World AIDS Day

[reviews_and_ramblings]

World AIDS Day, observed on 1 December every year, is dedicated to raising awareness of the AIDS pandemic caused by the spread of HIV infection. Government and health officials observe the day, often with speeches or forums on the AIDS topics. Since 1995, the President of the United States has made an official proclamation on World AIDS Day. Governments of other nations have followed suit and issued similar announcements.

http://www.worldaidsday.org/

As Sam J. Miller beautifully says in his essay about Michael Grumley for The Lost Library:

AIDS did not just kill the brilliant writers and artists whose names we know. AIDS also killed the literary agents and the editors and the publicists and the audiences that nurtured and supported those artists, and in the process an overwhelming amount of art and talent has been lost.

I want to remember all of them, remembering some of them (you can find link to their specific posts here: http://pinterest.com/elisareviews/we-shall-not-forget/), very few in comparison to the million of people we lost (AIDS has killed more than 25 million people between 1981 and 2007):

Casey Donovan (November 2, 1943 – August 10, 1987) was an American male pornographic actor of the 1970s and 1980s, appearing primarily in adult films and videos catering to gay male audiences.

Steven Arnold (1943–1994) was a California-based multi-media artist, spiritualist, gender bender and protegee of Salvador Dalí. His work consisted of drawings, paintings, rock and film poster art, makeup design, costume design, set design, photography and film.

Roy Marcus Cohn (February 20, 1927 – August 2, 1986) was an American attorney who became famous during Senator Joseph McCarthy's investigations into Communist activity in the United States during the Second Red Scare. Cohn gained special prominence during the Army–McCarthy hearings. He was also an important member of the U.S. Department of Justice's prosecution team at the espionage trials of Soviet spies Julius and Ethel Rosenberg.

Pierre Menard was a violinist with the Vermeer Quartet based at Northern Illinois University, where he was also a professor of music.A violinist and founding member of the Vermeer Quartet, he died on August 3, 1994, at his home in Warren, Me. He was 53. The cause was AIDS, said his companion, John Ladley.

Gordon Hoban (born August 4, 1941, Faribault MN, USA, died of AIDS on April 10, 1993, Kakuihaele, Hawaii) was an American writer, a dramatist who wrote porno and S works. His books include "Adventures of a High School Hunk," 1990, "The Marine Olaf," 1990, and "Runaway."

Christopher Gillis (February 26, 1951 in Montreal – August 7, 1993 in New York City), a choreographer and a longtime leading dancer with the Paul Taylor Dance Company, died on August 7, 1993, at his home in Manhattan. He was 42.

Jack Brusca was a painter who was also a set and costume designer for ballet, including work performed by the Alvin Ailey Company.

Stephen Gendin (February 20, 1966 – July 19, 2000) was a prominent AIDS activist, involved with ACT UP, ActUp/RI, Sex Panic!, Community Prescription Service, POZ Magazine, and the Radical Faeries. Gendin was raised in Ypsilanti, Michigan, where he was an Eagle Scout. He attended Brown University, where he learned that he was HIV positive as a first-year student in 1985.

David Wojnarowicz (September 14, 1954 – July 22, 1992) was a painter, photographer, writer, filmmaker, performance artist, and activist who was prominent in the New York City art world of the 1980s.

William "B.J." Turner was a stage actor. He won a Drama-Logue Award for his portrayal of Lady Bracknell in "The Importance of Being Earnest" and an LA Weekly Award for his panto of "Rumpelstiltskin."

Stefan Fitterman was a stage/legit director and special assistant to Actors' Equity Association president Ron Silver. He clumped to early fame as Sarah Bernhardt in the Gala.

Norman Andersson was a singer with the Metropolitan Opera as well as the San Francisco and Pittsburgh symphonies.

Steve Rubell (December 2, 1943 - July 25, 1989) was an American entrepreneur and co-owner of the New York disco Studio 54.

Dr. Tom Waddell (November 1, 1937 - July 11, 1987) was the gay American sportsman who founded the international sporting event called the Gay Games, which was named such after the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) sued Dr. Waddell for using the word "Olympic" in the original name "Gay Olympics". The Gay Games are held every four years. The first was in San Francisco in 1982.

John Richard Beaird (April 9, 1953 – July 9, 1993) was a screenwriter and film producer.He was responsible for scripting two of the most well-known slasher films of the early 1980s, My Bloody Valentine (1981), Happy Birthday To Me (1981), and the CBS miniseries North Beach and Rawhide, though his work on Happy Birthday To Me went uncredited.My Bloody Valentine is notorious for its rough treatment at the hands of the MPAA, which demanded extensive cutting of the film's gore.

Robert Ferro (1941-1988) was an American novelist whose semi-autobiographical fiction explored the uneasy integration of homosexuality and traditional American upper-middle-class values.He was born in Hoboken, New Jersey, on October 21, 1941. The son of Michael and Gae Panzera Ferro, he was raised in nearby Cranford, New Jersey, with his siblings Michael Jr., Camille, and Beth.

Stephen Donaldson (July 27, 1946 – July 18, 1996), born Robert Anthony Martin, Jr and also known by the pseudonym Donny the Punk, was an American bisexual-identified LGBT political activist. He is best known for his pioneering activism in gay liberation and prison reform, but also for his writing about punk rock and subculture.

Oleg Kerensky was a dance, music, and theater critic for newspapers and magazines in the U.S. and Britain.TO BE BORN with a famous name must be a problem as well as a help. Being grandson of Alexander Kerensky, head of the Russian Provisional Government in 1917, certainly helped Oleg in his Oxford days at Christ Church and as treasurer and Librarian of the Oxford Union.The problem comes from people's expectations. Touched by history as Oleg Kerensky was, he would be obsessed with politics.

Robert Giard was a portrait, landscape, and figure photographer who for two decades also chronicled a broad survey of contemporary American gay and lesbian literary figures. A native of Hartford, Connecticut, Giard came relatively late to the practice of photography. He majored in English literature and received a B.A. from Yale (1961), and M.A. in Comparative Literature from Boston University (1965). For a time he taught intermediate grades at the New Lincoln School in New York City.

James Carroll Pickett was the playwright of Bathhouse Benediction, Dream Man, and Queen of Angels. He was also a teacher at the Beverly Hills Playhouse.James Pickett's performances in William Girdler's early pictures helped make those films shine. Pickett acted in three of Bill’s Louisville efforts, creating some truly standout characters in the process. He’s best remembered by trash fans for his role in the exploitation classic Three on a Meathook.

Steve Gilden (1960 - July 1, 1994) was a singer in New York City cabarets and a member of Lifebeat's Hearts & Voices, a volunteer group that performs in hospitals.In 1992, the music industry had not yet addressed the AIDS crisis with a unified voice, although many of its members had succumbed to the disease. Bob Caviano, a respected music manager, wrote a moving editorial in Billboard magazine disclosing his illness and challenging the industry to take action.

Richard Rorke was an actor and set designer who won several L.A. Drama Critics Circle awards for his performances and designs.Richard Hayden Rorke, former legit actor and scenic designer, died on July 3, 1993, in Sherman Oaks after a long illnes.Primarily a theatrical actor, Rorke worked nationwide in numerous theaters across the United States. Lately he designed fabrics and wall papers for the Van Luft Co. in Los Angeles.

Gordon Stewart Anderson (1958 – July 8, 1991) was a Canadian writer, whose novel The Toronto You Are Leaving was published by his mother 15 years after his death.Anderson was born in Hamilton, raised in Sault Ste. Marie and lived for many years in Toronto. He graduated from the University of Waterloo and the University of Western Ontario. A gay man, Anderson died of AIDS-related causes.

Michael Bennett (April 8, 1943 – July 2, 1987) was an American musical theater director, writer, choreographer, and dancer. He won seven Tony Awards for his choreography and direction of Broadway shows and was nominated for an additional eleven.Bennett choreographed Promises, Promises, Follies and Company. In 1976, he won the Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical and the Tony Award for Best Choreography for the Pulitzer Prize–winning phenomenon A Chorus Line.

