American actor Leonard Frey was BOTD in 1938. Born and raised in Brooklyn, New York City, he studied acting with Sanford Meisner at New York City’s Neighbourhood Playhouse. He made his Broadway debut as a child in the original 1964 Broadway production of musical Fiddler on the Roof, and was upgraded to the role of Motel the tailor in the 1971 film, earning him an Oscar nomination. He was also nominated for a Tony in 1975 for a Broadway production of comedy The National Health. He is best known for playing Harold, the straight-talking “ugly pockmarked Jew fairy” in Mart Crowley’s play The Boys in the Band, appearing in the original 1968 off-Broadway production and in William Friedkin’s 1970 film. Frey’s witty scene-stealing performance encapsulated the bitchy humour and hard-won wisdom of pre-Stonewall-era gay men, and became a cult classic with LGBTQ audiences. Later in life, he guest-starred in TV shows The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Barney Miller, Hart to Hart, Moonlighting and Murder, She Wrote. Openly gay since forever, Frey died of an AIDS-related illness in 1988, aged 49.