People who died of AIDS but managed to cover it up

Probably a director or two.

Search on obits from 82 to 92 and find all the youngish guys who died of "lever cancer"

Yasir Arafat

Lots of people. Do you think people like Neil Patrick Harris, Burt Reynolds and others are ever going to admit they have AIDS.

Prince died of AIDS and we'll never know because the family knows it'll hurt their sales. It's cool when a black dies from an OD but a disgrace if they die from AIDS.

Nancy Reagan

[quote]Prince died of AIDS and we'll never know because the family knows it'll hurt their sales

I heard a guy from the National Enquirer on the radio and he was pretty firm about how they stand by their story. He didn't seem afraid of a lawsuit at all.

Max Robinson, the first African-American broadcast network news anchor in the United States. He was married three times (to women) but there were rumors he was gay. He had a drinking problem but he was a respected anchor nonetheless.

Lyle Alzado

Raul Julia

Arthur Ashe?

Isaac Asimov.

R9, Raul Julia? Really?

Jim Henson

Liberace

I think about how I didn't live my life but when I came of age in the early 80s there were lots of stories in the media about AIDS. No, President Reagan didn't do anything but there were lots of stories about him not doing anything so I knew something was going on because there were stories that nobody was doing anything.

Time goes by. I'm alone, negative and sad.

Jacques Demy - the french director ("The Umbrellas of Cherbourg" and "The Young Girls of Rochefort") died of Aids in 1990 at the age of 59. The true cause of his passing was revealed only years later by his wife (also a film director) Agnes Varda.

Robert Reed

r10 I don't think that was covered up, it was just said that he got it from blood transfusion, or at least later on AIDS/HIV was mentioned as cause of death.

They tried to cover up Amanda Blake's death, but the tabloids outed her as having AIDS.

r15 makes everything about him

R19 Amanda Blake had a home in Scottsdale, AZ not far from my home. I hated her neighborhood because there were bats.

if your read Brad Davis' wife's book I swear she intimates that Davis had an affair with Jill Clayburgh late in his life....and then we know that Clayburgh died from a blood cancer....

Don't sue me. Sue Davis' wife.

R22 Not sure I buy that. Clayburgh had chronic lymphocytic leukemia for 20 years.

Gregory Hines

A lot of wisdom here in this dad-blamed thread.

r25 i think you wandered into the wrong thread

Ceorge Glooney. allegedly!

Bob Hope, followed by his widow Gloria. Suspicious timing.

R27 read the fucking title of the thread.

Never heard that one, Fat Rolls Kanter .

Jim J. Bullock...oh wait, it was only his career that died.

The list, not hidden but more names on there then I knew about.

comedy isn't your thing r31

Author Bruce Chatwin. The explanation for his death at the time was pure hokum.

R33 = Jim J. Bullock

Alvin Ailey.

James Coco (still pretty covered up to present)

Perry Ellis (covered up for a while, then revealed)

I didn't know about Gil Scott-Heron

I don't actually believe that Clayburgh died of AIDS, but for the record 20-year chronic leukemia could easily be a cover for AIDS. My friend who ultimately died of AIDS claimed to have lymphoma for about 30 years.

This is ridiculous. If they managed to cover it up, we're not going to know who they are. Duh.

If they didn't manage to cover it up, let's have the names.

Jackie O.

Ethel and Julius Rosenberg. They say it was the electric chair but here at DL we know the truth!

Nancy Reagan

Blanche Devereaux, the slut who actually deserved it.

Prince died of AIDS ? I thought no one dies of that anymore

[quote]Clayburgh had chronic lymphocytic leukemia for 20 years.

Yes and lived with it just fine, until the HIV infection pushed her into death.

Dolores Hope, not Gloria.

I can stand bitchy, but to claim someone died of AIDS when they did not R46 makes you sick little person.

*a sick little person

I've always wondered about whether DOM DeLUISE might have.

So essentially (according to datalounge) anyone rumored to be gay, every effeminate male, every closeted male has AIDS or has already died of AIDS.

Thread Closed!

What you died from hardly matters......the fact is, YOU'RE DEAD, so who gives a rat's ass what from?

Junior Samples

Prince died of a big disease with a little name?

Rene Enriquez of "Hill Street Blues."

Russian-American ballet dance & actor, Alexander Godunov.

Died in 1995, aged 45 of "natural causes". In West Hollywood.

Another vote for Lyle Alzado & Gregory Hines.

I'm sure that's what killed Jackie Onassis.

Raul Julia did not die of AIDS. I knew his wife back then.

No married "straight" man has ever died of AIDS, r58?

There used to be a strong urban legend/ rumor that Michael Jackson died of AIDS in 1985, and his bleached stand-in debuted during the Bad era. People were totally in denial regarding Michaels transformation with the skin bleaching and plastic surgery.

Wow, you are an asshole, r59. I didn't say he didn't have AIDS because he was straight. He didn't have AIDS. I knew many of the people involved at the time. Deal with it.

