Mario Montez, a Warhol Glamour Avatar, Dies at 78
Mario Montez, whose glamour and poise as a drag performer elevated him to the heights of avant-garde theater and cinema in the 1960s and made him a fixture in films by Andy Warhol, died on Sept. 26 in Key West, Fla.
The cause was complications of a stroke, said Claire K. Henry, senior curatorial assistant of the Andy Warhol Film Project at the Whitney Museum of American Art. He was 78.
Mr. Montez has been the subject of seminars and screenings at Columbia University, the Museum of Modern Art and the Museum of the Moving Image in New York.
The filmmaker John Waters, who has drawn heavily from the cinematic experimentation of the 1960s, once said that Mr. Montez “forever holds the highest position of royalty in the world of underground cinema.”
In 2012, the Berlin International Film Festival presented him with a lifetime achievement award in “queer film,” calling him “the great drag superstar.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/04/arts/mario-montez-a-warhol-glamour-avatar-dies-at-78.html?_r=0