Holly Woodlawn ,would have turned 71 today, was a transgender actress born in Puerto Rico, who achieved underground stardom in the 1970’s.
Living in NYC she hung around Andy Warhol s factory where she caught the eye of Warhol s director /screenwriter Paul Morrisey who casted her in the film” Trash”.
Originally it was a small part but Morrisey was so impressed by her he re-wrote the script for a much larger role (as a heroin addict living in squalor on the lower east side with her junky bf).
She followed this film up as a Warhol superstar in the film “Women in Revolt” but Holly is probably best known as the Holly in Lou Reeds “walk on the wild side”
Holly came from Miami, F-L-A
Hitchhiked her way across the USA
Plucked her eyebrows on the way
Shaved her legs and then he was a she
She says, “Hey, babe, take a walk on the wild side.”
After leaving and returning to NYC in the 1980’s she became a singer for Downtown Dukes and Divas and a star of various musicals and cabarets.
In 1991 she published her autobiography the Holly Woodlawn story “a Lowlife in High Heels”
Woodlawn passed away in December 2015 but her sparkling and dazzling unapologetic attitude lives on as as a legacy of major importance to transgender and non binary people and all of us.
