American poet and actor Taylor Mead was BOTD in 1924. Born in Detroit, Michigan to a wealthy family, he abandoned his middle-class existence to become a Bohemian, moving to San Francisco in the 1950s, where he starred in Ron Rice’s experimental film The Flower Thief. Praised for its evocation of the Beat Generation, the film was widely reviewed, with Village Voice film critic J. Hoberman hailing Mead as “the first underground movie star”. He relocated to New York City, where he became an disciple of Andy Warhol, appearing in several of Warhol’s Factory films, appearing as Tarzan in Tarzan and Jane Regained… Sort Of and the sexually explicit portmanteau film Couch. Mead’s appearance in Tarzan prompted filmmaker Peter Goldman to write a letter to the Village Voice, complaining about “films focusing on Taylor Mead’s ass for two hours, etc”. Mead responded, noting that he and Warhol had “searched the archives of the Warhol colossus and find no “two hour film of Taylor Mead’s ass” and that they intended to “[rectify] this undersight“. In 1964, he starred in Warhol’s film Taylor Mead’s Ass, consisting of a continuous two-hour shot of Mead’s buttocks. He later appeared in John Schesinger‘s Oscar-winning film Midnight Cowboy and experimental documentaries by Gary Weis, Jonas Mekas and Rosa von Praunheim. He became a fixture of New York’s East Village scene, performing his work regularly at the Bowery Poetry Club and publishing his first volume of poetry, Taylor Mead on Amphetamines and in Europe, in 1968. Interest in his life and work was revived after he appeared in Jim Jarmusch’s 2003 film Coffee and Cigarettes, and the 2005 documentary Excavating Taylor Mead, followed by retrospective screenings of his films, the publication of his poetry collection A Simple Country Girl and exhibitions of his paintings. After years of disputes with his landlord, he was evicted from his East Village apartment in 2013, moving to Denver, Colorado where he lived with his niece. He died later that year, aged 88.