London

Rock Star

b. January 8, 1947
d. January 10, 2016

“It’s true—I’m bisexual. … I suppose it’s the best thing that ever happened to me.”

Born David Robert Jones in London, David Bowie was a singer, songwriter, actor and record producer. He is among the best-selling recording artists in the world. 

Bowie first splashed onto the music charts in 1969 with “Space Oddity.” The song became one of his best known and among three of his recordings to be included in The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame’s 500 Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll. Bowie went on to experiment with a variety of musical styles that came to define him as an innovator.

With his first album, “The Man Who Sold the World,” Bowie helped usher in the era of glam rock, a style known for its androgynous-looking performers, make-up and flamboyant costumes. 

Bowie followed his debut with a string of musical successes, notably “The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars.” The 1972 concept album featured his gender-bending alter-ego, Ziggy Stardust, an alien rock star. The same year, in an interview with Melody Maker magazine, Bowie came out as gay. He later told Playboy he was bisexual. 

In 1976 Bowie starred in “The Man Who Fell to Earth,” the first of his many film roles. He experimented with highly theatrical live shows and narrated “Peter and the Wolf” with the Philadelphia Orchestra—the first of his many children’s projects. He made his Broadway debut in “The Elephant Man.” In addition to music, film and theater, Bowie was also an accomplished artist whose work was shown at international galleries.

Bowie produced important albums for Lou Reed, Iggy Pop, and Mott the Hoople, and collaborated with artists such as John Lennon, the band Queen, and Mick Jagger, with whom he had been romantically linked. 

In 1993 he told Rolling Stone magazine that declaring his bisexuality was “the biggest mistake” he ever made. He would later say he had “no problem with people knowing I was bisexual. But I had no inclination to hold any banners nor be a representative of any group of people.”  

In 1996 Bowie was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and became the first musician to release a song for download. His 30th and final studio album, “Blackstar,” was released just two days before he died of cancer.

Bowie was married twice to women, the second time to the model Iman (his widow). He was the father of a son and a daughter. 

Rock Star

b. September 5, 1946, Zanzibar, Tanzania

d. November 21, 1991, London, England

“Success has brought me world idolization and millions of pounds. But it has prevented me from having the one thing we all need, a loving, ongoing relationship.”

Freddie Mercury ranks among the most sensational rock ’n’ roll vocalists in history. He was one of the leading musicians, record producers and songwriters of the 1980s.

Born Farrokh Bulsara to Parsi parents, Mercury was a British citizen who spent his childhood in India. At age 7, he began to study piano. When he was 8, he matriculated to an all-boys school near Bombay (now Mumbai). While enrolled there, he adopted the name “Freddie” and formed a band, the Hectics. In his teens, he moved with his family to Middlesex, England.

When he was 24, Mercury, with guitarist Brian May and percussionist Roger Taylor, formed Queen. Mercury designed the crest of the band, which features the zodiac signs of all the band members, a ribbon circled in the form of a Q and a phoenix symbolizing continual rebirth.

Mercury’s unique musical style blended pop, disco, rockabilly, and operatic influences. He wrote many of Queen’s most popular songs, including “Another One Bites the Dust,” “Crazy Little Thing Called Love,” “We Are the Champions” and his elaborate masterpiece, “Bohemian Rhapsody.”

Mercury was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the Songwriters Hall of Fame and the UK Music Hall of Fame. He ranks 18 on Rolling Stone magazine’s list of 100 greatest singers of all time. “Bohemian Rhapsody,” one of the best-selling singles of all time, was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2004.

Mercury died at 44 of AIDS-related illness.

Poet

b. January 1, 1788, London, England

d. April 19, 1824, Ottoman Empire

“The great art of life is sensation, to feel that we exist, even in pain.”

Born George Gordon, Lord Byron was a leading poet of the Romantic period. His ambiguous sexuality, flamboyant persona, and lifestyle of excess have made him a cultural and literary legend and among the first prominent bisexuals.

