American actor Kenneth Nelson was BOTD in 1920. Born in North Carolina, he began his career in television in the late 1940s, and appeared on Broadway in the musical Seventeen in 1951. He was in the original 1960 cast of Broadway musical The Fantasticks, and later starred in Stop the World, I Want to Get Off and Half a Sixpence. In 1968, he starred in the original stage production of Mart Crowley’s play The Boys in the Band, which caused a sensation with its frank portrayal of urban gay life. Nelson played Michael, a closeted gay man and host of the disastrous birthday party that drives the narrative. He portrait of gay bitchiness and self-loathing was praised for its honesty, contrasting with the hard-won pride of his frenemy Harold. Nelson repeated the role in William Friedkin’s 1970 film version, again a groundbreaking representation of gay life in Hollywood film. After the failure of his next musical Lovely Ladies, Kind Gentlemen, Nelson moved to London, appearing in West End productions of Showboat, Colette, Annie and 42nd Street, and in the television series Edge of Darkness. He died in 1993 of an AIDS-related illness.