German singer-songwriter, actress and model Christa Päffgen, better known as Nico, was BOTD in 1938. Born in Cologne to a wealthy mercantile family, she grew up during the Second World War, in which her father was killed in combat. After the war, her family lost their fortune and relocated to Berlin, where her mother worked as a seamstress. Standing five feet 10 inches tall, with blonde hair and chiselled features, she began modelling as a teenager. In 1954, aged 16, she was discovered by photographer Herbert Tobias, who renamed her Nico and encouraged her to move to Paris. She modelled for French Vogue, Camera and Elle magazines and worked briefly for the Chanel fashion house, before moving to the United States in 1955. Settling in New York, she took acting lessons with Lee Strasberg, and was cast in small roles in Federico Fellini‘s La dolce vita and Jean Becker’s Un nommé La Rocca (A Man Named Rocca), scoring the lead in Jacques Poitrenaud’s Strip-Tease. In 1965, she recorded her first musical single, I’m Not Sayin‘, and appeared in Andy Warhol‘s and Paul Morrissey‘s experimental film Chelsea Girls. She rose to fame as the chanteuse of Warhol’s and Morrissey’s rock band The Velvet Underground, performing vocals on their 1967 debut album The Velvet Underground & Nico. Described by one reviewer as “half goddess, half icicle”, her booming contralto, German-accented diction and androgynous persona contributed significantly to the band’s cult status, earning her comparisons with Marlene Dietrich. She released the solo album Chelsea Girl later in 1967, co-written with Velvet Underground members Lou Reed and John Cale and featuring covers of songs by Bob Dylan and Jackson Browne. Her two subsequent albums Desertshore and The End…, featuring contributions from Cale and Brian Eno, were critically praised but commercially unsuccessful. In 1970, she formed a relationship with French filmmaker Phillippe Garrel, appearing in seven of his films. Dropped by her record label in 1975, reputedly after telling an interviewer she did not like “Negroes”, she appeared as a supporting act for Siouxsie and the Banshees and Patti Smith, making a comeback in the 1980s with a series of concert tours. Nico also had relationships with Nicos Papatakis, Alain Delon (whom she claimed was the father of her son Ari), Brian Jones, Jimmy Hendrix, Jim Morrison and Lutz Graf-Ulbrich, and was rumoured to have had affairs with Coco Chanel and Jeanne Moreau. Well-known for making racist and anti-Semitic comments, she assaulted Black Panther activist Emmaretta Marks with a broken wine glass in 1971, in what appears to have been a racially-motivated attack. She struggled with heroin addiction for most of her adult life, dying in 1988 of a brain haemorrhage, aged 49. Now considered one of the most significant vocalists of alternative rock, she has been cited as an influence on Marianne Faithfull, Joy Division, New Order, The Cure, Bauhaus, Björk, Elliott Smith and Beach House. As well as appearing in multiple documentaries about The Velvet Underground, she was played by Trine Dyrholm in the biopic Nico, 1988 and by Meredith Ostrom in the film Factory Girl.