Byron studied at Trinity College in Cambridge, where he published his first volumes of poetry. In his early 20s, he traveled throughout the Mediterranean region and took up residency in Greece. When Byron returned to England in 1811, he published “Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage,” which garnered him a following among aristocrats and intellectuals.

Byron’s personal life was steeped in mystery. It is speculated that he had a child with his half-sister Augusta. In 1816 he spent the summer with authors Mary and Percy Shelley, with whom Byron is thought to have had more than a platonic relationship. His extravagant personality and penchant for scandal made Byron a celebrity of the Romantic era.

Lord Byron’s literary legacy is defined by his satirical epic poem, “Don Juan.” Byron’s hero, Don Juan is a fictional libertine characterized by cynicism, magnetism and rebellion.

Byron wrote openly about love and lust for both men and women. He was among the first important writers labeled as bisexual. Some scholars assert that such a label does not encompass the full complexity of the poet’s fluid sexuality. Noted literature professor Emily Bernhard Jackson stated:

“It is not so simple to define Byron as homosexual or heterosexual: he seems rather to have been both, and neither ... For Byron, sexuality was not this -ality or that -ality, not this aim or that object, not this particular yearning or that particular desire. It was just desire, and it just was.”

Health Care Advocate

b. May 12, 1820
d. August 13, 1910

"I think one's feelings waste themselves in words; they ought all to be distilled into actions which bring results." 
  
Florence Nightingale exploded into public consciousness during the Crimean War (1853-1856). Serving as the superintendent at the Institute for the Care of Sick Gentlewomen in London from 1853-1854, she learned of the horrible conditions soldiers faced during Britain's Crimean War with Russia.

Using her friendship with politician Sidney Herbert to gain official approval, Nightingale trained 38 nurses and traveled to Turkey, arriving at a hospital in Scutari (modern day Istanbul) in November of 1854.

The Scutari hospitals had the highest mortality levels in the region. Overcrowding, defective sewage systems and poor ventilation contributed to soldiers' illnesses and death. While a sanitary commission sent by the British government took over six months to arrive, Nightingale and her nursing crew cleaned up the hospital and delivered an unprecedented level of nursing care.

By the time she left her post, Nightingale had earned the military's admiration. She returned to Britain as a hero in 1857.

Confined to bed by fever upon her return, Nightingale refused to let her illness diminish her work. She helped establish the Royal Commission on the Health of the Army and wrote its first report, a document that facilitated an overhaul of army medical care and record-keeping. "Notes on Nursing: What It Is and What It Is Not," her instructional guide published in 1860, continues to influence nursing schools across the globe.

Nightingale founded The Nightingale Fund and the Nightingale Training School. Nurses she mentored and trained spread throughout England and Australia and conducted pioneering work in America and Japan.

A brilliant mathematician and writer, Nightingale used a unique ability to simplify complex statistics to communicate her findings to government officials. Historians consider her book "Cassandra" (1928) a major feminist work.

Queen Victoria awarded Nightingale the Royal Red Cross in 1883. In 1907, Nightingale became the first woman to receive the Order of Merit.Hospitals, foundations, and other organizations in her name continue to advocate for improved health care. The Florence Nightingale Museum in London commemorates her life.

Economist

b. June 5, 1883
d. April 21, 1946

"A study of the history of opinion is a necessary preliminary to the emancipation of the mind." 
    
John Maynard Keynes founded an entire school of modern thought known as Keynesian Economics. He helped establish the Bretton Woods system in 1944, a system which oversees international money management. Keynes's ideas form a large and important part of modern macroeconomics.

Keynes attended King's College in Cambridge, England where he originally studied mathematics and philosophy, but later decided to pursue economics. After receiving his degree in 1906, Keynes moved to London and worked for the government treasury.  

He attended the Paris Peace Conference following World War II. In response to the Treaty of Versailles, Keynes published "The Economic Consequences of Peace" to highlight Germany's heavy burden and the probable consequences the terms would have on Germany and the rest of the world. The book provided a brilliant analysis and Keynes subsequently influenced the Marshall plan, instituted by the U.S. to rebuild Europe following WWII.

