I’ve been trying to identify Bowie’s Mystery Guest for some time now. Not as long as some, of course, but I wondered how often the other guest hunters have spotted a photo and believed they’ve cracked the case. Pierre Clémenti gave me one of those moments.

I’m of the firm belief that if you stare at an image of a 70s bloke with dark, shoulder length curly hair, it’ll morph into our wine swilling smoker quaffing merrily alongside Angie Bowie.

Who is Pierre Clémenti?

For those unfamiliar with Pierre Clémenti, he was a French actor born who was about five years more senior than David Bowie. Clémenti’s most infamous role was with one of Bowie’s co-stars, Catherine Deneuve, in the 1967 film, Belle de jour. I’ll add in here that Clémenti also starred in a 1963 film called The Leopard directed by Luchino Visconti, but nominative connections aside, was Clémenti at Ziggy’s Last Supper? Possibly?

Clémenti’s career took a brief hiatus in 1971 when he served 17 months for drugs offences. By the time the 3rd of July 1973 arrived, he’s served his time and written a book about the experience.

There’s no doubt that Clémenti looks the part. The dark hair which is tousled rather than curled and the slight infraorbital edema beneath both eyes look like a perfect match. It also helps when he’s been suggested by someone who was at the party.

Judy Nylon: Lou Reed kissing Angie Bowie

The email went like this:

“I am the blond kissing Lou Reed.”

OK, that got my attention. Like many other places on the web, I’d always assumed that this Mick Rock image was of Lou Reed and Angie Bowie. It isn’t. On the night, Angie wasn’t wearing dark nail polish, but the lady kissing Reed, Judy Nylon was. Judy Nylon the multi-talented singer, writer, musician and, at the time of Ziggy’s Last Supper, collaborator with the Velvet Underground’s John Cale. To add a couple more random Bowie links to Judy is that she’d later work with Brian Eno and live in a flat which would later accommodate Cherry Vanilla. Judy was at the party and her recollection straightens out some of the party’s other puzzlements.

“I was at the head table with Lou Reed at the final Ziggy night. In the beginning of the evening, Mick Rock and Mainman had set up the exclusive of all photos, Lou and I had left to go to the studio where he was mixing the LP “Berlin” before the other photographers were let in, most likely at the end of the night. This is why we are not in any of these ‘lineup ‘ pictures”.

As I’ve mentioned, the photos of Bowie with Lou Reed and Jagger are candid shots. The photo featuring Bowie’s Mystery Guest, Ringo, Ronno, Beck and everyone else has always seemed like the contractual obligation shot made more conspicuous by the absence of Reed & Jagger. As Bianca Jagger is in shot, one presumes Mick was busy brushing his hair or playing Dana Gillespie at darts, but thanks to Judy, we now know why Reed was missing.

Is Pierre Clémenti Bowie’s Mystery Guest?

No, but they could be twins separated at birth. Clémenti’s appearance changed radically over the years until his death in 1999. Much of the imagery found online comes prior to his brief incarceration in the early 70s, so finding a July 1973 photo of him was impossible. However, Bowie’s Mystery Guest has a physical feature which Clémenti doesn’t.

This image above is an AI enhancement of one of the rarer shots of Bowie’s Mystery Guest and the only one I have where he is staring down the barrel of a lens. Exactly whose lens is a subject of conjecture, so I can’t show you the whole thing. Using a little computer enhancement, I’ve been able to ascertain that Bowie’s Mystery Guest has a slight dental anomaly on the top left of his mouth. This appears on several shots. Pierre Clémenti doesn’t have this.

After seeing this shot, Judy noticed a couple of other anomalies

“It’s not Pierre; those are not his teeth and full-face , you can see this man has no dimple alongside his mouth. Pierre always had prominent cheekbones.”

Although I knew Judy was perfectly correct, I always try to add a secondary source or verification when the suspect cannot say, “It’s not me, guv!”, themselves. I sent a message to Balthazar Clémenti, who is Pierre’s son. He was kind and generous enough to send me a reply to my bizarre question.

“Cher Lee
Non ce n’est pas Pierre
Bonne journée”

Oh well…

So there we have it. For more than a moment, I thought Judy had solved the mystery and that I could leave all this behind and open that underwater trampoline park I’ve always dreamed about. Thanks to a dodgy tooth and lack of dimples, the search for Bowie’s Mystery Guest continues.

I would like to thank Balthazar Clémenti for his kind assistance, but the star of this one is Judy Nylon. Thank you, Judy for dropping me a line, making a fabulous suggestion and giving us all some lovely details about the night of Ziggy’s Last Supper.