R57 = Little Edie

Ronald Reagan. Nancy's ass got him.

You saw the blood work r61?

Blanche Devereaux

Your meatus did NOT pass inspection! Splay yourself on the kitchen table so I may apply another peroxide treatment. I will not tolerate any filthy disease in this house.

Gudenov was a supposed pussy hound and raging alkie.

Patty Duke

Miles Davis?

R68 you are an a**hole and a f*u*kward

I always heard that Alexander Godunov died of alcoholism.

How about author/actor Thomas Tryon who was reported to have died of stomach cancer in 1991?

Anyone who had "cancer" from 1981 to 1995 and was gay had AIDS.

Did Jim Henson really die of pneumonia?

Sharon Tate

Judy

yes r73. He was coughing up blood and should have gone to the hospital sooner.

Some people think Steve McQueen died of AIDS. It was reported as a rare type of cancer.

R38 I didn't know about Gil Scott-Heron too. There's a song he sang in the 70's about "fa**ots". Now I wonder if it was a political statement, or if it was indeed homophobic?

Luise Rainer

I've always wondered about country singer Marty Robbins who died in 82 and had definite AIDS face in his last years.

Brad Davis from Midnight Express, now known but at the time only 2 people knew he had AIDS at the time of death.

Grace Kelly

Elizabeth Taylor

Miss Kay Lenz

Wayne Newton

Siegfried or Roy

Heath Ledger

James Dean

Brittany Murphy

Edie Sedgwick

Sam Waterson

R82 is an idiot.

Three people popped to mind reading the thread title.

Terence Cardinal Cooke

Malcolm Forbes

Yassir Arafat

I have no direct knowledge other than conversations I’ve had with different friends who made the claims. Mind you, these friends would be in a position to know based on professions and families, so who knows!

I thought Brad Davis revealed his diagnosis shortly before he died. I think he wrote an open letter to Variety or the Hollywood Reporter or something.

I remember Arsenio Hall had a discussion about it on his show.

Arafat's long time personal doctor confirmed he died of AIDS, although that's not the official cause of his death.

I thought Arafat was poised? The description of how he died was not in line at all with typical AIDS symptoms.

David Bowie. It could have either been infected needles or man sex, who knows for certain.

Is Iman okay ? ? Or was that all about publicity?

PS: Bowie looks like Melissa Etheridge -- or some other aging lez -- here (?)

Interesting the number of people who supposedly got infected by infected blood following a transfusion during surgery...

Amd yet - we also know - or it’s been long rumoured - that they were utter sleazes.

And I know we only hear about the ‘’pussyhound’’ sleaziness side of them - but when guys are that compulsive sexually - I often wonder if we’re only seeing a small part of the story. Have known several guys who had reputations as lotharios with the ladies - who also weren’t averse to threeways with other guys - and lotsa other bi and gay fun besides.

Always feel like the blood transfusion excuse is just a cover up for whole range of other sexual escapades their loved ones would rather not have to deal with in the public domain.

Along the same lines, I often wondered why Magic Johnson didn't try the IV drug use excuse.

Arafat had lost a lot of weight before he died, he was stick thin and looked very sick. Not necessarily something that happens when you get poisoned.

His medical files were never made public. It's all speculation, but since it was well known that he was gay and his personal long time doctor confirmed he had AIDS, maybe that's the reason he died.

Arafat's death was highly controversial at the time. The Israelis had wanted wanted him dead for years. I think he was poisoned but it's all speculation - no way to know for sure.

[quote]Along the same lines, I often wondered why Magic Johnson didn't try the IV drug use excuse.

r92 - maybe because he had no history of transfusions. He is/was a very public figure and his life very searchable. He has never been sick. He announced he was poz in 1991.

I've always wondered about Wilt Chamberlain. He said he had sex with thousands of women. He died in 1999 at 63 for a heart condition but had lost an enormous amount of weight.

[quote]Arafat had lost a lot of weight before he died, he was stick thin and looked very sick. Not necessarily something that happens when you get poisoned.

It's not like the movies. There are lots of murder cases where someone was slowly poisoned. Some over the coarse of weeks or months. In fact, if someone wanted it to look like natural causes or AIDS that would be the best way to do with without looking like a murder. You really cant trust what his personal doctor says. Just looks at the wackadoodle doctor Trump has who said he is the healthiest president that ever lived.

I've wondered about Wilt as well. I'm usually thrown off course by those who blame steroid use. They might be right.

Gower Champion died of “blood cancer” in 1980.

What is the definition of "early eighties?" While we now know about AIDS deaths in the early eighties, the first reports of a "mystery" disease killing gay men weren't published until 1982, and HIV was not identified until a couple of years later than that and couldn't be detected by testing until after that. Full knowledge of the existence of AIDS didn't happen until the mid-eighties. While there were certainly a lot of people who hid their disease, those who died of the disease in the early eighties didn't know they had it. Neither did their doctors.