Keynes is best known for two publications, "The Treatise on Probability" (1921) and "The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money" (1936), which he published in response to the Depression. Ideas in "The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money" form the foundation of modern nations' economies.

In 1908, Keynes fell in love with Scottish painter Duncan Grant. Their relationship lasted only a few years, but they remained close friends for the rest of their lives. Prior to his marriage to Lydia Lopokova in 1921, Keynes' relationships and sexual encounters were exclusively with men. After his marriage, Keynes remained friends with many of his previous friends and partners.

On April 21, 1946, Keynes died of a heart attack.

Painter

b. July 9, 1937

"It is very good advice to believe only what an artist does, rather than what he says about his work." 
    
Initially famous for popularizing British pop art in the 1960s, David Hockney grew more influential as he showcased exceptional artistic flexibility. From oil paintings to lithography, photomontage to computer sketch, Hockney demonstrated an uncanny ability to adapt his creative talents to various media. The Hockney exhibit in the National Portrait Gallery in London (2006-2007) was one of the Gallery's most successful exhibitions.

Hockney began to display his work while at the Royal College of Arts in London in 1949. At a featured exhibition, he presented paintings which became forerunners of British pop art. Hockney won a gold medal for outstanding distinction at the college's convocation ceremony.

Hockney's early work often explored homosexual themes. "We Two Boys Together Clinging" (1961), titled after a Walt Whitman poem of the same name, became one of his more famous works. Lithography enticed Hockney in the early 1960s when he began to make prints of paintings. "Mr. and Mrs. Clark and Percy" (1971) is one of the most popular paintings in London's Tate Gallery.

California's promise of young, athletic men lured Hockney to Los Angeles. Filmmaker Jack Hazan titled his 1974 movie about Hockney, "A Bigger Splash," after a famous work of the same name (1967). Neil Simon, in "California Suite" (1978), used about a dozen of Hockney's California-themed paintings in the opening credits of the film.

In 1985, Hockney was commissioned to draw with the Quantel Paintbox, a computer program in which the artist sketches directly onto the computer monitor. BBC captured Hockney's mastery of the Paintbox in a movie produced while he was working with the program. Also in 1985, Hockney designed the cover of the French edition of Vogue.

On June 21, 2006, "The Splash" (1966) sold for 2.6 million pounds ($5.3 million), a record for a Hockney painting.

Ian McKellen is one of the world's most highly-regarded actors. Since the late 1980's, he has been an activist for gay rights.

b. May 25, 1939

"Try and understand what part you have to play in the world in which you live. … Discover what part you can play and then go for it."

Ian McKellen is best known for his movie roles as the wizard Gandalf in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, as Magneto in the X-Men films, and in the title role in Richard III.He has made more than 40 other features films over five decades. For much of his career he was primarily known for his work in London and New York theatre and as a preeminent Shakespearean actor.McKellen's acting has been recognized by more than 40 major international acting awards, including two Academy Award nominations, a Tony Award, the Screen Actors Guild Award, a Cable ACE Award, a Golden Globe Award, and most recently, a Lifetime Achievement Golden Bear from the 2006 Berlin Film Festival.

His legendary performances as Shakespeare's "Richard II" and Marlowe's "Edward II" stormed the 1969 Edinburgh Festival. As leading man for the Royal Shakespeare Company, he played Macbeth opposite Dame Judi Dench, as well as Romeo, Iago, and Toby Belch, and performed in plays by Brecht, Chekhov, Ibsen, Jonson, Shaw, and Stoppard.

On Broadway he was Saliere in "Amadeus" and most recently, the captain in Strindberg's "Dance of Death." Last year he achieved two long-time ambitions: a visiting role in the soap opera "Coronation Street" and a turn as Widow Twankey, the dame role in "Aladdin" at the Old Vic Theatre in London, where he lives.

He was knighted for services to the performing arts in the Queen's New Year Honours of 1990.

