Larry Kramer, Playwright And AIDS Activist, Dies At 84 | HuffPost Latest News

Playwright and AIDS activist Larry Kramer died Wednesday at the age of 84, his husband, David Webster, told The New York Times.

Kramer died of pneumonia, Webster said. Kramer, who was HIV positive, was best known for writing the 1985 play The Normal Heart, and for founding the Gay Mens Health Crisis and ACT UP, organizations at the forefront of activism during the AIDS crisis.

ACT UP also confirmed Kramers death in a tweet Wednesday.

Rest in power to our fighter Larry Kramer. Your rage helped inspire a movement. We will keep honoring your name and spirit with action. In the spirit of ACT UP, join us and chant this (three times). #ACTUPFightbackENDAIDS #ACTUPFightbackENDAIDS #ACTUPFightbackENDAIDS pic.twitter.com/4fAqeO6STW

ACT UP NY (@actupny) May 27, 2020","type":"rich","meta":{"author":"ACT UP NY","author_url":"https://twitter.com/actupny","cache_age":86400,"description":"Rest in power to our fighter Larry Kramer. Your rage helped inspire a movement. We will keep honoring your name and spirit with action. 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Rest in power to our fighter Larry Kramer. Your rage helped inspire a movement. We will keep honoring your name and spirit with action. In the spirit of ACT UP, join us and chant this (three times). #ACTUPFightbackENDAIDS #ACTUPFightbackENDAIDS #ACTUPFightbackENDAIDS pic.twitter.com/4fAqeO6STW
ACT UP NY (@actupny) May 27, 2020

Throughout the 1980s, Kramer drew attention to the urgency of the AIDS epidemic by organizing large, dramatic and provocative protests in New York City. He was highly critical of government officials for not taking the crisis seriously as a public health emergency and for not working quickly enough to find treatments.

Among those drawing his ire was infectious diseases expert Anthony Fauci, who was heading up the federal governments efforts to fight the disease at the time. In the 1980s, Kramer wrote an open letter accusing Fauci of murder and calling him an incompetent idiot.

In later decades, the two became friends, and Fauci has credited Kramer with not only changing the course of the AIDS crisis but also transforming the field of medicine.

In American medicine, there are two eras, Fauci told The New Yorker in 2002. Before Larry and after Larry.

ACT UP put medical treatment in the hands of the patients. And that is the way it ought to be, Fauci said.

We are friends again, Kramer told The New York Times in March , as Fauci became the face of the federal governments response to the current COVID-19 pandemic. Im feeling sorry for how hes being treated. I emailed him this, but his one line answer was, Hunker down.

Kramer was also a novelist and screenwriter, receiving an Oscar nomination for the 1969 film Women in Love, his adaptation of a D.H. Lawrence novel, which he also produced.

We mourn the loss of our co-founder & hero Larry Kramer. He was an extraordinary activist & inspiration to us all. He saved the lives of thousands of ppl affected by HIV/AIDS. He was a revolutionary who challenged the status quo. His legacy will live on.
https://t.co/Rm15HFxP5I pic.twitter.com/URbOrmv7hx

GMHC (@GMHC) May 27, 2020","type":"rich","meta":{"author":"GMHC","author_url":"https://twitter.com/GMHC","cache_age":86400,"description":"We mourn the loss of our co-founder & hero Larry Kramer. He was an extraordinary activist & inspiration to us all. He saved the lives of thousands of ppl affected by HIV/AIDS. He was a revolutionary who challenged the status quo. 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We mourn the loss of our co-founder & hero Larry Kramer. He was an extraordinary activist & inspiration to us all. He saved the lives of thousands of ppl affected by HIV/AIDS. He was a revolutionary who challenged the status quo. His legacy will live on.
https://t.co/Rm15HFxP5I pic.twitter.com/URbOrmv7hx
GMHC (@GMHC) May 27, 2020

The Normal Heart, which was loosely based on his own struggles as an AIDS activist at the beginning of the crisis, had a celebrated run at New York Citys Public Theater in 1985. A 2011 Broadway revival won three Tony awards, and in 2014, Ryan Murphy adapted it into an Emmy-winning HBO film, starring Mark Ruffalo and Julia Roberts.

Kramer was neighbors with Edie Windsor , whose 2013 Supreme Court case helped pave the way for the legalization of same-sex marriage in 2015.