American actor and producer Anderson Lawler was BOTD in 1902. Born Sidney Lawler in Russellville, Alabama, he studied at the University of Alabama and Washington & Lee University. An enthusiastic glee club singer, he hustled his way into Fritz Leiber’s theatre company. By the late 1920s, he was a member of George Cukor‘s stock theatre company in upstate New York, and made his Broadway debut in the play Her First Affaire. He moved to Hollywood in 1929, appearing in the films River of Romance and Half-Marriage, and fell passionately love with the actor Gary Cooper. They quickly became inseparable, living together in Cooper’s apartment and becoming well-known in Hollywood circles as a couple (though sold to the press as best friends who enjoyed hunting together). With Cooper’s assistance, Lawler took supporting roles in films throughout the 1930s, socialising with a queer friendship group including Cukor, Edmund Goulding, William Haines, Jimmie Shields, Greta Garbo, Mercedes de Acosta and Katharine Hepburn. He also became well-known as a “walker”, escorting actresses and studio executive wives to social functions, including Tallulah Bankhead, Kay Francis, Hedda Hopper, Paulette Goddard and Marlene Dietrich. For reasons that remain unclear, he moved out of Cooper’s apartment and moved in with Cukor. In the 1940s, he moved behind the camera, producing the film noir Somewhere in the Night, directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz with a screenplay by Lee Strasberg. He and Strasberg were then transferred to 20th Century Fox’s New York offices, working together for several years. Lawler also produced theatre in New York, including Oh Men, Oh Women, which was filmed by Fox in 1957. He died in 1959, aged 56.