John Falabella was a Broadway and TV set designer. Nominated for an Emmy in 1992 for his work on the Tony awards.John M. Falabella, a designer for theater and television, died on July 6, 1993, in New York City. He was 40.The cause was AIDS, his press representatives, Boneau/Bryan-Brown, said.Mr. Falabella designed 14 Broadway shows, including Harvey Fierstein's "Safe Sex," Edward Albee's "Lady From Dubuque" and "Harry Connick Jr. on Broadway."

Peter Adair (22 November 1943 – 27 June 1996) was a filmmaker and artist, best known for his pioneering documentary, Word Is Out.Adair was born in Los Angeles County in 1943. Adair entered the film industry in the 1960s and first gained critical attention with his 1967 documentary Holy Ghost People, a film record of a Pentecostal snake handler worship service in the Appalachians.

Michel Foucault (born Paul-Michel Foucault (15 October 1926 – 25 June 1984) was a French philosopher, social theorist and historian of ideas. He held a chair at the Collège de France with the title "History of Systems of Thought," and lectured at the University at Buffalo and the University of California, Berkeley.

Bruce Cratsley was born in Canton, Pennsylvania, and graduated from Swarthmore College. His interest in photography led him to study under Lisette Model at the New School for Social Research in the early 1970s. His work was displayed in prominent New York galleries and ranged from portraits of friends, to still lifes and photographs of gay and lesbian culture in New York City. A retrospective of his work was mounted at the Brooklyn Museum of Art in 1996 to critical acclaim.

Donald W. Woods, the head of an AIDS education organization and a former museum official, died of cardiac arrest on June 25, 1992, at New York Hospital in Manhattan. He was 34 years old and lived in Brooklyn.Mr. Woods was the executive director of AIDS Films, a nonprofit company that produces AIDS education and prevention movies, and had worked there for the last two years.Before that, he was the public affairs director of the Brooklyn Children's Museum for five years.

Assotto Saint (October 2, 1957 - June 29, 1994) was a poet, dancer with the Martha Graham company, and playwright. He appeared in Marlon Riggs' No Regrets.Through his contributions to literary and popular culture, Haitian-born American poet, performance artist, musician, and editor and publisher Assotto Saint increased the visibility of black queer authors and themes during the 1980s and early 1990s.

Neal Pozner (1955 – June 21, 1994), sometimes credited as Neil Pozner, was an award-winning art director, editor, and writer known for his work in the comic book industry. He worked with DC Comics at two points, first as a design director and later as Group Editor, Creative Services until his death.As a young man, Pozner published a comics fanzine from 1969–1972, when he joined CAPA-alpha. He was an active member in CAPA-alpha at least until 1984. He graduated from The Cooper Union.

Swen Swenson (1932–1993) was a Broadway dancer and singer. Born in Inwood, Iowa, Swenson was trained by dancer Mira Rostova and at the School of American Ballet.He had featured and co-starring roles on Broadway in such musicals such as Wildcat with Lucille Ball, Little Me (for which he received a Tony Award nomination), Annie, No, No Nanette, I Remember Mama and the 1981 revival of Can-Can.

Technical Sergeant Leonard P. Matlovich (July 6, 1943 – June 22, 1988) was a Vietnam War veteran, race relations instructor, and recipient of the Purple Heart and the Bronze Star. On June 22, 1988, Matlovich died in Los Angeles of complications from HIV/AIDS beneath a large photo of Martin Luther King, Jr. His tombstone does not bear his name. It reads, “When I was in the military, they gave me a medal for killing two men and a discharge for loving one.”

Craig L. Rodwell (October 31, 1940 – June 18, 1993) was an American gay rights activist known for founding the Oscar Wilde Memorial Bookshop on November 24, 1967, the first bookstore devoted to gay and lesbian authors and as the prime mover for the creation of the New York City pride demonstration. Rodwell is considered by some to be quite possibly the leading gay rights activist in the early homophile movement of the 1960s.Rodwell was born in Chicago, IL.

Murray Gitlin, a dancer and stage manager, died on June 22, 1994, at St. Clare's Hospital due to AIDS complications. He was 67 and lived in Manhattan.Mr. Gitlin, who was born in West Hartford, Conn., studied with Hanya Holm, Alwin Nikolais, Martha Graham and Jose Limon, and danced with the New York City Opera, the companies of Mr. Nikolais and Pearl Lang, and in such musicals as "The King and I," "The Golden Apple," "Can-Can" and "Irma la Douce."

Joel Redon was born Nov. 15, 1961, in Portland, Oregon, studied writing with Paul Bowles in Morocco and with Elizabeth Pollet at NYU, and wrote columns and reviews for the New York Native in 1986-87. He is the author of Bloodstream (1989), If Not on Earth, Then in Heaven (1991), and Road to Zena (1992). He died June 6, 1995, at age 33. His epitaph reads: To have placed the impossible word on the rainbow's arc, then it would have been all said.

Severo Sarduy (Camagüey, Cuba; February 25, 1937 – Paris; June 8, 1993) was a Cuban poet, author, playwright, and critic of Cuban literature and art.Sarduy went to the equivalent of high school in Camagüey and in 1956 moved to Havana, where he began a study of medicine. With the triumph of the Cuban revolution he collaborated with the Diario libre and Lunes de revolución, pro-marxist papers. In 1960 he traveled to Paris to study at the Ecole du Louvre.

David Kalstone (1933 – June 14, 1986), was an American writer and literary critic. (Photo of Edmund White in Venice in 1974, with Alfred Corn (left) and David Kalstone (right))Kalstone, born in McKeesport, Pennsylvania, was the recipient of a Fulbright scholarship and studied at the University of Cambridge. He taught at Harvard University starting in 1959 and was a professor of English at Rutgers University from 1967 until his death.

Robert La Tourneaux (1945 – 3 June 1986) was an American actor best known for his role of Cowboy, the good-natured but dim hustler hired as a birthday present for a gay man, in the original Off-Broadway production and 1970 film version of The Boys in the Band.La Tourneaux made his Broadway theatre debut in the 1967 musical Illya Darling. In 1968, he was part of the ensemble for Mart Crowley’s play The Boys in the Band, which opened on April 14, 1968 at Theater Four in New York City.

Bo Huston adopted cinema as his model for aesthetic structures and the act of writing as the force of expression within those structures.Huston took the first gay course taught in college in the United States, a course on gay film taught by Tom Joslin. Vito Russo, who at that time was writing The Celluloid Closet, did several guest lectures in that class based on his notes for the book.

Larry Kert (December 5, 1930 - June 5, 1991) was an American actor, singer, and dancer. He is best known for creating the role of Tony in the original Broadway version of West Side Story.Born as Frederick Lawrence Kert in Los Angeles, California, Kert graduated from Hollywood High School. His first professional credit was as a member of a theatrical troupe called the "Bill Norvas and the Upstarts" in the 1950 Broadway revue Tickets, Please!.

Charles Braun Ludlam (April 12, 1943 – May 28, 1987) was an American actor, director, and playwright.Ludlam was born in Floral Park, New York, the son of Marjorie (née Braun) and Joseph William Ludlam. He was raised in Greenlawn, New York, on Long Island, and attended Harborfields High School. The fact that he was gay was not a secret.

Tom Eyen (August 14, 1940 - May 26, 1991) was an American playwright, lyricist, television writer and theatre director.Eyen is best known for works at opposite ends of the theatrical spectrum. Mainstream theatergoers became acquainted with him in 1981 when he partnered with composer Henry Krieger and director Michael Bennett to write the book and lyrics for Dreamgirls, the hit Broadway musical about an African American female singing trio.

Joe Brainard (1941–1994) was an American artist and writer associated with the New York School. His prodigious and innovative body of work included assemblages, collages, drawing, and painting, as well as designs for book and album covers, theatrical sets and costumes. In particular, Brainard broke new ground in using comics as a poetic medium in his collaborations with other New York School poets.

The illustrator and writer Michael Grumley was born in Davenport, Iowa, on July 6, 1941, and raised in nearby Bettendorf, Iowa, with his three brothers Charles, Terry, and Timothy. He attended the University of Denver and Mexico City College before earning a BA degree from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in 1964, after which he took a seasonal position with the Johnson's Wax Pavilion at the New York World's Fair.