Blanche Devereaux

Walt Disney

"Along the same lines, I often wondered why Magic Johnson didn't try the IV drug use excuse."

Maybe because there were enough rumors of orgys and dalliances with trans people to break the internet before it even existed?

Isn't it an open secret in NY music circles that this certain individual - who's discussed in a current DL thread because of a book by his daughter - died of an Aids-related illness? I'm surprised we're at over a 100 replies and his name hasn't been mentioned.

Ken Handler (son of Ruth Handler [who created Barbie] and whom the Ken doll was named after) allegedly died of a brain tumor.

r104 - why are you being so coy? It's anonymous site

r104 - I did several Google searches and read several obits and nothing mentions AIDS related symptoms typical in 1990. Everything I read (like the article I'm attaching) stated long-term lung conditions/damage leading to heart attach. If you are an insider and want to share please do so, but your post doesn't mean a lot without more detail.

I'm actually NOT surprised because it sounds like pure speculation.

[quote]Some people think Steve McQueen died of AIDS. It was reported as a rare type of cancer.

He died of mesothelioma which is not that rare. He died in 1980, before there was any known connection between HIV and gay sex.

Prince died of a drug overdose. Don't make shit up.

R108 If he died of mesothelioma, shouldn't one of the cable channels have an endless tribute to him?

Presuming that he did die of mesothelioma, why would there be any sort of "endless tribute to him"? In the end he was another actor who died at a rather young age. As it is there have been documentaries about him, I watched one several years ago.

r109 - Yeah, right after Prince died lots of speculation on DL (and elsewhere) that he had symptomatic HIV. Who knows, but he was certainly living an active life and didn't seem compromised - worked plenty. So yeah - he died in an elevator from a drug patch. And he may or may not have had HIV but if he did it was under control.

Also - quite a while since Price died and not one man has come forward to say he had sex with Prince. Not one. He may have been gay but he sure wasn't a slut.

I think Harry Hamlin has AIDS. He always looks sick and frail and he does like it up the ass.

A. crazy rumor I heard was that Alexander McQueen killed himself bc he found out he got hiv from George Michael. I think I heard it on DL too. People weren't buying "The He can't live without his mother." shit. Has anyone else heard this?

no r114, but Ibread here both men had the same middle-aged bareback gay pornstar as a "friend". I cannot recall his name but I know he played a priest in one film and lead a gangbang of Armond Rizzo in another film.

Paul Stag, R115??

Funny that Paul Stag is the one still standing, if all of this is true?

R112, not to belabor the obvious, but speculation on DL can be far from the truth. I don't see the point in spreading totally unfounded rumors.

I heard Jackie O got it from Nureyev, but it was hushed up.

Bernstein, along with many others on this list, smoked like a chimney. So it’s no wonder they all had ensuing health problems. (Nobody talks about smoking now, either, though it was rampant at least up to the 21st century.)

When I was involved in AIDS projects in Hawai’i in the late 80’s, we used to meet for information sharing once a month at the office of a professor at the U. of Hawai’i in Honolulu. This was long before the internet; so we’d all read newspaper and magazine clippings the professor had collected. One I read mentioned it was highly probable that many more women than previously considered had died of AIDS, since it spread faster in them, and was diagnosed as various cancers, uterine, ovarian, etc. Fascinating.

My older brother in the 70’s volunteered to be tested in NYC with the Hepatitis B vaccine. A decade later, the volunteers were asked if they’d consent to having blood samples from the 70’s, frozen since then, to be tested. Reportedly, more than half if them tested positive.

So, it’s entirely possible many people died from AIDS long before it was even recognized.

Nancy (Davis) Reagan

Do any of these posters who keep spouting Nancy Reagan and Blanche Devereaux even read the thread, FFS? Or do they think their wit is SO original that no one in the years this thread has been ongoing thought of that?

Fucking idiots.

rreyreyay

[quote] .. but speculation on DL can be far from the truth. I don't see the point in spreading totally unfounded rumors.

that's really good of you r18 - you a great person !! I'll have to look elsewhere for my unfounded rumors.

[quote] Do any of these posters who keep spouting Nancy Reagan and Blanche Devereaux even read the thread, FFS? Or do they think their wit is SO original that no one in the years this thread has been ongoing thought of that?

Agreed r121 ... very low IQ sense of humor. Giggling to themselves as they post yet again ..

Nancy Reagan

Luther Vandross.

r125 but the low IQ part is right ...

R125, I have to admit, I even chuckled at that.

Lenny B could as easily have died of something age-related (which is what I have always believed) as AIDS-related.

He had a lot of pulmonary stuff going on anyway. I'm guessing if he were HIV symptomatic it could only make things worse.

Going back to Brad Davis--I read his wife's book, and she all but stated she would not discuss the possibility of Brad's rumored (and likely true) bisexual activity because she knew their child would eventually read the book...I don't think we need to blame Jill Clayburgh for Brad's AIDS...

