English playwright and diarist Joe Orton was BOTD in 1933. Born in Leicester to a working- class family, he became interested in theatre as a teenager, taking elocution lessons to lose his regional accent. He moved to London in 1950 to study at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. In 1951, he began a relationship with Kenneth Halliwell, who became his lover, writing partner and literary mentor. They collaborated on several novels, including The Boy Hairdresser, which remained unpublished in their lifetimes. In 1962, they were prosecuted and imprisoned for defacing library books, illustrating covers with pornographic images cut from physique magazines. On his release from prison, Orton began writing radio plays, which were broadcast on the BBC. His first full-length play, Entertaining Mr Sloane, created a scandal with its farcical presentation of a menage-a-trois between a sexually frustrated landlady and her brother, who agree to share the sexual affections of a beautiful young man. Condemned as filth by the conservative press, it became a critical hit, and was bankrolled by gay playwright Terence Rattigan for its West End run. His 1966 play Loot, a parody of detective dramas, became a critical and commercial hit, establishing Orton at the centre of newly Swinging London. Orton and Halliwell had an open relationship, frequently holidaying in Tangier to have sex with young men. Halliwell became increasingly jealous of Orton’s popularity and resentful that his contributions to their work were unacknowledged. In 1967, Halliwell bludgeoned Orton to death in their flat, then killed himself via a drug overdose. Orton’s final play What the Butler Saw was staged in 1968 after his death. Public interest in Orton was revived after the publication of his diaries in 1986, providing graphic details about his cruising for sex in public toilets, sexual experiences in Tangier and fraught relationship with Halliwell. His relationship with Halliwell was portrayed in Stephen Frears’ 1987 film Prick Up Your Ears, scripted by Alan Bennett and starring Gary Oldman as Orton. His legacy as a gay hero has been re-evaluated in recent years, in light of his sexual exploitation of underage boys.