Phil Zwickler was a filmmaker and writer about gay and lesbian issues and the AIDS crisis, born June 1, 1954 and died from the complications of AIDS on May 7, 1991.With Jane Lippman, he produced and directed "Rights and Reactions: Lesbian and Gay Rights on Trial," an award-winning documentary covering the 1986 New York City Council hearings on the gay rights bill.

Paul Graham Popham was an American gay rights activist who served as the president of the Gay Men's Health Crisis from 1981 until 1985. He also helped found and was chairman of the AIDS Action Council, a lobbying organization in Washington. He was the basis for the character of Bruce Niles in Larry Kramer's The Normal Heart, which was one of the first plays to address the HIV/AIDS crisis.Born in Emmett, Idaho, and graduated from from Portland (Oregon) State College.

Rodger Allen McFarlane (February 25, 1955 – May 15, 2009) was an American gay rights activist who served as the first paid executive director of the Gay Men's Health Crisis and later served in leadership positions with Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, Bailey House and the Gill Foundation.McFarlane was born on February 25, 1955 in Mobile, Alabama and was raised on the family's soybean and chicken farm in Theodore, Alabama.

Terry Helbing was born on May 21, 1951 and grew up in East Dubuque, Illinois. He began working and acting in Theater in 1966, and Gay Theater in 1973. He graduated from Emerson College in 1973 with a BA in Dramatic Arts and acted in Boston and New England with the touring company of Jonathan Ned Katz's "Coming Out."

George Whitmore (1946-1989) was an American writer on homosexuality and AIDS.George Whitmore lived in Manhattan. He was a member of The Violet Quill, the Gay Academic Union and the Gay Men's Health Crisis.Alongside his novels and non-fiction work, he wrote for the New York Times Magazine, the Advocate, the New York Native, and Christopher Street.He is the author of: The Confessions of Danny Slocum (1980), Nebraska (1987) and Someone Was Here: Profiles in the AIDS Epidemic (1988).

Arnie Zane (September 26, 1948 – March 30, 1988) was an American photographer, choreographer, and dancer. He is best known as the co-founder and co-artistic director of the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company.The second son of an Italian-Jewish family, Zane was born in the Bronx, New York on September 26, 1948. Zane graduated from State University of New York at Binghamton (SUNY) with a degree in theater and art history. Not long afterward, Zane began pursuing an interest in photography.

Erik Belton Evers Bruhn (October 3, 1928 – April 1, 1986) was a Danish danseur, choreographer, company director, actor, and author.Erik Bruhn was born in Copenhagen, Denmark, the fourth child and first son of Ellen (née Evers), owner of a hairdressing salon, and third child of Ernst Bruhn. His parents married shortly before his birth.

Randy Shilts (August 8, 1951 – February 17, 1994) was a pioneering gay American journalist and author. He worked as a freelance reporter for both The Advocate and the San Francisco Chronicle, as well as for San Francisco Bay Area television stations.Born August 8, 1951 in Davenport, Iowa, Shilts grew up in Aurora, Illinois, with five brothers in a politically conservative, working-class family.

John Preston (December 11, 1945, Medfield, Massachusetts – April 28, 1994, Portland, Maine) was an author of gay erotica and an editor of gay nonfiction anthologies.He grew up in Medfield, Massachusetts, later living in a number of major American cities before settling in Portland, Maine in 1979. A writer of fiction and nonfiction, dealing mostly with issues in gay life, he was a pioneer in the early gay rights movement in Minneapolis.

Ron Vawter (December 9, 1948 – April 16, 1994) was an American actor and a founding member of the experimental theater company, The Wooster Group.Vawter performed in most of the Group's works until his death from a heart attack in 1994 at the age of 45. He originated roles in Rumstick Road, Nayatt School, Point Judith (an epilog), Route 1 & 9, Hula, L.S.D. (...Just the High Points...), Frank Dell's The Temptation of Saint Antony, North Atlantic, and Brace Up!.

Bob Hattoy (November 1, 1950 – March 4, 2007) was an American activist on issues related to gay rights, AIDS and the environment.Hattoy worked in the White House under American President Bill Clinton from 1993 to 1999. He also served as chairman of the research committee of the Presidential Commission on HIV/AIDS, having himself been diagnosed HIV positive in 1992.

Bruce Raymond Voeller (May 12, 1934 – February 13, 1994) was a biologist and researcher, primarily in the study of AIDS.Voeller was born in Minneapolis. When he was at school, he was assured by a school counselor that he was not homosexual, even though he had felt such feelings very early on.Voeller graduated with a bachelor's degree from Reed College in 1956, and after winning a five year fellowship to the Rockefeller Institute, he gained a Ph.D. in biology in 1961.

Robert Mapplethorpe (November 4, 1946 – March 9, 1989) was an American photographer, known for his large-scale, highly stylized black and white portraits, photos of flowers and nude men. The frank, homosexual eroticism of some of the work of his middle period triggered a more general controversy about the public funding of artworks.Mapplethorpe was born and grew up as a Roman Catholic of English and Irish heritage in Our Lady of the Snows Parish in Floral Park, Queens, New York.

William R. Olander (July 14, 1950 - March 18, 1989), partner of Christopher Cox, was an art historian, museum curator, and critic. Born in Virginia, Minnesota, on July 14, 1950, he attended Northwestern University, where he studied with Jack Burnham, and received a Ph.D. in art history from New York University's Institute of Fine Arts in 1983. His dissertation, Pour Transmettre À La Postérité: French Painting and Revolution, 1774-1795 , was guided by the noted art historian Robert Rosenblum.

Thomas B. Stoddard, a lawyer whose persuasiveness and erudition advanced the cause of equal rights for gay men, lesbians and people with AIDS, died on February 12, 1997, at his home in Manhattan due to AIDS related illness, as reported by his companion, Walter Rieman. He was 48.

Harry Kondoleon was a gay American playwright and novelist. He was born on February 26, 1955; and died of AIDS on March 16, 1994, aged 39. He graduated from Hamilton College and the Yale School of Drama. He was awarded the Fulbright, National Endowment for the Arts, Rockefeller and Guggenheim fellowships.Harry Kondoleon arrived on this planet in 1955 and started observing its inhabitants and their curious customs shortly thereafter.

Paul Landry Monette (October 16, 1945 – February 10, 1995) was an American author, poet, and activist best remembered for his essays about gay relationships.Monette was born in Lawrence, Massachusetts, and graduated from Phillips Academy in 1963 and Yale University in 1967.

Francisco "Paco" Javier Vidarte Fernández (1 March 1970 - 29 January 2008 in Madrid) was a Spanish philosopher, writer and LGBT-activist. After studying philosophy at the Universidad Pontificia Comillas (UPC) in Madrid/Spain, as well as psychoanalysis (Master, Universidad Complutense Madrid) and pedagogy(Certificado de Aptitud Pedagógica (CAP), UPC/Madrid), Vidarte became a Doctor of Philosophy at Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia (UNED) in Madrid.

Daniel Sotomayor was an openly gay, nationally syndicated political cartoonist and prominent Chicago AIDS activist. He died of AIDS complications in 1992.Daniel Sotomayor was born on August 30, 1958. He grew up in the Humbolt Park area of Chicago, at troubled youth of Mexican and Puerto Rican descent. He attended Prosser High School, studied acting at the Center Theatre, attended the American Academy of Art and graduated from Columbia College with a degree in graphic arts.

Sam D’Allesandro (born Richard Anderson) (April 3, 1956 – February 3, 1988) was an American writer and poet. He studied at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and came to San Francisco as a young man in the early 1980s and published a book of elegant lyrics, Slippery Sins.D'Allesandro was a member of the so-called "New Narrative" writers, which included Robert Glück, Bruce Boone, Steve Abbott and others.

Walta Borawski (1947 - February 9, 1994), a poet, was the author of several books of poetry including "Sexually Dangerous Poet" and "Lingering in a Silk Shirt". He died of complications from AIDS, in his home in Cambridge. He was 46.Mr. Borawski was born in Patchogue, N.Y. He attended the State University of New York at New Paltz before becoming the first arts editor of the Poughkeepsie Journal, a job he held for several years before moving to Boston in 1975.

