American singer-songwriter and actor Elvis Presley was BOTD in 1935. Born in Mississippi, he moved with his family to Memphis, Tennessee as a teenager. He began recording music as a teenager, pioneering “rockabilly”, an uptempo fusion of country music with rhythm & blues. Scoring his first hit with Heartbreak Hotel, he electrified audiences with his matinee-idol good looks and highly sexualised performances, becoming a leading figure of rock and roll. In a series of covers originally recorded by Black artists (notably Hound Dog), he helped popularise African-American music for white audiences, but was also condemned for corrupting American youth with his gyrating pelvis. After being drafted into military service, he went to Hollywood, making a series of critically derided but hugely popular musical films, including Jailhouse Rock, Blue Hawaii and Viva Las Vegas. After a seven-year break from live performances, he appeared in an acclaimed 1968 television comeback special, leading to an extended concert residency in Las Vegas. Praised for his soulful renditions of ballads including Love Me Tender, Are You Lonesome Tonight?, Always On My Mind and Can’t Help Falling In Love, he remained a cult figure, despite his turbulent marriage to Priscilla Wagner and well-publicised battles with prescription drugs and binge-eating. He died in 1977 aged 42. Graceland, his palatial Memphis home, has since become a shrine for Elvis fans. Though avowedly heterosexual, Elvis’ androgynous beauty and feline sexuality has made him an unlikely queer icon, particularly among lesbians who imitated his rockabilly aesthetic (see Joan Crawford in Johnny Guitar and Janelle Monáe for further details). He has been portrayed innumerable times in film, most recently by Austin Butler in Elvis and by Jacob Elordi in Priscilla.