English filmmaker and screenwriter Edmund Goulding was BOTD in 1891. Born in London, he began performing in music halls when he was 12. He served in the Army during World War One, and was wounded twice, honourably discharged in 1915. After the war, he moved to New York, performing in operas and appearing in silent films. After the war, he moved to Hollywood, working as a screenwriter for silent films including Tol’able and Dante’s Inferno. Moving into directing, he had success with the romantic drama Paris starring Joan Crawford, and Love, an adaptation of Chekhov’s Anna Karenina starring Greta Garbo. Transitioning to sound pictures, he had a major success with 1932’s Grand Hotel, a glossy drama starring Garbo, Crawford and John Barrymore, winning the Oscar for Best Picture. Adept in a variety of genres, he directed Errol Flynn in the war drama The Dawn Patrol, the romantic weepie Dark Victory starring Bette Davis, the W. Somerset Maugham adaptation The Razor’s Edge and Nightmare Alley, a grisly film noir set in a circus, both starring Tyrone Power. An adept multi-tasker, he co-produced many of his films, working on screenplays, composing incidental music, lighting design and overseeing make-up, costumes and hair styling. He was briefly married to Marjorie Moss in 1931, who died suddenly in 1935. Handsome and sophisticated, he cultivated a circle of gay and bisexual friends including Garbo, Alla Nazimova, Noël Coward, George Cukor, William Haines, Cecil Beaton, Cole Porter and Louise Brooks. Rumours swirled in Hollywood about his voracious sexual appetites, hedonistic parties and penchant for orgies. His career slowed in the 1950s, directing a series of comedies starring Marilyn Monroe, Ginger Rogers and Pat Boone. He died in 1959, aged 1968.