Jerry Mills ( February 26, 1951 - January 28, 1993 ) was a gay cartoonist, noted particularly for his creation of the "Poppers" comic strip. The strip told of the adventures of Billy, a West Hollywood muscleboy, and his sidekick Yves (based on Mills), a big-hearted nebbish who offered good advice and caution (usually unheeded) for his glamorous friend.

Paul Reed's biography helps illuminate his work, especially as it reflects his intimate experiences with the emergence and evolution of AIDS.He was born Paul Hustoft to Sigurd William and Melva Hustoft in San Diego, California on May 28, 1956. Reed, whose biological father died when he was five months old, also had a sister, Karen Hustoft, and a stepfather, who was a Baptist preacher. Reed legally changed his last name in 1969.

Charles Bruce Chatwin (13 May 1940 – 18 January 1989) was an English novelist and travel writer. He won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for his novel On the Black Hill (1982). Married and bisexual, he was one of the first prominent men in Britain known to have contracted HIV and died of AIDS, although he hid the facts of his illness.

Carl Wittman (February 23, 1943– January 22, 1986) was a member of the national council of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) and later an activist for LGBT rights. He co-authored "An Interracial Movement of the Poor?" (1963) with Tom Hayden and wrote "A Gay Manifesto" (1970). He died of an AIDS-related cause.In 1960, Wittman entered Swarthmore College where he became a student activist.

B. Michael Hunter, aka Bert Hunter or Bertram Michael Hunter, was born on April 15, 1958, in Hell's Kitchen, NY, and raised in Spanish Harlem, NY. He was an educator, cultural activist and journal editor of Sojourner: Black Gay Voices in the age of AIDS, published by Other Countries: Black Gay Writers. He died of AIDS on January 23, 2001, Central Harlem, New York City.

William James "Bill" Kraus (June 26, 1947 - January 25, 1986) was an American gay rights and AIDS activist and congressional aide who served as a liaison between the San Francisco gay community and Congress in the 1980s.He attended Dartmouth for a semester and then Ohio State, where he received both his undergraduate and master's degree in history. He attended Ohio State University in 1968 and went on to become an aide to US Representatives Phillip and Sala Burton.

Stan Leventhal wrote Faultlines, Mountain Climbing in Sheridan Square and A Herd of Tiny Elephants, a collection of short stories about male relationships. The stories span many literary styles including: romance, fantasy, science-fiction, horror, westerns and erotica). He died on January 15, 1995, of AIDS related complications."My real friend was a writer named Stan Leventhal. All of his books are out of print now. And the harsh truth is that Stan never really became a great writer.

Allan Ronald Bérubé (December 3, 1946 – December 11, 2007) was an American historian, activist, independent scholar, self-described "community-based" researcher and college drop-out, and award-winning author, best known for his research and writing about homosexual members of the American Armed Forces during World War II.

Colin Macmillan Turnbull (November 23, 1924 – July 28, 1994) was a British-American anthropologist who came to public attention with the popular books The Forest People (on the Mbuti Pygmies of Zaire) and The Mountain People (on the Ik people of Uganda), and one of the first anthropologists to work in the field of ethnomusicology. Turnbull was born in London and educated at Westminster School and Magdalen College, Oxford where he studied politics and philosophy.

Benn Howard was administrator, dancer, and choreographer of the Elle Johnson Dance Co. in Los Angeles. He died of AIDS complication on August 7, 1994.

Born in 1925 in South Dakota, Boyd McDonald entered Harvard as a high-school dropout after serving in the army in World War II: "I was a pioneer high school dropout," he writes, "leaving school to play badly in a bad traveling dance band. I was drafted into the Army, graduated from Harward and came to New York, where my principal activity was taking advantage of the city's public sexual recreation facilities.

Allen Barnett is the author of The Body and Its Dangers and Other Stories (1990), a collection of short stories unlikely to be surpassed for its depiction of gay life at the height of the AIDS pandemic. His stories are distinguished for their meditations upon the gay body in time, and by their consciousness of how the past both clashes with and informs the present.

Christopher Cox (1949-1990), an editor, author, actor, director, and producer, was born August 27, 1949, in Gadsden, Alabama, to Howard R. Cox, a prominent banker, and Dorothy Trusler Cox. His birth name was Howard Raymond Cox Jr., and his family and childhood friends called him Ray throughout his life. He graduated from Emma Sansom High School, as did his brother Timothy, and sisters Carol and Nancy.

Darrell Yates Rist, a writer and co-founder of the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, died on December 23, 1993, in St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital Center. He was 45 and lived in Manhattan.His companion, Robert M. Cataldo, said he died from an AIDS-related illness.He championed the cause of gay rights in his writings. His last book was "Heartlands: A Gay Man's Odyssey Across America" (Dutton, 1992).

George Stambolian (born April 10, 1938 – December 22, 1991, New York) was an American educator, writer, and editor of Armenian descent. Stambolian was a key figure in the early gay literary movement that came out of New York during the 1960s and 1970s. He was best known as the editor of the Men on Men anthologies of gay fiction.

Essex Hemphill (1957 – 1995) was an American poet and activist. He was a 1993 Pew Fellowships in the Arts.Poet, editor, and activist Essex Hemphill was born April 16, 1957, in Chicago, Illinois. He was raised in Southeast Washington, DC, and began to write poems at the age of fourteen. He was educated at the University of Maryland.Hemphill's first books were the self-published chapbooks Earth Life (1985) and Conditions (1986).

David Barish Feinberg (November 25, 1956 - November 2, 1994) was an American writer and AIDS activist.Born in Lynn, Massachusetts, Feinberg grew up in Syracuse, New York. He attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, majoring in mathematics and studying creative writing with novelist John Hersey, graduating in 1977.

Peter Gregory McGehee (October 6, 1955 - September 13, 1991) was an American-born Canadian novelist, dramatist and short story writer.Born in Pine Bluff, Arkansas to Frank Thomas and Julia Ann May McGehee, Peter moved with his family to Little Rock when he was six. He was the second of three children. McGehee played the trombone at Parkview High School in Little Rock where he graduated in 1973.

Douglas Wilson (1950-1992) was a Canadian gay activist, graduate student, publisher and writer born in Saskatchewan. In 1975, he gained prominence in a fight for gay rights with the University of Saskatchewan. The University's Dean of the College of Education refused to allow Wilson into the school system to supervise practice teachers because of his public involvement with the gay liberation movement.

Guy Hocquenghem (3 December 1946 – 28 August 1988) was a French writer and queer theorist.Guy Hocquenghem was born in the suburbs of Paris and was educated at the Ecole Normale Supérieure. At the age of fifteen he began an affair with his high school philosophy teacher, René Scherer. They remained lifelong friends. His participation in the May 1968 student rebellion in France formed his allegiance to the Communist Party, which later expelled him because of his homosexuality.

Jay B. Laws passed away on Nov. 9, 1992, at age 34.Author and playwright, he won awards for his play A Night for Colored Glass and his first novel, Steam.

Ian Stephens (died March 22, 1996) was a Canadian poet, journalist and musician from Montreal, best known as one of the major Canadian voices in the spoken word movement of the 1990s. Most of his work focused on his experiences living with AIDS. In the late 1980s, Stephens released an album with the short-lived band Disappointed a Few People. In 1992, Stephens released a spoken word CD, Wining Dining and Drilling, which featured his poetry with a punk rock-influenced musical backing.

Melvin Dixon (1950-October 26, 1992) was an American Professor of Literature, and an author, poet and translator. He wrote about black gay men.Born in Stamford, Connecticut, he earned a BA from Wesleyan University in 1971 and a PhD from Brown University in 1975.In 1989, Trouble the Water won the Charles H. and N. Mildred Nilon Excellence in Minority Fiction Award.He was a Professor of Literature at Queens College from 1980 until his death, at age 42.

Alanson Russell "Lance" Loud (June 26, 1951 – December 22, 2001) was an American magazine columnist and new wave rock-n-roll performer. Loud is best known for his 1973 appearance in An American Family, a pioneer reality television series that featured his coming out, leading to his status as an icon in the gay community.Loud was born in La Jolla, California, while his father was in the United States Navy.

