Taylor Mead was born in 1924 in Grosse Point, Michigan. He was an influential member of the Beat scene in San Francsico’s North Beach and New York’s Lower East Side, crafting witty, ironic and occasionally dirty poetry. His first venture into film stardom was in Ron Rice’s The Flower Thief in 1960. Soon after Mead relocated to New York, where he was introduced to Andy Warhol, with whom he made numerous films, including a starring turn in Warhol’s Tarzan and Jane Regained… Sort of. J. Hoberman once called Mead “the first underground movie star.” He recently appeared in Jim Jarmusch’s Coffee and Cigarettes, and continues to perform at the Bowery Poetry Club every Monday night.

SELECTED FILMOGRAPHY

2006                Man Under Wire, dir. Josh Bishop
2005                Electra Elf: The Beginning, dir. Nick Zedd
                          Excavating Taylor Mead, dir. William A. Kirkley
2003                Coffee and Cigarettes, dir. Jim Jarmusch
1999                Ecstasy in Entropy, dir. Nick Zedd
1992                Taylor Mead Unleashed, dir. Sebastian Piras
                         Last Supper, dir. Robert Frank
1991                Buster Bedroom, dir. Rebecca Horn
1990                C’est vrai! (One Hour), dir. Robert Frank
1970                Brand X, dir. Wynn Chamberlain
1969                The Secret Life of Hernando Cortez, dir. John Chamberlain
                         Imitation of Christ, dir. Andy Warhol
1967-8            Lonesome Cowboys, dir. Andy Warhol
                         The Nude Restaurant, dir. Andy Warhol
                         The Illiac Passion, dir. Gregory Markopoulos
1964                The General Returns from One Place or Another, dir. Frank O’Hara
                         Taylor Mead’s Ass, dir. Andy Warhol
                        Couch, dir. Andy Warhol
1963               Tarzan and Jane Regained… Sort of., dir. Andy Warhol
                        Queen of Sheba Meets the Atom Man, dir. Ron Rice
                        Hallelujah the Hills, dir. Adolfas Mekas
1962               Too Young, Too Immoral, dir. Raymond Phelan
                        Lemon Hearts, dir. Vernon Zimmermand
1960               The Flower Thief, dir. Ron Rice