In 1984 Amanda Blake married Austinite Mark Spaeth. He was a handsome local politician with an eye on higher offices. A marriage with Miss Kitty would give him hetero credentials, something the glass-closeted gay Spaeth needed. Unfortunately for him and Mrs. Spaeth, no one knew he had AIDS. He died in 1985...

EXCUUUUSE me, but I was not a homersexshul. I was MARRIED!

R112 Boy George said he had sex with Prince. I think George Michael was full blown when he died. Also it was known at the time of death that Arthur Ashe and Max Robinson had AIDS. They said so.

[quote]I think George Michael was full blown when he died.

Oh, he was full blown alright. Just not in the way you meant it.

R134 Sorry, but that's a photo of Dom Deluise

R135 nope, that's indeed George Michaels last foto.

Can someone die from AIDS while being obese?

Barbara Bush

That's the part that seals it for me that GM did not have aids....he would not be that heavy.

Did Bert Convy die of AIDS?

Convy - brain cancer 1991

Speaking of Brad Davis, his daughter is now a trans man.

No, R140.

“Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.”

r112 a dear friend of mine who was a radio DJ in New York told me the Prince always requested a male escort when in town. So he was fucking escort and probably other celebrities. Someone in a Prince thread right after he died said that Jamie Foxx was the one who infected Prince with HIV. Who knows if this is true but Jamie did on of his stand up acts where he talks about how pretty Prince was.

139. I guess this is the 1980s in which people living with aids die looking very skinny.

R144, have you ever seen a fat AIDS patient? Hell, have you ever seen [bold]anyone[/bold] with a chronic fatal disease who wasn’t withered just before the end?

Don’t be daft, man!

[quote] omeone in a Prince thread right after he died said that Jamie Foxx was the one who infected Prince with HIV. Who knows if this is true but Jamie did on of his stand up acts where he talks about how pretty Prince was.

Jamie Foxx is not gay!! Who could imagine me with a gay man??

"I've always wondered about Wilt Chamberlain. He said he had sex with thousands of women"

That's what HE said. I saw Chamberlain at dozens of tennis events through the years - US Open and Virginia Slims in the Garden - and he was always alone. He was never married, liked women's tennis, liked cats...I was always suspicious that he was gay.

"Did Bert Convy die of AIDS? Convy - brain cancer 1991"

Convy was a womanizer, the kind that robbed the cradle. The brain cancer was most likely metastasized lung cancer.

George Michael didn't die of AIDS but he had it. He was on steroids when he died thus the bloat.

Yes, R145. R148 beat me to it.

r133 - I really really don't want to believe Prince had sex with Boy George. If Prince had homo sex I hope it was with a nice guy - not a sleazy loser.

Even if Prince had sex with guys that doesn't mean he had AIDS. People are just making this up.

[quote]While we now know about AIDS deaths in the early eighties, the first reports of a "mystery" disease killing gay men weren't published until 1982

Nope.

I lived in Berkeley up until 1981 and there was a small article in the local paper about men coming into the Gay's Men's Health Center with lesions of unknown origin. I could have read that as early as 1979 or 1980. I remember it not being very detailed or urgent.

Alexander Gudonov committed suicide, no?

[quote]While we now know about AIDS deaths in the early eighties, the first reports of a "mystery" disease killing gay men weren't published until 1982

[quote]Nope

Jeez, make a liar out of the poor guy for one year, almost 40 years ago.

You bitches is fierce!

R155 we do be fierce

James Coco died of a heart attack, not AIDS. And I remember reading about the mysterious deaths from an unknown illness affecting gay men in large cities in June of 1981. Max Robinson likely contracted AIDs from prostitutes. From Wikipedia: "According to some of his friends in news articles he did enjoy the services of female prostitutes."

R157 If they were prostitutes they weren't female.

For all the people who don't think fat people die of AIDS, Robbin Crosby from the metal band RATT was almost 400 lbs when he died.

So it can happen.

A certain known to be closeted athlete who died of AIDS years ago. He contracted it from a blood transfusion according to his family and his publicist. And yet his widow did not sue nor have a settlement with any hospital/medical provider. Hmmmmmmm.

Who R160? Why so coy?

I was told this by an acquaintance who used to work quite high up with the NY Philharmonic. They casually dropped it into conversation one day as if it was common knowledge, but added something like 'but nobody talks about it'.

Not according to Google, R157.

from r32, Irvin Allen Lee, Calvin from the Edge of Night, oh my.

[quote]Isn't it an open secret in NY music circles that this certain individual - who's discussed in a current DL thread because of a book by his daughter - died of an Aids-related illness? I'm surprised we're at over a 100 replies and his name hasn't been mentioned.

r104 - Oh i totally believe people speculated and spread rumors and "casually dropped it into conversation" But like a lot of office gossip it might have a very thin connection to the truth.

