Michael Kearns, an actor and AIDS activist described as one of the first openly gay actors in Hollywood, died Monday, Oct. 5, 2026, at 76. Karen Ocamb, a journalist and friend of Kearns, announced his death in the Los Angeles Blade, and several of Kearns’ friends confirmed it.
“Today, a stunned gay theatre and AIDS activism world is mourning the loss of the ubiquitous and creative artist who helped so many, literally touched so many, and probably died not knowing how beloved he really was,” Ocamb wrote.
Kearns died at 8:45 p.m. on Oct. 5. No cause of death has been released.
He played Hal in several 1996 episodes of “Beverly Hills, 90210.” His career ran across film, television, theater and literature, and he drew much of that work from the struggles of the LGBTQ+ community. Friends and colleagues throughout that community mourned when news of his death spread.
Friends Describe Final Days
Kearns had gone in and out of emergency rooms more than five times over a three-month period, according to a social media tribute from Roland Palencia, a filmmaker who was a friend and neighbor.
Palencia also gave a fuller account of Kearns’ final day. On Sunday, Oct. 4, Kearns phoned Palencia saying he “was not feeling well” and had called paramedics. Palencia gives the hospital text as arriving at 6:34 p.m. that Sunday. Palencia wrote that among Kearns’ last words were “I don’t know if I want to do this anymore.”
Tim Miller, a performance artist who had known Kearns since 1984, posted a tribute on Facebook and called him one of a kind. “I am mourning my beloved Michael Kearns,” Miller wrote.
From St. Louis to Hollywood
Kearns was born Jan. 8, 1950, and graduated from Chicago’s Goodman School of Drama in 1972, according to reporting published Oct. 10. He was born in St. Louis and studied acting at the Goodman School of Drama before moving to Los Angeles.
Tom Eyen, the book writer of “Dreamgirls,” discovered him. Kearns spent the 1970s and ’80s in Eyen’s camp-theater extravaganzas and on series television.
His screen credits included “Murder, She Wrote,” “Knots Landing,” “Days of Our Lives,” “Body Double,” “The Fall Guy” and “The Waltons.” Reporting published Oct. 9 added more: he played AIDS activist Cleve Jones in HBO’s Emmy-winning 1993 film “And the Band Played On,” made his Broadway debut in “Tubstrip” in 1974, played an HIV-positive character on “Life Goes On” in 1992 and appeared on “Cheers.”
Breaking the Silence on HIV
Actor Rock Hudson died of AIDS in 1985, and reporters turned to Kearns, then Hollywood’s only openly gay actor, as their go-to person for sound bites. Six years later, “Midnight Express” star Brad Davis died of AIDS in 1991, and the industry again made Kearns its go-to voice — this time as the only openly gay and HIV-positive actor willing to talk.
He disclosed his own HIV diagnosis publicly in 1991, announcing he was HIV-positive in an interview with NBC’s “A Closer Look.” He had reportedly known of his diagnosis since 1989, according to reporting published Oct. 9. Few public figures spoke openly about either HIV or AIDS at that moment, and the decision is credited with helping to destigmatize both.
Kearns told the Bay Area Reporter in 1991 that staying quiet would, for him, signal shame or fear. “HIV is nothing to be ashamed of,” he said.
In 1986, he directed playwright Robert Chesley’s “Jerker,” a work about two gay men falling in love. Los Angeles radio station KPFK-FM broadcast portions of the play, and the airing drew national outrage along with a warning from the Federal Communications Commission. The episode, Kearns later told the Los Angeles Times, marked the beginning of a censorship of queer work that, in his view, had never stopped.
A Life in Queer Theater
Playwright James Carroll Pickett wrote “Dream Man” and “Bathhouse Benediction,” both of which starred Kearns, who also performed his own solo works “Intimacies” and “Rock.” He produced and directed AIDS-related ensemble pieces such as “AIDS/US” and “Jerker.” The Southland Theatre Artists Goodwill Event (STAGE), which he cofounded with Pickett in 1984, became the country’s oldest continual AIDS benefit. He also founded the collectives Artists Confronting AIDS and QueerWise, and he was the author of several books. The L.A. Weekly Queen of the Angels theater award came to him in 2007.
His home was an apartment in Los Feliz, appointed with crucifixes he custom-made bearing images of rebels and gay icons. On Skid Row he taught Express Yourself workshops; he volunteered at the Downtown Women’s Center and the Lamp Community, led acting classes in Silver Lake, and partnered with the archival One Institute to bring work by gay and lesbian writers and performers to YouTube and other websites.
Philip Juwig, his partner, died in 1992. Kearns is survived by his daughter, Katherine, whom he took in as a single parent in 1995 and later adopted. They stayed close throughout his life.
The Celebration Theatre in Los Angeles had him booked for a return performance paying tribute to LGBTQIA+ theater history; his death came six days before that show.
