrs. Doubtfire (1993)
Making the transition from out-of-work actor to childcare expert, Williams' transformation takes place on screen, and part of the fun is watching him juggle his two identities. Donning a fat suit and wig, this down-on-his-luck dad only manages to take responsibility for his family when he's his alter ego. Sometimes you have to be someone else to find out what you're actually capable of.

8. Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis, Some Like It Hot (1959)
It's hard to say which actor is better in this comedy, so it's a tie. The duo witnesses a gangland hit and disguise themselves as women in an all-girl singing group to escape retaliation. Some Like It Hot gets points not only for being that rare creature -- an Oscar-winning comedy -- but also for pioneering cross-dressing roles well before the sexual revolution... and while J. Edgar Hoover was still doing it in secret. 

7. Patrick Swayze, To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar (1995)
In this Thelma & Louise meets The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert classic, three drag queens on a road trip  win the hearts and minds of some small-town residents, who discover that the trio are men only after a confrontation with the county sheriff. Dirty Dancing star Patrick Swayze not only makes a hot redhead, he helped make gay culture (albeit an exaggeratedly fabulous version) Hollywood-ready.

6. John Cameron Mitchell, Hedwig and the Angry Inch (2001)
Rock-opera Hedwig introduced a new level of ambiguity to the gender-bending paradigm. Hedwig wants to be a woman, endures a botched sex change, and then bounces from betrayal to betrayal at the hands of uncaring lovers. Hiding behind a collection of wigs and false eyelashes he becomes a rock star, but at the end of the day, even though everyone knows his anatomical specifics (in great detail) he's still unsure about what, or who, he is.

5. Julie Andrews, Victor Victoria (1982)
Julie Andrews plays a struggling cabaret singer in 1930s Paris who realizes she can transform her career by harnessing the power of sensationalism. She sells her act, by claiming to be a man in drag -- she's a woman playing a man, playing a woman. Not only did Andrews subvert her squeaky clean Sound of Music persona with Victor Victoria, the movie delves into the question of what it means to be entertained by -- and attracted to -- someone, and how our assumptions change that dynamic.

4. Tyler Perry, Diary of a Mad Black Woman (2005)
Tyler Perry's Madea -- a no-nonesense, pistol packing, Bible-thumping grandmother -- deserves credit as a cultural institution in her own right. Like Travolta as Edna Turnblad, the 6' 5" Perry is ridiculously masculine, but he plays Madea straight -- onscreen she's not a man dressed as a woman, she's a woman through and through. The Madea franchise helped Hollywood wake up to fact that African-American moviegoers wield plenty of box office power, and communicates a set of cultural standards between the laughs.

3. Jaye Davidson, The Crying Game (1992)
Much of the plot of The Crying Game actually focuses on Northern Ireland and the IRA, but most people remember the movie for the big reveal at the end. Davidson played his character Dil so fluidly, the audience didn't realize until the end that she was actually a he. The top secret twist got people into theaters, and the underlying message -- that people are more mysterious than you could ever guess -- won the movie an Oscar for best screenplay, and a supporting actor nomination for Davidson.

2. Dustin Hoffman, Tootsie (1982)
What is it about out-of-work actors that forces them to resort to drag? In this, Hoffman plays an unemployed actor who lands a role on a soap opera by pretending to be a woman. The movie accomplishes the work of the best comedies, blending outlandish plot twists with a keen examination of human nature and the gender divide -- largely by letting Hoffman walk a mile in ladies' shoes.

1. Tim Curry, The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975)
As Dr. Frank N. Furter, Tim Curry isn't fooling anyone, and that's what makes it the ultimate performance -- everyone is in on the joke. Rocky Horror takes a clean-cut musical comedy, adds the sexual revolution, a shake of post-Watergate paranoid fantasy and a healthy dose of absurdity to yield a campy, genre- and gender-bending classic. Curry is unmistakably a man in women's underwear; his performance is all about ignoring normal boundaries and expectations.

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