[quote]A certain known to be closeted athlete who died of AIDS years ago. He contracted it from a blood transfusion according to his family and his publicist. And yet his widow did not sue nor have a settlement with any hospital/medical provider. Hmmmmmmm.

What a infantile post r10. Maybe you can have a conversation with yourself.

[quote]Arafat's death was highly controversial at the time. The Israelis had wanted wanted him dead for years.

In September 2005, based on obtained Arafat records, an Israeli AIDS expert claimed that Arafat bore all the symptoms of AIDS, while The New York Times claimed it was highly unlikely that Arafat died from AIDS.[19] John Loftus reported on ABC radio that Arafat had died of AIDS. According to Loftus, the CIA had knowledge of his condition, and convinced Israel not to assassinate him and wait for his inevitable death of the disease, since the subsequent widespread connotations of the disease with homosexuality would discredit him.[22] Arafat's personal doctor for 18 years, Dr. Ashraf Al-Kurdi, said Arafat suffered from AIDS.

R160, Walter Payton?

Charlie Sheen

R150, you really really need to shut the fuck up and pressure wash your dildo cabinet, it's not gonna clean itself you dumb filthy whore. Boy George has more integrity in his eyebrow pencil than you'll ever find in elevator boy's little red closette. Celebrate your homophobic hero at your local church, not here at this Lounge where the Gay is loud and proud, presenting hole while draining pasta.

Prince became quite the homophobe himself when he became a Jehovahs Witness...

Lyle Alzedo died from a brain tumor as a result of his excessive fondness for steroids.

If we were talking Lyle Menendez, that's one I'd believe in a hearbeat

Jim Henson died of pneumonia. Having practiced Christian Science he ignored his symptoms; if he had gone to a doctor immediately he probably wouldn't have died. I have no idea why there would be gay rumors about Jim Henson. He wasn't gay and he didn't die of AIDS.

Prince didn't die of AIDS. He died from a drug overdose, like so many rock stars do.

How about Terry Lester? It's been said he died of heart ailment. Or was it something else. It was commonly known he was gay.

Did Prince "accidentally" overdose on his AIDS medications?

The first time I saw him I knew he was gay.

It was rumored that Michael Landon had Aids. The doctor who treated his pancreatic cancer had devoted his career to AIDS related research.

I believe my uncle died of AIDS. Don't remember the date but it may have been before or around the time that the term AIDS was first used. No one talked about my uncle and I don't remember details but as a young kid I wasn't supposed to sleep in the same room with him. The last thing I remember was visiting his grave site and a relative commenting that it was nice someone paid to put a marker on his grave.

Weird r177. In my family, all my favorite uncles died of AIDS or suicide, but no one ever covered it up.

Steve Jobs. May have been pancreatic cancer as claimed but neither condition can be treated by diet which is what he is alleged to have done until it was too late. I personally think it was HIV.

The alleged last known photograph:

Jim Henson NOT Gay... are you mad or paid to post such nonsense. Had a deep and abiding love of the twink, the fresher the better,

Haha - threads dwindle out and this one has turned into fan girls trolls.

Wikileaks released an alleged death certificate for Jobs that stated HIV as an underlying cause for his death and that Karposi's of the pancreas leading to respiratory failure as the primary cause. That death certificate has never been verified and is usually dismissed as fake.

It pains me to say this but Freddie ALMOST covered up the cause of his death.

r108 AIDS deaths go back at least to the 1960s, what an idiotic and/or manipulative thing to say.

How so, R183? Aside from releasing a statement before his death confirming he had AIDS, the precise cause was stated on the death certificate, which I assume was by his wish.

Harry Hamlin always had the GAYEST roast beef lips. He's as straight as Richard Simmons.

R184 what did he say wrong? He didn’t say AIDS deaths didn’t exist until 1980, he said it was before there was a correlation between HIV and gay sex.

R170, if you put half the thought you put into that rant into making a decent song, you might make a comeback.

Sad...

JFK

It's public knowledge that Alexander McQueen was HIV+ at the time of his death. It was in an article about

But did he say he got it from GM or mutual Paul Stag??

Patrick Swayze

He made the list below.

Oops he made the rumor list. Here is the verbiage.

