American socialite and writer Mercedes De Acosta was BOTD in 1892. Born and raised in New York to wealthy Cuban-Spanish parents, her family moved in high society, entertaining the Roosevelts and Vanderbilts. Identifying as a boy from early childhood, her parents allowed her to dress in men’s clothes, then attempted to feminise her by sending her to convent school (where her classmates included Dorothy Parker). She became a New York socialite, marrying painter Abram Poole in 1920, while openly pursuing affairs with actress Alla Nazimova, dancers Tamara Karsavina and Isadora Duncan and composer Igor Stravinsky. De Acosta tried her hand at playwriting, and had four plays produced in New York, three starring her lover Eva Le Gallienne. Poorly reviewed and received, their failure spelled the end of the relationship. In the 1930s, De Acosta moved to Hollywood where she met her great love Greta Garbo, with whom she was involved for more than a decade. Garbo’s reclusiveness and need for total control left De Acosta unsatisfied, and she consoled herself with affairs with Marlene Dietrich, Katharine Cornell, Tallulah Bankhead, Ona Munson and Adele Astaire. Bankhead infamously referred to De Acosta as “Countess Dracula” following their break-up. Her attempts at screenwriting (including a script for Garbo in which the actress dressed as a man) were never produced. She also wrote novels and poetry that were admired by her friends but not widely read. Later in life, she returned to New York, publishing a tell-all memoir Here Lies the Heart in 1960. Though never referencing her same-sex relationships, many of her ex-lovers felt betrayed by her revelations. Garbo snubbed her in public and never spoke to her again, while Le Gallienne referred to the book as Here the Heart Lies and Lies and Lies. She died in poverty and obscurity in 1968, aged 76. Her life and legacy has been reassessed by queer scholars, praising her unusual openness about her sexuality. Her memoir is now recognised as an important (if somewhat embellished) record of Hollywood queer history.