Jon-Henri Damski (March 31, 1937 – November 1, 1997) was an American essayist, weekly columnist, poet and community activist in Chicago's gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered communities from the mid to late 1970s until the late 1990s. At the time of his death, Damski was the longest-running columnist published in the American gay and lesbian press, having written for publication every week from November 8, 1977 until November 12, 1997.

Michael Callen (April 11, 1955 - December 27, 1993) was a singer, songwriter, composer, author, and AIDS activist. He was a significant architect of the response to the AIDS crisis in the United States.First diagnosed with "Gay related immune deficiency" (GRID) in 1982, Callen quickly became a leader in the response to the epidemic.

Reinaldo Arenas (July 16, 1943 – December 7, 1990) was a Cuban poet, novelist, and playwright who despite his early sympathy for the 1959 revolution, grew critical of and then rebelled against the Cuban government.Arenas was born in the countryside, in the northern part of the Province of Oriente, Cuba, and later moved to the city of Holguín.

Richard Barr (6 September 1917 – 9 January 1989) was an award-winning American theater director and producer. He served as the president of the League of American Theatres and Producers from 1967 until his death.Richard Barr was born on 6 September 1917 in Washington, D.C. under the name Richard Baer to parents David Alphonse Baer and Ruth Nanette Israel. In 1938, he graduated from Princeton University, where he had acted in various plays.

Scott McPherson (October 13, 1959 Columbus, Ohio - November 7, 1992 Chicago) was an American playwright.He was one of the first openly gay, HIV-positive American artists, a renowned playwright and accomplished actor. He was the author of the critically acclaimed play Marvin’s Room, later made into a film. Born in 1959, he died of AIDS complications in 1992.

Robert Chesley (March 22, 1943, Jersey City, New Jersey – December 5, 1990, San Francisco, California) was a playwright, theater critic and musical composer.Between 1965-75 Chesley composed the music to over five dozen songs and choral works, chiefly to texts by poets such as Emily Dickinson, Willa Cather, James Agee, Walter de la Mare, Gertrude Stein and Walt Whitman. His instrumental works include the score to a 1972 film by Erich Kollmar.

Steven Corbin, son of Warren Leroy Corbin and Yvonne O’Hare, was born in Jersey City, New Jersey, on 3 October 1953. After high school he attended Essex County College for two years. He then studied at the University of Southern California’s film school from 1975 to 1977 but never completed the degree. After leaving film school, Corbin supported himself by working as a secretary and also as a taxi driver while at the same time immersing himself in reading fiction, especially black fiction.

Rudolf Khametovich Nureyev (17 March 1938 – 6 January 1993) was a Russian dancer, considered one of the most celebrated ballet dancers of the 20th century. Nureyev's artistic skills explored expressive areas of the dance, providing a new role to the male ballet dancer who once served only as support to the women.In 1961 he defected to the West, despite KGB efforts to stop him. According to KGB archives studied by Peter Watson, Nikita Khrushchev personally signed an order to have Nureyev killed.

Steve Abbott (1943-1992) was a Nebraska-born poet, author, cartoonist and critic of primarily LGBT literature. He was also a highly regarded editor. Abbott edited the Bay Area periodical Poetry Flash for many years and the influential SOUP Magazine. In SOUP, he coined the term "New Narrative" to describe the work of Bay Area writers Robert Gluck and Bruce Boone and, with Boone, he organized the historic Left/Write conference in 1981.

John Fox (d. August 14, 1990, aged thirty-eight) was an American novelist and short-story writer. His most famous, successful and influential novel, The Boys on the Rock, detailed the coming out and falling in love of a homosexual teenage swimmer by the name of Billy Connors.Fox was born in the Pelham Bay area of the Bronx (where Connors's life is set) and graduated from both Cardinal Hayes High School and Lehman College.He died of AIDS-related complications in his Manhattan home in 1990.

Don Amador (October 23, 1942 - August 13, 1992) served in the U.S. Navy. He was aide to Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley, and later he was a candidate for the California State Assembly in 1977, and for the Los Angeles City Council in 1980. Los Angeles Community College professor and gay activist, Amador developed one of the nation's first accredited college courses in gay studies.His papers are held at ONE National Gay and Lesbian Archives. Don Amador with Harvey Milk.

Tommy Nutter (17 April 1943– 17 August 1992), was a British tailor, famous for reinventing the Savile Row suit in the 1960s.Born in Barmouth, Merioneth, he was raised in Edgware, Middlesex, where his father owned a local High Street Cafe. After the family moved to Kilburn, Nutter and his brother David attended Willesden Technical College. Nutter initially studied plumbing, and then architecture, but he abandoned both aged 19 to study tailoring at the Tailor and Cutter Academy.

Warren Casey (April 20, 1935 - November 8, 1988) was an American theatre composer, lyricist, writer, and actor. He is best known for being the writer and composer, with Jim Jacobs of the stage and film musical Grease.Born on April 20, 1935 in Yonkers, New York to Peter L., a steamfitter, and Signe, a nurse, (Ginman) Casey. Casey received his Fine Arts Degree from the Syracuse University School of Visual and Performing Arts in 1957.

Dave Catney was a jazz pianist who was named 1993 Jazz Artist of the Year by the Houston Jazz Festival.Houston, Texas-based Dave Catney was one of the most gifted pianists in jazz history. Along with superb compositions and recordings, Dave left an indelible mark upon the jazz scene by transforming Cezanne, a Houston piano bar, into one of the finest jazz clubs in the country, where one could regularly hear some of the greatest jazz talent on the planet.

Billy Wilson was a director and an Emmy-award-winning choreographer of PBS's Zoom. Also choreographed Bubbling Brown Sugar.Billy Wilson, the director and choreographer of "Bubbling Brown Sugar" and other Broadway musicals, died on August 14, 1994, at St. Vincent's Hospital in Manhattan. He was 59 and lived in Teaneck, N.J.The cause was AIDS, said his daughter, Alexis Wilson.

Ian & Marcel was founded in 1979 by two Canadians – Ian H. Cooper (1946-1992) and Marcel B. Aucoin (1951-1991). Both trained in Canada, they met in 1976 in Toronto, where Ian was studying Fashion Desing at Ryerson Polytechnic Institute and Marcel Home and Textile Design at Sheridan School of Design. They moved to London in the late 1970s, where Cooper completed a masters degree in fashion at the St Martins School of Art.

Michael Douglas Peters (August 6, 1948 – August 29, 1994) was an American choreographer.Peters was born in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, in New York City to an African American father and Jewish mother. His first major breakthrough came when he did choreography for Donna Summer's "Love to Love You Baby" in 1975.

Walter Raines, dancer and teacher, was a charter member of the Dance Theater of Harlem and artistic director of its school. He died on August 28, 1994, at his home in Manhattan. He was 54.The cause was AIDS, said Jeffrey Hankinson, his cousin.Mr. Raines was a classical ballet dancer of an elegance so unyielding that he could stand on his hands for two minutes, or so it seemed in Arthur Mitchell's "Biosfera," without losing his distinguished look.

Miguel Godreau, a former lead dancer with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, died on August 29, 1996, at St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital in Manhattan. He was 49 and lived in Manhattan.The cause was AIDS, said a friend, Penny Frank.Small and wiry, Mr. Godreau danced with a burning, sensuous intensity that earned him the nickname ''the black Nureyev.'' He danced in musicals before joining the Ailey company in 1965, and had a Broadway dancer's knack for selling choreography.

Michael Stuart Shere was a theatrical-lighting designer whose work includes the L.A. production of Present Laughter. He was also a playwright.Michael Stuart Shere, an award-winning set and lighting designer for more than 25 years, died at the age of 47 on August 28, 1994, in Los Angeles of complications of AIDS.His work on the Noel Coward play "Present Laughter" earned him Drama-Logue awards for sets and lighting.

