Holly Woodlawn, the transgender actress made famous by Andy Warhol and immortalised in Lou Reed's song Walk On The Wild Side, has died.
The 69-year-old died on Sunday in Los Angeles after becoming ill with liver and brain cancer, her former caretaker and friend Mariela Huerta said.
Born Harold Danhakl, she changed her name after running away from home at 15 and hitchhiking to New York, where she became one of Warhol's drag queen "superstars".
Reed sings about her in the first lines of his song with the lyrics: "Holly came from Miami, FLA. 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'. "
Woodlawn explained in a 2007 interview with the The Guardian that she did not get to know Reed until after the song was released in 1972.
She received critical acclaim for her roles in Warhol and director Paul Morrissey's films Trash (1970) and Women In Revolt (1971), but could not find mainstream success.
Her cult status helped her make a comeback in such 1990s independent films as Twin Falls Idaho and Billy's Hollywood Screen Kiss.
More recently, she appeared in the TV comedy Transparent.
Of her time as a Warhol superstar, she told The Guardian: "I felt like Elizabeth Taylor!
"Little did I realise that not only would there be no money, but that your star would flicker for two seconds and that was it.
"But it was worth it, the drugs, the parties, it was fabulous."
Huerta said Woodlawn had no surviving relatives.
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