Taylor Mead

Taylor Mead (born December 31, 1924 in Grosse Pointe , Michigan , † May 8, 2013 in Colorado ) was an American experimental filmmaker and actor. Mead became known through his collaboration with Andy Warhol .

Mead comes from a distinguished family. As a politician, his father was a key figure in the Democratic Party in Michigan under Theodor M. Roosevelt , with whom he was friends. At the age of 32, Taylor Mead left his “normal” professional life - he had worked as a broker at Merrill Lynch in Detroit . Inspired by Jack Kerouac's On the Road and Allen Ginsberg's Howl , he hitchhiked all over the United States. Mead soon made contacts with the beatnik movement and the avant-garde art scene.

He began his film career in North Beach ( San Francisco ) with roles in The Flower Thief by Ron Rice (1960) and Lemon Hearts by Vern Zimmerman . In 1963 he starred with Naomi Levine and Dennis Hopper in Tarzan And Jane Regained… Sort Of , Andy Warhol's third film. The following year Warhol filmed Taylor Mead's Ass , an experimental documentary. After that, Mead left the United States and lived in Europe for several years. He played in the play Le Désir attrapé par la queue by Pablo Picasso , which premiered in Saint-Tropez in 1967 . In the same year he saw Warhol's The Chelsea Girls in Paris , which was a decisive reason for him to return to New York.

He starred in Andy Warhol's film Lonesome Cowboys in 1968 and in Jim Jarmusch's film Coffee and Cigarettes in 2003 . He also appeared in Rosa von Praunheim's films 50 Years of Pink Passions (1972) and Tally Brown - New York (1979). In 2005, William A. Kirkley shot a four-hour documentary about the 81-year-old in which Jim Jarmusch, Paul Morrissey , Gerard Malanga and Jonas Mekas have their say.

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personal data
SURNAME	Mead, Taylor
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	American experimental filmmaker and actor
DATE OF BIRTH	December 31, 1924
PLACE OF BIRTH	Grosse Pointe , Michigan
DATE OF DEATH	May 8, 2013
Place of death	Colorado