Dorian Corey (circa 1937 – 29 August 1993) was an American drag queen and performer who notably featured in Jennie Livingston's 1990 documentary about the ball culture of New York City, Paris Is Burning.Corey grew up in Buffalo, New York. After studying at the Parsons The New School for Design, Corey toured in the 1960s in the Pearl Box Revue, a cabaret drag act. Dorian was a member of the Pearl Box Revue, a group of night club performers managed by Jay Joyce.

Charles Horne was an American playwright. His credits include the AIDS drama The Smoking Room and the documentary Our Sisters Are Dying.Charles Horne, a playwright who detailed his battle against AIDS for a Syracuse newspaper, died here on September 2, 1994, at Community-General Hospital. He was 48.The cause was AIDS, after he suffered a stroke several weeks ago that left him paralyzed, the hospital said.

Christopher Coe (1954 - 6 September 1994, Manhattan, NYC) was an American novelist.Christopher Coe was born in Fountain Hill, Pennsylvania, in 1954 but moved as an infant with his family to Portland, Oregon. Intentionally vague regarding his personal history, he had claimed that, until his parents died in his teen years, "his father was the owner and administrator of a sanitorium for disturbed Eskimoes; his mother ran a charm school".

James F. Jacobs was an American dancer and interior designer. He was a featured soloist with the Annabella Gonzalez Dance Theater from 1977 to 1982.He died on September 3, 1994, at Cabrini Medical Center. He was 42 and lived in Manhattan.The cause was AIDS, said Annabella Gonzalez, a friend and choreographer with whom Mr. Jacobs danced.

James Tyeska was an Opera singer. His Credits include La Tragedie de Carmen and the role of Porgy with the Deutsche Oper Berlin.James Arnold Tyeska, II, a bass-baritone who was also a voice teacher at Sarah Lawrence College, died on September 5, 1993, at his home in New York City. He was 43. The cause was AIDS, his family said.Mr. Tyeska sang on the opera and concert stages.

Don Hall was an American songwriter. He organized Ads Against AIDS, which encouraged print and broadcast campaigns about the disease.Don Hall worked primarily as a studio musician, writing and recording songs for commercials. In the 1980s he also worked as a studio vocalist on many industrials and corporate projects with composer-writer-producer Mary Moreno.His last project, completed shortly before his death and still unreleased, was a recording of songs for children.

John Megna (November 9, 1952 – September 5, 1995) was an American actor whose Broadway success at the age of seven in 1960's All the Way Home led to his being cast as Charles Baker 'Dill' Harris, the toothy young summer visitor in the 1962 film To Kill a Mockingbird.A half-brother of actress/singer/businesswoman Connie Stevens, Megna appeared in many television programs throughout the 1960s and 1970s.

Anthony Perkins (April 4, 1932 – September 12, 1992) was an American actor. Perkins was nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his second film, Friendly Persuasion. He is best known for playing Norman Bates in Psycho. His other films include The Trial, Fear Strikes Out, Tall Story, The Matchmaker, Pretty Poison, and The Black Hole.Perkins was born in New York City, son of stage and film actor Osgood Perkins and his wife Janet Rane. He was five when his father died.

George Ashley, an arts administrator who worked with many of the leading figures of the New York avant-garde performance world, died on September 9, 1991, at the Veterans Administration Medical Center in Manhattan. He was 66 years old.He died of AIDS, said Rosemary Quinn of Performing Artservices, an arts management organization he joined 13 years ago.

Randall Fostvedt was a concert and record producer and artists representative. His corporate clients included Amnesty International and the Glenn Gould Foundation. He died on September 10, 1994, at St. Vincent's Hospital. He was 41 and lived in Manhattan.The cause was AIDS, said Vincent Wagner, a friend.Mr. Fostvedt represented many well-known performers, including Ivan Moravec, Albert Fuller, Rosalyn Tureck and Stephen Hough.

Robert Creel "Brad" Davis (November 6, 1949 – September 8, 1991) was an American actor, known for starring in the 1978 film Midnight Express.Born Robert Davis in Tallahassee, Florida to Welsh American Eugene Davis (a dentist whose career declined due to alcoholism) and his wife, Anne Davis, who was Irish American. His brother Gene is also an actor. According to an article in The New York Times published in 1987, Davis suffered physical abuse and sexual abuse at the hands of both parents.

Mark Jollie was a singer, dancer, music teacher, and later financial administrator of the New York City Opera.Mark Jollie, the financial administrator of the New York City Opera since 1987, died on September 9, 1993, at the New York University Medical Center. He was 41 years old and lived in Manhattan.Susan Woelzl, the spokeswoman for the New York City Opera, said that the cause was AIDS.Mr. Jollie was born in Montclair, N.J., and was a graduate of Trenton State College.

Oscar Moore (23 March 1960 – 12 September 1996) was a British journalist and the author of one novel, A Matter of Life and Sex, published in 1991 originally under the pseudonym Alec F. Moran (an anagram for roman à clef). He grew up in London and was educated at the independent Haberdashers' Aske's Boys' School, going on to read English at Pembroke College, Cambridge, graduating in 1982.

Jeff Wadlington was a dancer for the Paul Taylor Dance Company in New York City from 1985 until his death. (Picture: Jeff Wadlington by Carolyn Jones)To dance is to live. Dancing connects me to God, myself, my fellow man, and most importantly, to life itself.Jeff Wadlington, who danced with the Paul Taylor Dance Company, died on Saturday at his home in Galisteo, N.M. He was 29.The cause was AIDS, said Nelson Bloncourt, his companion.

Hiram Ortiz was an hairstylist and makeup artist on stage shows (Madonna's Girlie Show) and films (Romeo is Bleeding).He died of complications from AIDS September 23, 1994, in Miami. He was 36. During his extensive career, Ortiz worked on such feature films as "Romeo Is Bleeding,""Zelly and Me,""Heart of Midnight" and "Pet Semetary." He did Talia Shire's hair and makeup in the "Rocky" films.

Michael Harvey was a real estate investor and theatrical producer who brought Sweet Bird of Youth and Happy End to Broadway.Michael Harvey, a theatrical producer and real estate investor, died on TSeptember 23, 1993, at his home in Manhattan. He was 49.The cause of death was AIDS, his companion, Theodore Dell, said.

Maurice McClelland was a producer and champion of New York's experimental stage, music, dance, and TV groups. In his last years devoted himself to the fight against AIDS. He died on September 19, 1993, at his home in Jersey City. He was 53.The cause was AIDS, a spokeswoman for the family said.Mr. McClelland founded the Space for Innovative Development in the 1960's to provide low-cost practice space for fledgling theater, music, dance and television groups in Manhattan.

Bruce Ferden was a symphony conductor. He made his Metropolitan Opera debut in 1992 with the world premiere of Philip Glass' The Voyage. He died on September 19, 1993, at New York University Medical Center in Manhattan. He was 44 and lived in Manhattan.The cause was AIDS, said his companion, Frank Ream.

Robert C. Caviano, a founder of Lifebeat, the music industry's organization to fight AIDS, died on September 22, 1992, at St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital Center in Manhattan. He was 42 years old and lived in Manhattan.Mr. Caviano died of AIDS complications, said Frances Pennington, a spokeswoman for Lifebeat.

Rock Hudson (born Roy Harold Scherer, Jr., November 17, 1925 – October 2, 1985), was an American film and television actor. Though widely known as a leading man in the 1950s & 60s (often starring in romantic comedies opposite Doris Day), Hudson is also recognized for dramatic roles in films such as Giant and Magnificent Obsession.

Victor Valentine directed "Little Shop of Horrors" on-stage in Philadelphia, Honolulu, Boston and Tokyo.Director/choreographer Victor Anthony Wilmes died October 1, 1992, at his home in Santa Monica of complications from AIDS. Known professionally as Victor Valentine, he was 40.Valentine began his professional career as an actor/dancer performing regionally in such shows as "Dames at Sea,""Cabaret" and "Romeo & Juliet." He went on to co-found Rainbow Children's Theater in Billings, Mont.

Geoffrey Burridge (1948 - 30 September 1987) was an English actor noted for his performances in theatre and television.On television, he appeared as Mark Proctor in early episodes of Emmerdale Farm and is also remembered for his guest appearance in Blake's 7, 1978, (as Dorian in the episode "Rescue"). He appeared in American Werewolf in London, 1981, as Harry Berman.

