Tallulah Bankhead

Tallulah Bankhead was an American actress and icon known for Lifeboat (1944), the Broadway production of The Little Foxes (1939), and a persona of extraordinary wit, transgression, and appetite. She was openly bisexual in her private life — and often semi-openly in public — maintaining relationships with both men and women throughout her life, with claimed or documented connections to Billie Holiday, Hattie McDaniel, and many others. Her line "I'm as pure as the driven slush" captured her self-presentation perfectly. She was one of the most openly bisexual public figures in early-to-mid 20th century America, operating in a space that flouted convention decades before anyone had vocabulary for it.