Kenneth Anger, underground film-maker and Hollywood Babylon author, dies aged 96

The pioneering movie-maker had a major influence on queer culture and the 60s counterculture, and is also remembered for authoring the cult film history book

Kenneth Anger, the artist and film-maker whose work offered a distinctively radical mix of paganism and homoeroticism, has died aged 96. Art gallery Sprüth Magers confirmed his death, saying: “Through his kaleidoscopic films, which combine sumptuous visuals, popular music soundtracks, and a focus on queer themes and narratives, Anger laid the groundwork for the avant garde art scenes of the later 20th century, as well as for the visual languages of contemporary queer and youth culture.”

Anger’s films, which included Fireworks (1947), Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome (1954), Scorpio Rising (1963) and Lucifer Rising (1972), made him a key figure in the counterculture over four decades, and later a hero to subsequent generations of film-makers grappling with similar themes. While he never found commercial success through his films, his book Hollywood Babylon – a compendium of often sleazy and largely unverifiable gossip about the film industry – became famous after first being published in 1959; it was followed by a sequel in 1984.