Russian dancer and choreographer Rudolf Nureyev was BOTD in 1938. Born on a Trans-Siberian train in Irkutsk, he began dancing as a child, moving to Leningrad to study at the Vaganova Academy. He joined the Kirov Ballet, becoming its principal dancer and a national star in the Soviet Union. In 1960, he joined a tour in Paris, electrifying audiences with his athleticism, feline beauty and sexual magnetism. Under surveillance by the KGB, who observed him visiting gay bars in Paris, he was ordered to return to Russia. He escaped his minders and asked for asylum, making international headlines as Russia’s highest-profile defector. He settled in Paris, forming an open relationship with Danish dancer Erik Bruhn while fucking everything else with a pulse. In 1962, he joined the English Royal Ballet, beginning a long and celebrated association with Margot Fonteyn (with whom he was also romantically involved). The pair undertook extensive international tours, gaining counter-cultural cool when they were arrested in San Francisco for drug offences. He made a number of filmed recordings of his most famous roles, and played silent film star Rudolph Valentino in Ken Russell’s 1977 film Valentino. His greatest screen appearance was an episode of The Muppet Show, in which he danced Swan Lake with a human-sized lady pig and tap-danced his way though Puttin’ on the Ritz. He worked extensively as a choreographer, becoming director of the Paris Opera Ballet in 1983. His choreography combined classical and modern dance styles, revitalising older repertory pieces and foregrounding the talents of his young protégés, including the dancers Sylvie Guillem and Douglas Wright. Diagnosed with HIV in 1984, he continued to work until his health declined in 1991. He made his final public appearance in 1992 at his new production of La Badadère, dying in 1993 aged 54. Now considered the greatest male ballet star of the 20th century, his work has influenced generations of dancers, notably Mikhail Baryshnikov and Douglas Wright.