Paul Jabara (January 31, 1948 – September 29, 1992) was an American actor, singer, and songwriter of Lebanese ancestry. He wrote Donna Summer's "Last Dance" from Thank God It's Friday (1978) and Barbra Streisand's song "The Main Event/Fight" from The Main Event (1979). He cowrote the Weather Girls hit, "It's Raining Men" with Paul Shaffer. Jabara's cousin and close friend Jad Azkoul is also a Lebanese-American musician specialising in classical guitar.

Writer and story editor David Scott Richardson was a supervisor on The Simpsons, writer on The Flintstones (1994) and appeared in Lust for a Vampire (1971) as the second villager. He died of AIDS on September 29, 1992, in Los Angeles at 30.An MFA graduate playwright from Columbia University, Richardson was a story editor on the ABC sitcom "Family Matters." An episode he wrote entitled "The Quilt" won him an NAACP Image Award nomination.

Douglas A. Pagliotti was a production stage manager for the Old Globe Theater in San Diego. He died on September 27, 1994, at his home. He was 36 and lived in San Diego.The cause was AIDS, said Will Roberson, his companion.Mr. Pagliotti, a native of Santa Barbara, Calif., was a graduate of the Pacific Conservatory of Performing Arts in Santa Monica, Calif., and of Webster College in St. Louis.

Mason Wiley was coauthor of Inside Oscar with Damien Bona, and sometime contributor to Entertainment Weekly.Mason Wiley, 39, author and freelance writer, died on October 7, 1994, at St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital Center in Manhattan.The cause was complications of AIDS, said his companion, Gilbert Cole.Mr. Wiley was a co-author, with Damian Bona, of "Inside Oscar: The Unofficial History of the Academy Awards" (Ballantine) and one of four authors of "The Official Preppy Handbook".

Kenneth Nelson (March 24, 1930 – October 7, 1993) was an American actor.Born in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, Nelson appeared in several television series in the late 1940s, Captain Video and His Video Rangers and The Aldrich Family among them. He was cast in his first Broadway show, Seventeen, a musical adaptation of the Booth Tarkington novel that opened at the Broadhurst Theatre on June 21, 1951 and ran 182 performances.

Richard Charles Bollig was a musician and choral singer. He was an dance accompanist for Alvin Ailey and a singer with the New York Philharmonic. He died on October 6, 1994, at his home in Manhattan. He was 51.The cause was AIDS, said Susan Paul, a friend.Mr. Bollig was born in Sleepy Eye, Minn., and graduated from the University of Minnesota. In New York City, he accompanied the ballet classes of such notable teachers as Margaret Craske and Finus Jhung.

Michael Bender was one of the producers on "Beetlejuice" for Warner Bros. in 1988. He died on October 3, 1997, of AIDS complications at Tarzana Encino Hospital. He was 51.Bender began his career as an entertainment lawyer for WB and Avco Embassy. He later resigned from Warner Bros. to form a production company with partner Kim Friedman.

Denholm Mitchell Elliott, CBE (31 May 1922 – 6 October 1992) was an English film, television and theatre actor with over 120 film and television credits. In the 1980s, he won the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role in three consecutive years.Elliott was born in London, England, the son of Nina (née Mitchell) and Myles Laymen Farr Elliott. He attended Malvern College and trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London.

Daniel Krumholtz was born May 17, 1956 in Buffalo, New York, he died of complications due to AIDS on October 5, 1990 in the City of New York. He lived most of his life in Cleveland, Ohio where he was educated and recieved a degree in English and Art History form Kenyon College. He returned to New York in 1978. He made his living working for the Department of Human Resources for the City of New York. He lived with his lover, James Burke in Greenwhich Village, New York City until his death.

Bobby Michaels lived in Fort Lauderdale with hundreds – Nay! Thousands – of gorgeous, muscular men (most of them Marines) running around in his mind. Some were memories of sexual encounters, some were the characters from his many Nifty stories and Loose Id novels and some were characters from novels waiting to be written. So, though he lived alone, he was never lonely.

In his novels and short stories, plays, and critical writings, Richard Hall focused almost exclusively on issues of gay identity and community.Hall was born Richard Hirshfeld in New York City on November 26, 1926, into an extended family of transplanted Southern Jews. In 1934, his immediate family moved to the New York suburb of White Plains, where his mother became active in the Episcopal Church and he and his sister were baptized.

John Kobal (born Ivan Kobaly, 30 May 1940 – 28 October 1991) was an Austrian-born British based film historian responsible for The Kobal Collection, a commercial photograph library related to the film industry. (Picture: John Kobal by Andy Warhol, 1968)Kobal was born in Linz, Austria, but the family emigrated to Canada when Kobal was ten and settled in Ottawa.Kobal had a short-lived career as an actor in early 1960s London.

Paul Swift (August 18, 1934 — October 7, 1994) was an American film actor.Between 1970 and 1977 he appeared in roles in four of the early feature films directed by John Waters. He additionally appeared as himself in two documentary films.Swift's most notable role is his appearance as The Egg Man in Pink Flamingos (1972). Aside from that, he played mostly bit parts.Because of his work with Waters, Swift is considered one of the Dreamlanders, Waters's ensemble of regular cast and crew members.

One of the most wonderful and sharpest thorns in the rose garden of underground culture, Craig Lee, died at home last week of AIDS-related illness on October 8, 1991. He was 37. (Picture: Alice Bag and Craig Lee)Writer, critic, producer and musician, Craig roamed the outer extremities of the local alternative scene. Most people will remember his influence on Los Angeles music during the early days of the punk-rock movement. He was the controversial music editor of LA Weekly.

Manuel Ramos Otero (July 20, 1948 - October 7, 1990) was a Puerto Rican writer. He is widely considered to be the most important openly gay twentieth-century Puerto Rican writer who wrote in Spanish, and his work was often controversial due to its sexual and political content. Ramos Otero died in San Juan, Puerto Rico, due to complications from AIDS.

G. Luther Whitington was an arts and entertainment reporter for UPI's L.A. bureau. He also served as a magazine editor at The Advocate. He died on November 10, 1992, at his home in Los Angeles. He was 35 years old.He died of complications from AIDS, his family said.Mr. Whitington, who was graduated from Georgetown University in 1979, was the senior features editor at The Advocate, a national gay magazine, and had been a contributing editor of Art & Auction magazine.

Dorothy Karen "Cookie" Mueller (March 2, 1949 – November 10, 1989) was an underground American actress, writer and Dreamlander, who starred in many of filmmaker John Waters' early films, including Multiple Maniacs, Pink Flamingos, Female Trouble and Desperate Living.Cookie Mueller grew up with her parents Frank Lennert Mueller and Anne Sawyer Mueller in the Baltimore suburbs in a house near the woods, a mental hospital and railroad tracks. She was nicknamed Cookie as a baby.

Dan Erkkila (March 18, 1941, Cloquet, Minnesota - November 1, 1992, New York), noted composer and flautist, worked in theatre in New York for twenty years and was a leading member of the world music community. A virtuoso on classical flute, he was also a master on shakuhachi, Asian flutes, and a host of other unusual wind instruments such as the Tibetan thighbone trumpet.

Marc Berman was writer, reporter, and video columnist for Daily Variety. Also cofounder of the AIDS Action Committee.Marc Berman, playwright, Variety columnist and AIDS activist. A native of Ohio who was educated at Boston University, Berman began his career as an actor in regional theater and went on to write such critically acclaimed plays as "The Wolf Patrol," "River Downs" and "The Day Andy Warhol Got Shot."

Martin Smith (26 June 1957 - 5 November 1994, Scotland, UK) was a British actor, singer, and composer who starred in many shows in London's West End. He died from complications of AIDS at the age of 37, leaving a legacy of recorded music.He made various appearances on television and in the film Yanks (1979), but Martin Smith was best known as Micky Doyle (1985–1986) in the long-running British soap Crossroads. His early appearances in the West End in musical theatre included Che in Evita.

