American dancer and actor Gene Anthony Ray was BOTD in 1962. Born in Harlem in New York City to a working class family, he showed an early interest in dance. While a high school student, he skipped class to audition for choreographer Louis Falco, and won a place at the High School of Performing Arts. A naturally gifted dancer with a charismatic stage presence, he was kicked out after a year for disruptive behaviour and frequent absence. In 1980, he was cast in Alan Parker’s film Fame, a drama about a group of wannabe performers, based on and filmed at the High School of Performing Arts. The film production was turbulent, not helped by Ray’s mother dealing drugs to cast and crew members on set. A minor success in the United States, it became a major hit in the UK, Europe and Australasia, with Ray and his co-star Irene Cara cited as the film’s star-making performances. Ray participated in a successful UK song-and-dance tour The Kids from Fame, and reprised his role for the TV spinoff series Fame, appearing in all six seasons. After the show’s cancellation in 1987, he appeared in an unsuccessful musical adaptation of horror film Carrie and the films Out-of-Sync and Eddie, and attempted unsuccessfully to launch a Fame-style dance school in Milan, Italy. His latter years were consumed by alcohol and drug addiction and periods of homelessness. Though gayer than a row of sparkly pink tents, Ray never publicly disclosed his sexuality, brushing off interviewers’ questions about his personal life. Diagnosed with HIV in 1996, he died of an AIDS-related illness in 2003, aged 41.