PATRICK ANGUS was a 20th-century American painter born on this date (d: 1992) who, among many other works, created a number acrylic paintings of the interior of the Gaiety Theater and some of its dancers and customers in the 1980s. Some of the titles are: Grand Finale, The Apollo Room, Remember the Promise You Made, Slave to the Rhythm), All The Love in the World, and Hanky Panky. He was dubbed  “the Toulouse-Lautrec of Times Square.”

Born in North Hollywood, California, in 1953, Angus studied at the Santa Barbara Art Institute and the University of California, Santa Barbara. Despite his early death at the age of just thirty-eight, he left behind an extensive body of work, which up to now has gone largely undiscovered by the art world. Featuring over two hundred paintings and drawings, the Kunstmuseum Stuttgart presented a cross section of his entire oeuvre in 2018.

Although a dedicated creator of portraits and still lifes, and an occasional designer of stage settings, Angus is principally known for works begun in 1981 depicting the young male erotic dancers at the Gaiety and other New York showplaces. Referring to an earlier French painter who made his reputation depicting the demi-monde, playwright Robert Patrick deemed Angus “The Toulouse-Lautrec of Times Square”. Angus died in May 1992, from complications related to AIDS.

Angus appears as himself in the 1990 documentary movie Resident Alien about Quentin Crisp in New York. Angus is portrayed by actor Jonathan Tucker in the 2009 dramatic movie An Englishman in New York, a biographical picture about Crisp’s later years. Crisp befriends Angus in both films and encourages him to show his work.