Yahoo News Paul O'Grady mural defaced and painted over days after his death
The graffiti was painted in tribute to the Lily Savage star and his love of dogs.
A mural painted in tribute to Paul O'Grady has been vandalised and quickly covered over - less than a week after his death.
The comedian, actor and presenter - who rose to fame as drag queen alter ego Lily Savage - died unexpectedly at the age of 67 on Tuesday 28 March.
Manchester graffiti artist Chris Moore painted a tribute to O'Grady, celebrating his love of dogs, on a wall in an underpass under Kingsway on the Fallowfield Loop in the city.
Read more: Paul O'Grady: A truly good person remembered
But by 2 April visitors to the mural found green lines had been scrawled over the image of the For The Love Of Dogs presenter's face.
Society is truly fubar .. a lovely mural drawn by artist in Manchester of Paul O'Grady after his sad passing vandalised and green paint lines destroying it there is some lowlife scum on our streets😡🤷♂️ pic.twitter.com/ai1eJ825Ux
— JG 💙💙 (@FABSITEUK) April 3, 2023
The vandalised mural was quickly covered over with a new artwork - with the outline of his head and "For Paul" still just visible behind the new image.
The words "RIP Paul O'Grady" have been added to the new artwork.
A mural in memory of Paul O’Grady in Fallowfield, which was defaced days after it was created, is now covered with new artwork.
You can just about see where ‘For Paul’ was, painted over in green, but ‘RIP Paul O’Grady’ still features on the wall by Kingsway @BBCRadioManc pic.twitter.com/nzY3BJShjM— Lydia Flavell (@lydiaflavell) April 3, 2023
Sharing his original picture Moore said: "A mural celebrating the life of @paulogrady - Paul always seemed like a well-grounded entertainment machine that spanned generations, was one of the nation’s favourite drag artists and through his love for animals he was an ambassador for @battersea where he helped raise their profile.
"Only felt right to include a dog in his mural. Thanks for everything, Paul! Rest well"
O'Grady was an ambassador for Battersea Dogs & Cats Home.
Since his death a tribute fund set up by the charity in his honour has seen a surge in donations.
The BBC paid homage to the star with a special broadcast of a classic episode of Blankety Blank.
And his husband Andre Portasio shared the final photograph taken of them together, taken on holiday back in January.
O'Grady rose to fame on the comedy circuit as drag queen Lily O'Grady, who he created in the 1970s.
In the 1980s he was cast as trans prostitute Roxanne in ITV police drama The Bill and became a presenter on The Big Breakfast.
Read more: Marcus Rashford mural in Manchester vandalised amid racist abuse after Euro 2020 final
He landed The Lily Savage Show on ITV in the 90s and hosted a revival of quiz show Blankety Blank.
In 2000 he began to retire Savage and started to present TV as himself – hosting The Paul O'Grady Show, Blind Date and For The Love Of Dogs, to name but a few.
He recently stepped down from DJing on BBC Radio 2 after 14 years and was due to launch a new show on Boom radio.
This year he was touring as Miss Hannigan in a new stage production of musical Annie.
Watch: Paul O'Grady spoke of joy of working with dogs home in show recorded before his death
