Leif Roscher Roschberg (5 January 1909 â 10 May 1967), known professionally as one half of the Rocky Twins, was a Norwegian dancer, actor, and painter. He rose to international superstardom during the Jazz Age as a symbol of androgynous glamour and high-fashion drag. Alongside his identical twin brother, Paal, he headlined major revues in Paris, London, and Pre-Code Hollywood.
Leif was born in Kristiania (now Oslo), Norway, into a socially prominent family. His father, Adolf Roscher Roschberg, was a colonel in the Norwegian army. Despite the strict military background of his household, Leif and his twin brother, Paal, were encouraged in the arts, co-authoring a book of fairy tales at age 11.
The twins received a rigorous artistic education, studying ballet and jazz dance under the legendary Per Aabel and Love Krohn. To polish their act, they traveled to London and Paris, developing a sophisticated "continental" style that blended athletic dance with high-fashion aesthetics.
At age 18, the brothers were discovered and booked for the 1927 revue Les Ailes de Paris at the Casino de Paris. Their most popular routine involved dressing in elaborate, identical drag to parody the Dolly Sisters. Their impersonation was noted for being "disturbingly beautiful" rather than comedic, making them pioneers of refined androgyny.
During the late 1920s and early 1930s, they became icons of the "Pansy Craze," headlining at the Folies Bergère and the Lido. Their striking looks earned them the nickname "The Black Orchids of the North".
In 1932, the twins moved to Hollywood, where director Edmund Goulding cast them in the MGM film Blondie of the Follies. Their pirate-themed dance sequence with Marion Davies remains their most famous filmed performance. While in Los Angeles, they became staples of the social circuit, frequently staying at Hearst Castle and socializing with Charlie Chaplin, William Haines, and Tallulah Bankhead.
After the duo split in 1937, Leif turned toward the fine arts. Following World War II, he settled in New York City, where he reinvented himself as a painter. He held two successful solo exhibitions in New York in 1952, with his work reflecting the same elegance that characterized his stage career.
Leif lived a defiant life that challenged the social norms of the 1930s. He was a central figure in the clandestine gay social circles of Paris and Hollywood and was rumored to have had high-profile affairs with both men and women.
He was married twice first to Maria Vogt in Vienna in 1939 and later to Jenny Voigt in Canada in 1944. Both marriages ended in divorce. After years abroad in Sicily, Cuba, and the United States, he eventually returned to Oslo, where he worked as a tour guide in his later years.
Leif died on 10 May 1967, in Oslo at the age of 58 and he is buried alongside his brother Paal in Oslo.
Leif Roschberg is remembered as a pioneer of queer performance. During the height of their fame, Leif and Paal were frequently cited by contemporary fashion journals and socialites as being among the "best-dressed men in the world". Alongside his brother Paal, he is celebrated as an early gay icon who utilized androgyny and high-fashion drag to challenge traditional gender roles decades before the emergence of the modern Pride movement. Their ability to move seamlessly between masculine and feminine presentations.
Leif and his brother Paal also knwon as The Rocky Twins legacy was largely revived for a modern audience with the 2018 publication of the biography The Rocky Twins: Norway's Outrageous Jazz Age Beauties by Gary Chapman. Today, Leif is recognized not merely as an entertainer, but as a symbol of Jazz Age defiance, artistic reinvention, and a precursor to the modern aesthetic of gender-bending in fashion and film.