James Festa was the company manager of the New York City Opera and member of New York City's Gay Men's Chorus. (Picture: New York City's Gay Men's Chorus)He died on TNovember 5, 1992, at St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital Center. He was 36 years old and lived in Manhattan.He died of AIDS, said Susan Woelzl, a spokeswoman for City Opera.Mr. Festa began working at City Opera in 1983 as associate company manager and became the company manager four years later.

Thomas Louis "Tom" Villard (November 19, 1953 – November 14, 1994) was an American actor. He is best known for his leading role in the 1980s series We Got it Made as Jay Bostwick (about the adventures and mishaps of two young, presumably gay men sharing an apartment in the big city. Villard himself was openly gay), as well as roles in feature films One Crazy Summer, Heartbreak Ridge, My Girl, and Popcorn.Villard was born in Waipahu, Hawaii and grew up in Spencerport, New York.

John A. Avant was a librarian who contributed reviews to Gaysweek and wrote for The New Republic, among others.John Alfred Avant, former fiction librarian and lecturer at the Main Brooklyn Library on Grand Army Plaza, died on November 13, 1993, at his home in Manhattan. He was 48.The cause was AIDS-related illness, said his companion, David Allen.Under Mr. Avant's guidance, the library's fiction collection became one of the largest in the country. He led taped monthly book discussions until 1992.

Michael Ballard, a dancer with the companies of Murray Louis and Alwin Nikolais in the 1970's and early 1980's, died on November 10, 1991, at Barnes Hospital in St. Louis. He was 49 years old.He died of AIDS, said Norman Ader, his companion of 25 years.Mr. Ballard was born in Denver. His full name was Michael Ballard Podolsky, but he eventually dropped the surname. He took his first dance class as a freshman at the University of Colorado in 1960.

Pedro Pablo Zamora (born Pedro Pablo Zamora y Díaz, February 29, 1972 – November 11, 1994) was a Cuban-American AIDS educator and television personality. As one of the first openly gay men with AIDS to be portrayed in popular media, Zamora brought international attention to HIV/AIDS and LGBT issues and prejudices through his appearance on MTV's reality television series, The Real World: San Francisco.U.S.

Howard Brunner was an actor who originated the role of Mr. Franklin in Broadway's Children of a Lesser God.A native of Atlanta, Georgia, his credits include the films, "From Noon 'Til Three" (1976), "The Lincoln Conspiracy" (1977), "Freedom Rode" (1979), and guest appearances on the television programs, "Kojak", "The Incredible Hulk", and "Quincy M.E.", "Police Story", "Harry O", "All My Children", and "Another World."

David Oliver (January 31, 1962 - November 12, 1992) was an American actor best known for roles on two television programs.From 1983 to 1985, he played the role of Perry Hutchins on the daytime soap opera Another World. In 1986 he played the role of Sam Gardner in the miniseries A Year in the Life. The miniseries then became a regular series in the fall of 1987 and ran on NBC for one season. Oliver's wife in both the miniseries and regular series was played by a young Sarah Jessica Parker.

Emile Ardolino (May 9, 1943 in Maspeth, New York – November 20, 1993) was one of the top directors in Hollywood, particularly of dance-related films, best known for his films Dirty Dancing (1987) and Sister Act (1992).Ardolino developed a passion for Broadway shows as a teenager. He claimed to have seen the original production of Gypsy twenty-five times.He began his film career making documentaries of Broadway musicals, including Oh! Calcutta! and Astarte.

Richard DeFabees (May 30, 1947, Englewood, New Jersey - November 18, 1993, Lakehurst, New Jersey), was an actor who appeared in productions on Broadway and off. He died on November 18, 1993. He was 46.The cause was AIDS, said Norman Rothstein, a friend.Mr. DeFabees appeared in the original Broadway production of "Torch Song Trilogy," alternating in the lead role, as Arnold, with the play's author, Harvey Fierstein.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and Cosmo cover girl Gia Marie Carangi caught the eyes of both men and women. Her life story details the tragedy of a beautiful woman battling internal demons. In Gia’s case, the demons won in the end.Gia was the quintessential supermodel, appearing on the covers of Vogue, Vogue Paris, American Vogue, Vogue Paris, Italian Vogue, and several issues of Cosmopolitan in the late 1970s and early ’80s.

Director Tony Richardson’s most famous films were Tom Jones (Academy Award for Best Picture) starring Albert Finney, John OSBORNE’s Look Back in Anger (starring Richard Burton and Claire Bloom), and The Entertainer (with Laurence OLIVIER). A Taste of Honey, which was adapted from Shelagh Delaney’s play of the same name, depicted a loving and supportive homosexual character.Richardson’s The Loved One, based on Evelyn WAUGH’s book, was perhaps the most controversial film of his career.

Martin Greif was an American editor, lecturer, publisher and writer. Main Street Press was founded in 1978 by Greif and his life partner, Lawrence Grow, in Clinton, New Jersey. Greif and Grow also wrote a few books using different, sometimes female, nom de plumes - Jean Bach, Frederick S. Copely, Martin Lawrence and Leona Wesley Hunter. Grow died of a stroke associated with AIDS in 1991. Greif died of an AIDS-related illness in November, 1996, near his home in Ireland.

Spencer Henderson III was a Broadway dancer and choreographer. Credits include Steel Magnolias, Footloose, and TV's The Love Boat. He died on November 14, 1993, at his family's home in Fort Worth. He was 44. (Picture: Spencer Henderson (left) with Kevin Bacon during the filming of Footloose (1983). Photo: courtesy Betty Alvarello)The cause was AIDS, said Harold Fairbanks, a friend.Mr. Henderson danced on Broadway in "Promises, Promises" and "Jesus Christ, Superstar".

Brian Lasser (February 8, 1952, Chicago, Illinois - November 20, 1992, New York, New York) was a composer, lyricist, musical director, arranger, pianist and actor. He studied at University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana.Brian Lasser was born in Chicago, where he received his initial training in musical theater and returned to embark on a career as an actor/singer/dancer after studying at the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana.

As frontman for the British rock group Queen, Freddie Mercury often appeared onstage sporting leather shorts and a matching cap. Although he valued his privacy, in a March 12, 1974, interview for New Musical Express he confessed, “I am as gay as a daffodil, my dear!” When asked whom he’d like to have been in another life, Freddie Mercury replied “Marie Antoinette . . . she had all those jewels.”

Alan Bray, who has died aged 53, was a rare combination; a senior civil servant, gay activist and scholar. His book, Homosexuality In Renaissance England, first published in 1982 and still in print, is a classic of meticulous research and independent thinking on the origins of the modern gay identity. (Alan Bray at London Gay Pride 1979). Alan Bray, civil servant, gay campaigner and historian, born October 13 1948; died November 25 2001. He is survived by his 40 years longtime partner, Graham.

Joey Stefano (January 1, 1968 – November 26, 1994) was an American pornographic actor who appeared in gay adult films.Born Nicholas Anthony Iacona, Jr., Stefano grew up in the Philadelphia area (Chester, Pennsylvania). His father died when he was 15. After several years of prostitution and hard-core drug use in New York City, Stefano moved to Los Angeles and quickly became a star in gay pornography. In addition to his good looks, his persona as a "hungry bottom" contributed to his popularity.

Alan Bowne (1945–1989) was an American playwright and author. He was a member of the New Dramatists.He wrote a number of plays including Beirut, Forty-Deuce, Sharon and Billy, and The Beany and Cecil Show, many of which are available from Broadway Play Publishing Inc..He also wrote one novel Wally Wonderstruck. He died of complications related to AIDS at the age of forty four.Alan Bowne's play Beirut was adapted to the TV screen as Daybreak (Bloodstream) starring Cuba Gooding Jr and Moira Kelly.

Cary Scott Lowenstein was a dancer, singer, and actor who played Mike on Broadway and in the national tour of A Chorus Line. He died on November 29, 1992, at Hospice-by-the-Sea in Boca Raton, Fla. He was 30 years old and lived in Los Angeles.He died of AIDS, said his parents, Daniel and Toby Lowenstein.Mr. Lowenstein played Mike, the character who sang "I Can Do That," in the national company of "A Chorus Line" in 1980 and made his Broadway debut in the same role a year later.