In 1988 McKellen he announced on BBC radio that he was gay, debating the UK government's "Section 28" legislation that criminalized the "promotion of homosexuality."

Since 1994, McKellen has performed a one-man show, "A Knight Out," about his parallel journeys as an actor and a gay man. The Los Angeles Times called the show "a moving and witty assessment of the conflict between our public and private selves."

McKellen will return to the Stratford stage in March 2007 in the role of King Lear, in the final production for the Royal Shakespeare Company's Complete Works Festival, followed by a world tour.

Writer/Humorist

b. December 26, 1956

"A good short story would take me out of myself and then stuff me back in, outsized, now, and uneasy with the fit."

David Sedaris is an award-winning best-selling author whose short stories depict, variously, the life of a young gay man in 20th century America, the experience of an American living abroad and the comedy of family life.

Sedaris, who was one of six children, was born in Binghamton, New York, and grew up in Raleigh, North Carolina. In 1983, he graduated from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He began writing and supported himself with odd jobs in Raleigh, in Chicago and eventually in New York. His big break came on National Public Radio, where he read his short stories.

Called the "preeminent humorist of his generation" by Entertainment Weekly, Sedaris is the author of numerous collections: "Barrel Fever" (1994), "Naked" (1997), "Holidays on Ice" (1997), "Me Talk Pretty One Day" (2000), "Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim" (2004) and "When You are Engulfed in Flames" (2008), which was number one on the New York Times best-seller list. He edited a 2005 collection of stories called "Children Playing Before a Statue of Hercules," the proceeds from which benefit a nonprofit writing and tutorial center.

Sedaris is known for his distinctive style, combining elements of memoir, humor and the traditional short story. He is clear that his stories are embellished. "I’m a humorist," he says. "I’m not a reporter."

Sedaris is a frequent contributor to the award-winning "This American Life" public radio show. Along with his sister Amy, he is the author of numerous plays written under the name "The Talent Family." He has been nominated for two Grammy Awards and was named Time magazine's Humorist of the Year in 2001. In 2008, he delivered the commencement speech at Binghamton University and was awarded an honorary doctorate. 

Sedaris lives in London, Paris and Normandy with his longtime partner, Hugh Hamrick. 

Author

b. January 1, 1879

d. June 7, 1970

“If I had to choose between betraying my country and betraying my friend, I hope I should have the guts to betray my country.”

E. M. Forster was a prolific and internationally acclaimed writer. His works display his acute awareness of the social and political problems of his time and his belief in the power of human connection. Though best known for novels, he wrote numerous short stories and nonfiction works. 

Forster grew up in London, England. An inheritance from his great-aunt allowed him to attend college and sustained his early writing career. Forster received his B.A. from King’s College in Cambridge. After graduation, he and his mother traveled to Italy. This experience deeply influenced two of his first novels, “Where Angels Fear to Tread” (1905) and “A Room with a View” (1907).  

Forster’s novel “Howard’s End” (1910) provided a sharp analysis of the upper-class British world. It is recognized as his greatest work. His next novel, “A Passage to India” (1924), won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize in 1924 and was named one of the 100 best novels published in the English language by Modern Library in 1998. 

“Maurice,” which Forster wrote between 1913 and 1915, was not published until a year after his death, at the author’s request. Written when homosexuality was illegal in England, the book revolved around a gay man and his relationships. Though unwilling to publish “Maurice,” Forster fought against the suppression of Radclyffe Hall’s novel about a lesbian Englishwoman, “The Well of Loneliness” (1928).  

In the 1980’s and 1990’s, Forster’s novels were adapted for the big screen. According to The New York Times, “Forster displayed a genius for capturing the complex personalities expressed in the social manners of his day, and the best screen adaptations have done the same.” The film versions of “Howard’s End” and “A Room with a View” each won three Oscars, and “A Passage to India” secured two more.

In 1934, Forster became the first president of the National Council for Civil Liberties, a human rights organization in England. A year before his death, Queen Elizabeth appointed Forster a member of England’s Order of Merit, one of the highest national honors.