August 23rd

08-23-1967 ANT (born Anthony Steven Kalloniatis) – Born in Boston, Massachusetts to Greek immigrant parents. He is an American stand-up comedian and actor. He talks about his parents in his act – his mother was born on the island of Lesbos. He has performed at comedy clubs across the USA beginning in 1991. In 1995, he was a semi-regular cast member on the WB series Unhappily Ever After, spending 4 seasons on the sitcom. He has appeared as a guest on various TV show, including Jay Leno. ANT also performs in Las Vegas and Lake Tahoe. He is openly gay.

08-23-1904 – 02-13-1965 Gloria Morgan Vanderbilt – Born at the Grand Hotel National in Lucerne, Switzerland. Her father was an American diplomat. She was an American socialite best known as the mother of fashion designer and artist Gloria Vanderbilt and the maternal grandmother of television journalist Anderson Cooper. After her husband died, members of the Vanderbilt family took her to court for custody of her child. The court case, Vanderbilt vs. Whitney, was one of the most sensational American custody trails in the 20th century. At the trial, a maid on the side of the prosecution claimed she caught Gloria and Lady Milford Haven kissing. The Supreme Court eventually decided she was an unfit mother, lesbian rumors being a factor. Custody of her daughter went to her sister-in-law Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney

08-23-1912 – 11-04-1977 Keith Vaughan (born John Keith Vaughan) – Born in Selsey Bill, Selsey, United Kingdom. He was a British painter that worked in an advertising agency until the start of WWII, when as a conscientious objector he joined the St. John Ambulance. Vaughan was self-taught as an artist. His first exhibitions took place during the war. After the war, Vaughan worked as an art teacher at the Camberwell College of Arts, the Central School of Art and later at the Slade School. Vaughan is also known for his journals, selections from which were published in 1966 and more extensively in 1989, after his death. A gay man troubled by his sexuality, he is known largely through those journals. He was diagnosed with cancer in 1975 and committed suicide in 1977 in London. In June 2012, his birth date was celebrated with an exhibition at Pallant House Gallery in Chichester. His auction record for the sale of one his paintings (oil on canvas Theseus and the Minotaur) was 313,250 pounds ( over $400,000 US dollars), set at Sotheby’s London, on November 11, 2009.

08-23-1928 – 01-15-2018   Peter Wyngarde – Born in Marseille, France, the son of an English father and a French mother. He was a French-born English actor best known for playing the character Jason King in two British television series: Department S (1969-1970) and Jason King (1971-1972). Although he never came out publicly, his homosexuality was well known in acting circles, where he was known by the nickname of “Petunia Winegum.” From 1956, he had a ten-year relationship with Alan Bates. During the 1980s and 1990s, he made a number of TV appearances. In 2014 he narrated an episode of the BBC’s Timeshift documentary strand, Sherlock Holmes: The Many Faces of a Master Detective. 

08-23-1954 Charles Busch – Born in New York City, New York. He is an openly gay American actor, screenwriter, playwright and female impersonator, known for his appearances on stage in his own camp style plays, and in film and television. He wrote a successful play on Broadway, The Tale of the Allergist’s Wife (2000), which received a Tony Award nomination. His play, Die, Mommie, Die! (1999) was made into a film of the same name. For his performance in the film, he won the Best Performance Award at the Sundance Film Festival (2003).

08-23-1954 Terry Wolverton – Born in Cocoa Beach, Florida. Wolverton grew up in Detroit, Michigan. She is an American novelist, memoirist, poet, and editor. Her book Insurgent Muse: Life and Art at the Woman’s Building, a memoir published in 2002 by City Lights Books was named one of the “Best Books of 2002” by the LA Times and was the winner of the 2003 Publishing Triangle Judy Grahn Award, and a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award. Wolverton moved to Los Angeles in 1976, enrolling in the Feminist Studio Workshop at the Woman’s Building. She was instrumental in the Lesbian Art Project, the Great American Lesbian Art Show (GALAS), and a White Women’s Anti-Racism Consciousness-Raising Group. In 1997, Wolverton founded Writers at Work, located in Silver Lake, Los Angeles, California. It’s a creative writing center where she continues to teach fiction, creative non-fiction, and poetry, and to provide creative consultations to writers. She is also an affiliated faculty member of Antioch University, Los Angeles. She is openly lesbian.

08-23-1958 Neil Vivian Bartlett – Born in Hertfordshire, United Kingdom. He is a British director, translator, and writer. He is one of the founding members of Gloria, a production company established in 1988 to produce his work along with that of Nicolas Bloomfield, Leah Hausman, and Simon Mellor. His work has won several awards. His production of The Dispute won a Time Out Award for Best Production in the West End and the 1999 TMA Best Touring Production award. He was appointed an OBE in 2000 for his services to the arts. Who Was That Man shows the gay history of London in the 1890s and how it affected Bartlett’s life as a gay man in London in the 1980s. His latest novel, The Disappearance Boy was published in London by Bloomsbury Circus in January 2014. He also served as Artistic Director at the Lyric Theatre Hammersmith from 1994 until 2004. Many of his translations of classic plays have been performed throughout the world.