French artist and actor Marcel Khill was BOTD in 1912. Born Mustapha Marcel Khelilou ben Abdelkader in Meulan-en-Yvelines near Paris, he was the son of an Algerian soldier. When he was 16, he met the painter Maurice Tranchant de Lunel, who is thought to have recruited him to sell opium to his social circle. Via Lunel, he met Jean Cocteau in 1932, and quickly became his lover. Cocteau, grieving for his recent break-up with Jean Desbordes, became obsessed with Khill’s good looks and penchant for sadism and sexual domination, writing to a friend, “He’s a brute, he’s killing me. He’s really too wild, but I’ve got him under my skin – what can I do?” The curator and writer Glenway Wescott reported visiting Cocteau in 1935 and finding him and Khill in bed together. According to Wescott, Khill admitted that Cocteau was so desperate for sex that he [Khill] had to “run away to a ski resort to regain some energy”. Khill appeared in the original 1934 production of Cocteau’s play La Machine Infernale (The Infernal Machine). The following year, he joined Cocteau in a world trip to recreate the route in Jules Vernes’ novel Le Tour du monde en quatre-vingts jours (Around the World in Eighty Days). Cocteau published his travelogue Mon Premier Voyage in 1937, portraying Khill as a voraciously (hetero)sexual Passepartout. Cocteau produced hundreds of photographs and drawings of Khill, frequently naked, asleep and/or smoking opium. An artist in his own right, Khill also assisted Cocteau with illustrated portraits, and posed for a series of portraits for photographer George Platt Lynes. Cocteau’s and Khill’s relationship dwindled as Cocteau became infatuated with the actor Jean Marais. In 1938, Khill became engaged to cartoonist Denyse de Bravura, though remained on friendly terms with Cocteau, who introduced Bravura to his artistic circle. When World War Two was declared in 1939, Khill was conscripted into the French Army and sent to the Alsace front, where he was awarded the Croix de Guerre for bravery. He and Bravura were married by proxy while he was at the front. He was killed in battle in June 1940, just days before the French Army surrendered to German forces. He was 28.