recurring concept in the life of famous people who die from AIDS is secrecy. This brings up the question. Who is out there that died from HIV, but the information was never made public? In the last 15 years, there are practically no influential personalities to die from AIDS-related complications. With the amount of people who die from the disease every year, statistics say that notable deaths are unaccounted for. Rumors exist and we will examine the big ones. The first is regarding Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. In late 2004, after effectively being confined for over two years by the Israeli army, Arafat became ill, fell into a coma and died at the age of 75. After his death, John Loftus reported on ABC radio that Arafat had died of AIDS. According to Loftus, the CIA had knowledge of his condition, and convinced Israel not to assassinate him and wait for his inevitable death of the disease, since the subsequent widespread connotations of the disease with homosexuality would discredit him. Others feel Arafat was poisoned with polonium. The next rumor is surrounding the death of American business magnate Howard Hughes. In a 1993 publication, Howard Hughes: The Secret Life, written by Charles Higham, it is claimed that Hughes may have been one of the first people to die from AIDS, in 1976. This is suggested because his symptoms were characteristic of an AIDS-related illness. Rumors have been swirling around the death of Jim Henson, who was the creator of The Muppets. He died in 1990 from a sudden case of organ failure resulting from Streptococcus pyogenes, a severe Group A streptococcal infection.More recently Internet rumors have been spreading over the death of comedian Bernie Mac. Mac suffered from sarcoidosis, which is an inflammatory lung disease that produces tiny lumps of cells in the solid organs, but the condition was in remission. His death on August 9, 2008, was caused by complications from pneumonia. I am going to run through a list of famous people who have been known to die from something besides AIDS, but rumors persist. They are James Brown, Patrick Swayze, Luther Vandross, Bob Marley, Andy Warhol, and football great Lyle Alzado. American actress Brittany Murphy’s sudden death in 2009 is strange. Her doctors have said that “it appears to be natural.” Her death certificate lists the cause of death as “deferred.” On February 4, 2010, the Los Angeles County coroner stated that the primary cause of Murphy’s death was pneumonia, with secondary factors of iron-deficiency anemia. The shocker came six months after her death when The L.A. County Coroner announced that the husband of Brittany Murphy, Simon Monjack, had died from the same acute pneumonia and severe anemia. In the final years of his life Michael Jackson’s body type experienced some severe changes. He became extremely skinny and frail. Jackson regularly used a wheelchair and many people questioned whether he could perform his 2009 concert tour obligations. Before his death, a collection of articles were published that questioned whether Jackson had cancer or AIDS. To the general public, it appeared that Michael’s 50 year-old frame was wearing down faster than expected. As conspiracy theories flow, people have latched on to the fact that Michael Jackson and his good friend Elizabeth Taylor were avid AIDS activists.

"Jim Henson NOT Gay... are you mad or paid to post such nonsense. Had a deep and abiding love of the twink, the fresher the better."

You seem pretty crazy. Why should anybody believe a crazy twat like you?

Steve had truly bizarre eating habits. He would go on long fasts; he would go for long periods on a crazy diet of just fruit, which is really bad for you. For a while he was eating nothing but carrots which turned his skin orange. His unhealthy diet no doubt contributed to his getting pancreatic cancer. He wasn't HIV-positive. He was just a weird guy who "didn't think like other people", hence his serious eating disorders.

R196 did you know him?

[quote]I think Harry Hamlin has AIDS. He always looks sick and frail

Maybe that's not it, but he does look frail. Odd since he's not that old and was once muscular.

R88

I don't for 1 minute think Bowie died of AIDS. Every week I watch Autopsy:The Last Hours Of where a medical examiner examines the coroner's reports as well as past medical history of a celebrity death. Friends of the deceased are interviewed as well especially what was going on around the death. He recently profile Bowie and he definitely had cancer.

Really good show & the M.E. is a hottie.

R199 sounds interesting. I’m going to DVR this show. Thanks.

r199 there's a difference between being positive and dying of AIDS. Nowadays, + people will be put on toxic drugs & will die of liver cancer from the cocktail, not full-blown AIDS. I'm not saying I think Bowie was +. He did enough hard drugs to have a lasting effect, and long term substance abusers (even if they've quit) have health issues when they hit their 60s.

JFK Jr.

Amy Winehouse

Nicole Brown Simpson

Tupac Shakur

Muhammad Ali

R202 really?

r203, Yes bitch really. Btw I died of AIDS too.

Miles Davis. He was a heroin addict into the 80s. IIRC he died of pneumocystic sarcoma. He played live up to the end and people who saw him said he looked atrocious.

I remember reading reports even back in 1991/2 that Miles Davis had died of AIDS, in fact, that he was on AZT at the time of his death. If anybody was trying to cover it up, they were doing a piss poor job of it.

r205 there was no cover up on that one. His biographer stated it flat out (Swed); it wasn't just rumour or tabloid reports.

R206 is right.

I don't know, R100..

There were reports in late 1980 about two men in San Francisco dying mysteriously of very similar symptoms, symptoms that later became what became indicators of what would later be called full-blown AIDS. And as 1981 progressed things began to ramp up rapidly. There was a huge media buzz in the SFBA, many more cases of the mysterious set of symptoms were turning up amongst the gay male population. That's just where I happened to be living, I don't know what was being reported in other major urban centers. I was shocked years later when friends I knew from Toronto told me they heard little about the AIDS crisis until 1984.

Years ago I read an article in a local weekly about a gay man, still relatively healthy twenty years after his diagnosis, in which he stated that he was able to determine the day he contracted the disease. Sometime in 1978, IIRC. I haven't been able to locate the article, I'd very much like to see it again.

