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Edward Davis Wood
(October 10, 1924 - December 10, 1978) U.S.A.

Ed Wood Ed Wood

Film director, transvestite

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Ed Wood Jr., American film director and transvestite; although his intentions were to make good movies, he is credited by many as "the worst director of all time", making such awful films as Jail Bait (1954), Bride of the Monster (1955), Night of the Ghouls (1958), Plan 9 from Outer Space (1959, considered by many to be the worst movie of all time), Revenge of the Dead (1960), and The Sinister Urge (1961).

He died a penniless alcoholic in 1978. Yet, since his death in 1978, his fan base has exploded, with tens of thousands of rabid devotees. He was the subject of a loving film biography by modern cinema rebel Tim Burton, and his "masterpiece" - Plan 9 from Outer Space - has been cited as Fox Mulder's favorite film. Ed Wood

"His 1953 directorial debut, Glen or Glenda - the saga of a heterosexual man tormented by a desire to wear his girlfriend's clothing - was, in his mind, a heartfelt plea for tolerance for transvestites. It was a subject close to Wood's heart. Wood, himself a transvestite, had scripted the film and then cast himself in the title role (under the stage name Daniel Davis). He even persuaded his real-life girlfriend, part-time actress Dolores Fuller, to appear opposite him...

Wood directed much of Glen or Glenda while dressed in women's clothing, a habit he maintained throughout his career; whenever work on one of his film projects wasn't going well, he retreated to a dressing room and donned female clothes to relax and think more clearly."

By 1978, his end was near. He and his wife Kathy, who had been married since 1956, were evicted out of their low-rent apartment at 6383 Yucca Street in Hollywood. By all accounts, the building was a den of derelicts and drug addicts, with plenty of access to liquor stores and neighborhood bars. With most of their personal belongings left behind, the Woods were taken in by a friend, Peter Coe.

Within a few days, on December 10, Ed Wood died in bed, watching a football game. He was cremated and his ashes scattered along the coast. No obituary appeared in any of the Hollywood trade magazines.

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Sources: https://www.goodreads.com/ - et alii

Quote source: Rutledge, L., The New Gay Book of Lists. Alyson, 1996. p. 183

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