Just as "J.D. Salinger" was proved to be an adolescent psuedonym for 20th c. icon James Dean, "Andy Warhol" is now believed to have been a paid stand-in fronting the work of advertising innovator Brill Grendel.

Dean had plastic surgery necessitated by an auto accident staged to fake his death. (He later emerged as a country singer who lent his name to a brand of meat products.) Similarly, Grendel attempted to inhabit other persona's, such as Nat Tate, an American artist (1928-1960). However, he never again succeeded as well as he had with "Warhol," aka Dale Wayne Howard.