American dancer, actor and visual artist Paul Swan was BOTD in 1883. Born in Ashland, Illinois, he was raised in Nebraska and the Mid-West, escaping to New York when he was 18 to work as an illustrator for women’s magazines. In 1910 he painted a life-size portrait of the actress Alla Nazimova and sent it to her as a gift. Delighted, Nazimova commissioned further work from him and introduced him to her celebrity friends. After travelling through Europe, he began a career as a dancer, adopting a formalist style inspired by Classical Greek and Roman art. He became (in)famous for his dance performances, appearing almost naked on stage. In the 1920s, he moved to Hollywood and worked as an actor, appearing in Cecil B. DeMille’s 1923 silent film of The Ten Commandments. Hailed as “the most beautiful man in the world”, he was referenced in Ira & George Gershwin’s 1927 song Funny Face. He moved to Paris in the 1930s, where his dancing attracted praise and scandal. He also painted and sculpted a number of high society figures, including Woodrow Wilson, Ramsay MacDonald, Maurice Ravel, Charles Lindbergh and John Barrymore. As World War Two broke out, he returned to New York City, taking up residence in a studio in Carnegie Hall. For the next 20 years, he performed weekly dance recitals which developed a cult following. Somehow surviving until the Pop Art era, he appeared as a dancer in Andy Warhol’s 1965 short film Camp. Swan married heiress Helen Gravit in 1911, with whom he had two daughters. Openly bisexual, he had affairs with men and women throughout his life, including fellow dancer Isadora Duncan. He died in 1972, aged 88.