Holly Woodlawn, transgender actress, inspiration for Lou Reed's 'Walk on the Wild Side' dead at 69

LOS ANGELES — Holly Woodlawn, the transgender actress made famous by Andy Warhol and Paul Morrissey in their 1970s films “Trash” and “Women in Revolt,” died Sunday. She was 69.

Woodlawn died in Los Angeles of cancer, said her former caretaker and friend Mariela Huerta.

Born Harold Danhakl, she took on the name Holly Woodlawn after running away from home at age 15 and hitchhiking to New York City, where she became one of Warhol’s drag queen “superstars.” Her story was immortalized in the first lines of the Lou Reed song “Walk on the Wild Side.”

 

Woodlawn said in a 2007 interview with The Guardian that she didn’t get to know Reed until after the song was released in 1972.

She won critical acclaim for her film roles, but she couldn’t find mainstream success.