Pale actor playing a queen (9)
I believe the answer is:
cleopatra
'a queen' is the definition.
(Cleopatra is an example)
'pale actor playing' is the wordplay.
'playing' indicates an anagram.
'pale'+'actor'='paleactor'
'paleactor' is an anagram of 'CLEOPATRA'.
(Other definitions for cleopatra that I've seen before include "1st century queen of Egypt" , "tragic role" , "Old queen of Egypt" , "She died tragically" , "Beautiful queen of Egypt, mistress of Julius Caesar and Mark Anthony" .)