Taylor Mead, 1924–2013
The underground movie star of Warhol’s Factory
Actor and poet Taylor Mead embodied the bohemian ideal, drifting from the San Francisco Beat scene of the 1950s to Andy Warhol’s Factory in the 1960s and ’70s and on to the grimy allure of Manhattan’s Lower East Side. Along the way, he starred in some 130 art movies, making him, in the words of film critic J. Hoberman, “the first underground movie star.”
Mead was a “dropout from a life of privilege,” said the Los Angeles Times, the son of a wealthy Grosse Point, Mich., businessman and his socialite wife. After attending a string of boarding schools and colleges and jettisoning a job his father found him in a brokerage house, Mead fled in the 1950s to the West Coast, where he communed with Beat poets and artists. In 1960 he starred in Ron Rice’s The Flower Thief, an improvised film that featured Mead wandering around San Francisco carrying a flower, an American flag, and a teddy bear.
Mead’s quirky charm soon came to Andy Warhol’s attention, said The New York Times. The pair made several 16 mm movies, including a Tarzan spoof in which the puny Mead cavorted in a loincloth. One film reviewer noted that he didn’t need to see more films featuring Taylor Mead’s posterior, prompting Warhol to make a “brashly experimental” film showing “precisely what the critic did not want to see”—for 76 minutes.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
![https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516-320-80.jpg)
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Mead was later a fixture on the Lower East Side, where he wandered the streets reciting poetry, said The Daily Telegraph (U.K.). A 2005 documentary, Excavating Taylor Mead, depicted him as a “lonely barfly fighting eviction” and feeding feral cats.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Create an account with the same email registered to your subscription to unlock access.
-
Red Speedo: a 'darkly comic' doping drama
The Week Recommends Lucas Hnath's play stars Finn Cole as a 'reptilian' swimmer determined to win at all costs
By Irenie Forshaw, The Week UK Published
-
One Aldwych: where London's creative spirit takes centre stage
The Week Recommends This five-star Covent Garden hotel is the epitome of elegant independence
By Julia O'Driscoll, The Week UK Published
-
Charlotte Dujardin and equestrianism's dark side
In the Spotlight Olympic gold medallist and dressage star's suspension over horse whipping brings abuse in horse sports back into the spotlight
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published
-
Michael Mosley obituary: television doctor whose work changed thousands of lives
In the Spotlight TV doctor was known for his popularisation of the 5:2 diet and his cheerful willingness to use himself as a guinea pig
By The Week UK Published
-
Morgan Spurlock: the filmmaker who shone a spotlight on McDonald's
In the Spotlight Spurlock rose to fame for his controversial documentary Super Size Me
By The Week UK Published
-
Benjamin Zephaniah: trailblazing writer who 'took poetry everywhere'
Why Everyone's Talking About Remembering the 'radical' wordsmith's 'wit and sense of mischief'
By The Week UK Published
-
Shane MacGowan: the unruly former punk with a literary soul
Why Everyone's Talking About The Pogues frontman died aged 65
By The Week UK Published
-
'Euphoria' star Angus Cloud dies at 25
Speed Read
By Catherine Garcia Published
-
Legendary jazz and pop singer Tony Bennett dies at 96
Speed Read
By Devika Rao Published
-
Martin Amis: literary wunderkind who ‘blazed like a rocket’
feature Famed author, essayist and screenwriter died this week aged 73
By The Week Staff Published
-
Gordon Lightfoot, Canadian folk legend, is dead at 84
Speed Read
By Peter Weber Published