R154, that's Gudonov for me!

Yoda

[quote] A decade later, the volunteers were asked if they’d consent to having blood samples from the 70’s, frozen since then, to be tested. Reportedly, more than half if them tested positive

That's very interesting, R119. I would think that would be big news.

The history of the AIDS virus is an interesting read on wiki...

"The earliest well-documented case of HIV in a human dates back to 1959 in the Congo.[244] The earliest retrospectively described case of AIDS is believed to have been in Norway beginning in 1966.[245] In July 1960, in the wake of Congo's independence, the United Nations recruited Francophone experts and technicians from all over the world to assist in filling administrative gaps left by Belgium, who did not leave behind an African elite to run the country. By 1962, Haitians made up the second largest group of well-educated experts (out of the 48 national groups recruited), that totaled around 4500 in the country.[246][247] Dr. Jacques Pépin, a Quebecer author of The Origins of AIDS, stipulates that Haiti was one of HIV's entry points to the United States and that one of them may have carried HIV back across the Atlantic in the 1960s.[247] Although the virus may have been present in the United States as early as 1966,[248] the vast majority of infections occurring outside sub-Saharan Africa (including the U.S.) can be traced back to a single unknown individual who became infected with HIV in Haiti and then brought the infection to the United States some time around 1969.[249] The epidemic then rapidly spread among high-risk groups (initially, sexually promiscuous men who have sex with men). By 1978, the prevalence of HIV-1 among homosexual male residents of New York City and San Francisco was estimated at 5%, suggesting that several thousand individuals in the country had been infected.[249]"

Happy 4th

The spread of HIV was caused by whorish male flight attendants.

100% of flight attendants are bottoms, so how would they have spread it to tops?

r215, I don't know but thats what my guncle always told me.

From what I've read, HIV really got going in the US around this time of year 42 years ago during all the bicentennial celebrations in major cities leading up to July 4. Guys who lived in these areas were wholesale fucking visitors/tourists and seamen (no pun intended), allowing infections to spread pretty rapidly. Given what we know about the incubation period and progression to full-blown AIDS, the timeline makes sense.

r214

The airplane was the key to it's massive spread. They have a lot of unprovable but probable evidence of AIDS going back to before 1900. It's very likely AIDS came and when in cycles killing a few here and there. Much like Marburg did for 30 years and Ebola on and off for ten year cycles, till both took hold in the 90s and became much more mainstream.

[quote]Anyone who had "cancer" from 1981 to 1995 and was gay had AIDS.

What a retarded statement, even for DL. Of course, there have been AIDS patients who used cancer as a cover, but gay men do sometimes die from actual, non-AIDS-related cancer, just like any other population, and did not cease doing so between 1981 and 1995.

True, r219, but let's face it. If a gay guy under 50 died during that era, more than likely it was due an to AIDS-related illness. Not all, of course, but I'd gamble that most.

Why AIDs shame the deceased?

"Miles Davis. He was a heroin addict into the 80s. "

R205/R206, Miles Davis was also a homosexual on the Down Low his entire life. You know how he got AIDS.

Marilyn Monroe

Janis Joplin

Mel Blanc

Kurt Cobain

Jerry Garcia

r223, Bitch my sarcasm beat u to the punch. 202 here.

Rumor has it that John Lennon looked so skinny and ill just before he got shot in 1980 because he was seriously sick, and some have suggested it was HIV or AIDS that was the cause. I don't put any stock in that myself; given the penchant for fad diets, especially that macrobiotic shit, that he and Yoko displayed throughout their relationship, and his serious insecurity about his looks that caused what appeared (to any observer who knows a thing or two about eating disorders) to be rampant binging and purging throughout his post-Beatles era, I doubt he needed to be sick with HIV, AIDS, or cancer to look that sickly.

To the cunt at R224 and R202, this thread has been full of them. You ain’t special you sanctimonious fuck. Eat ass.

Oh Christ, R225, Lennon was strung out on heroin in the 1970s - the entire decade.

John Lennon looked so bad due to years of smoking, drinking, drug addiction and poor diet. The doctors who treated him after he was shot were amazed at his poor physical condition.

r227 / r228: I know that, I was just sharing the rumor I'd heard since it was germane to the thread. I even [italic]said[/italic] I didn't believe it, for Crissake.

Regarding the comment above claiming Alzado died from a brain tumor. there is NO RECORD in medical science of anyone developing a brain tumor from roids. He was a bisexual man, who died of AIDS and circulated the Roid story as it was far more palatable.

R225

It wasn't just John but Yoko was extremely thin as well. I don't believe he was poz either.

R228

John had been clean for many years by the time he died.

So who is poz in hollywood now?

r231: Of heroin, at least. He was still a heavy coke user. Word on the street has it that a masseuse worked on his nose five or six times a day because it was so badly damaged from excessive use. (Scroll down to below the "Sugar Blues" blurb.)

