American art patron and curator Sam Wagstaff was BOTD in 1921. Born in New York City to a wealthy upper-middle-class family, he was educated at private schools and studied at Yale University. He joined the US Army during World War Two, he took part in the D-Day landing at Omaha Beach. After the war, he returned to New York, working briefly in advertising before studying art at New York University Institute of Fine Arts. He later worked at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford, Connecticut and the Detroit Institute of Arts, curating an influential 1964 exhibition of Minimalist artists titled Black, White and Gray, and becoming a noted collector of paintings and silverware. In 1972, he formed a relationship with the photographer Robert Mapplethorpe, becoming his life partner, patron and manager, moving him into a loft apartment in Chelsea which became his home and studio. He became a leading exponent of photography as a fine art form, selling his collection of paintings and investing in 19th and 20th century photographs. Encouraged by Mapplethorpe, he began supporting and collecting Pop Art and avant-garde art movements, and also provided early support to Mapplethorpe’s girlfriend, the writer and singer Patti Smith. He and Mapplethorpe had an open relationship, exploring New York’s leather and BDSM scene, chronicled in Mapplethorpe’s photography. He also became Mapplethorpe’s defender against conservative critics who dismissed his work as pornography. Diagnosed with HIV in the 1980s, he died of AIDS-related pneumonia in 1987, aged 65. His life and legacy was explored in the 2007 documentary Black White + Gray, chronicling Wagstaff’s sexual journey from closeted upper-class WASP to the sex-and-drugs-infused hedonism of 1970s gay New York. Ryan Murphy‘s 2022 TV drama series American Horror Story: NYC featured a character based on Wagstaff, played by Zachary Quinto.