Joe Dallesandro - "Flesh" - 1968

You may think you know nothing about "Little Joe" (his nickname which I am assuming comes from his being 5'6") but if you are into rock music at all you probably do. For one thing, Joe was the model for the Rolling Stones "Sticky Fingers" album. This was the album cover that had a picture of Joe's crotch on it in jeans with a working zipper. When you pulled the zipper down there was material in it to resemble white briefs.

Secondly, the cover for the Smiths first album was a picture of Joe from the movie "Flesh."

                                                     The scene in the actual movie:

He was also Immortalized in Lou Reed's song "Walk on the Wild Side." He's "Little Joe," the hustler referred to in the third verse:
Little Joe never once gave it away
Everybody had to pay and pay 
A hustle here and a hustle there,
New York City’s the place where they said,
“Hey babe, take a walk on the wild side” 
I said, “Hey Joe, take a walk on the wild side”


Joe will always be linked to the "Factory" group with Andy Warhol although he has done a lot of notable films since. Joe has been married 3 times but identifies as "Bisexual." He was a male prostitute prior to acting but seems to have generally positive thoughts about his past as reflected in this quote:
"My introduction to the gay world did two things. One, it saved me from life in prison for murder, which is probably where I would have wound up. How? Because the gay world showed me that you didn't have to beat up every man you saw or hurt people to make a point. It gave me a whole other attitude, a calmer attitude. Two, it taught me never to be homophobic, even before there was such a term. I think because I grew up in a period, especially later on, when the people I looked up to were like...my heroes....That's what I liked about the period, that a man could say he liked both, that he appreciated both the look of a man and the look of a woman without being stereotyped."