Lyle Alzado was bi?

Don't count on it, R234. I once read here that Sophia Loren was bi.

I think Prince got HIV from Vanity.

Roddy McDowell.....I find it amazing there hasnt been a tell all....he was reclusive in his final years because of it...

NYC Mayor Ed Koch

Princess Margaret

Rick James

Another vote for both Lyle Alzado & Gregory Hines

If they were in Broadway from 1978 - 1992, they died of AIDS

Israel poisoned Arafat.

Every famous man who ever died had AIDS.

No one is saying that r241; and the death speculation has been focused on those who died prematurely during a fraught time period.

You cannot imagine what it was like then. Even the merest speculation of HIV meant a damaged, or tainted, estate value and posthumous reputation. Rock Hudson is the prime example.

Oh, and r160 means Arthur Ashe, right?

!!!!!!!

Kurt Cobain blew his head off with an AIDs infected bullet? That's different.

Arafat was poisoned. Very possibly with the AIDS virus. Henry Mancini was also rumored to have died from AIDS. McQueen was definitely positive.

Could Prince, George Michael, David Bowie be included?

[R245] Steve McQueen really? What makes you so sure?

More on Dom Deluise

Roddy Mcdowell

Bump?

Diana, Princess of Wales Elizabeth, the Queen Mother

[quote]r11 While we now know about AIDS deaths in the early eighties, the first reports of a "mystery" disease killing gay men weren't published until 1982, and HIV was not identified until a couple of years later than that and couldn't be detected by testing until after that.

I remember a Time magazine cover story on AIDS appearing in 1981 or 1982.

Jean Stapleton

R252: It was 1983

True R239 many broadway actors, producers, set/costume designers, dancers, etc. died of HIV/AIDS. Rest in peace.

R88 I thought David Bowie died from liver cancer, just like Lou Reed did; but they both probably had Hep C and that can cause liver cancer.

R246: There are rumors that they were HIV positive, but *actual* cause of death were not HIV/AIDS related: Prince (OD), George Michael (Heart failure), Bowie (Cancer).

FWIW, Prince looked horrible before his death... There were rumors that he had AIDS because he stopped taking his HIV meds per his JW religion. George Michael's ex-boyfriend said he was HIV positive. Bowie, rumors.

What about Vanity? I know kidney failure was the official cause, but she got around A LOT and was with Prince during his Wild days.

Jim Varney

Paul Lynde died at 55 in 1982, of a "heart attack."

How about the people who have lived on, like Guy Parse or Mr Smith from the Matrix.

How about the people who have lived on, like Guy Parse or Mr Smith from the Matrix.

This thread is from 2016. Curious how it randomly came back after being dead since 2018.

Blanche Devereaux

R259 you mean Ernest? Apparently he was a chain smoker and never quit.

Heather O'Rourke

You may be onto something R266

Fashion designer Charles James maybe? Not covered up; but if he was HIV+ or living with AIDS it was not known as that at the time.

Apparently he was into drugs both soft and hard, and died of pneumonia in the late 1970s in NYC, and I heard about how IV drug addicts in NYC had some then new pneumonia called the "junkie pneumonia" in the 1970s

Kobe Bryant

[post redacted because linking to dailymail.co.uk clearly indicates that the poster is either a troll or an idiot (probably both, honestly.) Our advice is that you just ignore this poster but whatever you do, don't click on any link to this putrid rag.]

Reagan

[quote]"Did Bert Convy die of AIDS? Convy - brain cancer 1991"

From the old SUMMERSTOCK MEMORIES thread:

The one story where I really can’t tell you the name of the star involved a magical summer night. I had bedded the musical director (David) of a touring show, and we really clicked sexually. I knew that David was “popular” and he had hinted at other relationships with folks that I knew, but I really didn’t care. One evening, I was desperate to get him away from a cast party and back to his room. He was drinking (we all were drinking) and schmoozing with the star of the show - a very well-known popular, handsome, charming, straight actor, better known for game shows and talk shows than for an actual acting career. A James Bond wannabe. When the leading man figured out that I wanted David all to myself, and he graciously disappeared. That should have been the end of the story, but it wasn’t. Back at David’s room, there was a knock on the door. When David opened up, there stood the leading man. He sheepishly grinned at me and then the two of them whispered for a bit. David turned to me. “Billy, do you mind if he joins us? It’ll be fun.” Shock, shock, shock! Of course not! Three-ways don’t always work out, but in this one, I was the meat in an old-fashioned hero sandwich. This was not the first time they had done this during the tour, but it was a definite first for me.

R272 so who was the actor, or was it Bert?

R272 do you have a link to that thread? Which other actors were bisexual or gay but closeted?

R90 Bowie looks like a lez most of the time.

R273 Duh...

The Walter Payton suggestion is intriguing.

R104 you mean Leonard Bernstein? It is not surprising to learn that he did die from HIV/AIDS and they claimed it was something else.