American actor and filmmaker James Franco was BOTD in 1978. Born in Palo Alto, California, he studied at the University of California, dropping out to pursue a career as an actor. After starring in cult TV show Freaks and Geeks, he made a stunning rise to stardom as James Dean in a 2001 TV film, winning him a Golden Globe award. His career has shuffled between big-budget Marvel films (the Spiderman trilogy), well-reviewed indie projects (127 Hours) and stoner comedies (Knocked Up, Pineapple Express). In the 2010s, he hit his Wannabe Gay years, playing Harvey Milk‘s boyfriend in Gus van Sant‘s film Milk, gay Beat poet Allen Ginsberg in Howl, a gay activist who turns straight in I Am Michael and a gay porn actor in King Cobra. His directing projects include an adaptation of William Faulkner’s novel As I Lay Dying; Interior. Leather Bar, an extremely strange homage to William Friedkin’s gay slasher movie Cruising; and The Disaster Artist, a comic biopic about director Tommy Wiseau. Following extensive speculation about his sexuality, he described himself in interviews variously as “gay in my art and straight in my life” and “gay until the point of intercourse”. His career and reputation was comprehensively trash in 2014, following revelations that he attempted to have sex with a 17 year-old female student. In 2018, five of his former acting students brought a lawsuit against Franco, accusing him of sexual harassment. Franco settled out of court in 2021, admitting to sexual relationships with his students and that he was being treated for sex addiction. Largely cancelled by Hollywood, he has not appeared in a major American film since 2019. His current relationship status is unknown.