NEW YORK (AP) — Time never softened the urgency of Larry Kramer's demands. Theatergoers leaving a celebrated revival of Kramer's "The Normal Heart" in 2011 were greeted by the playwright himself, deep in his 70s, handing out leaflets outside the Broadway theater demanding they do more to stop AIDS.
"Please know that AIDS is a worldwide plague. Please know there is no cure," the leaflets said.
That year Kramer found time to help the American Foundation for Equal Rights mount their play "8" on Broadway about the legal battle over same-sex marriage in California. "I don't believe much acting is required other than being fervent, and I'm pretty good at that," he told The Associated Press.
Kramer, whose angry voice and pen raised consciousness about AIDS and roused thousands to action, died Wednesday at 84. His art was often as blunt as his anger, but his dedication was unwavering.
"There's so many things I still want to do and there are so many fights still to win. I try to concentrate on that," he said. "The fight's never over."
One of his last projects was the two-volume "The American People," which chronicled the history of gay people in America. It took him decades to write. "I just think it's so important that we know our history — the history of how badly we're treated and how hard we have to fight to get what we deserve, which is equality," he said.
Kramer founded the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power, or ACT UP, lost his lover to acquired immune deficiency syndrome in 1984 and was himself infected with the virus that causes it. He also suffered from hepatitis B, and in 2001 received a liver transplant.
"The one nice thing that I seem to have acquired, accidentally, is this reputation of everyone afraid of my voice," he told The AP in 2015. "So I get heard, whether it changes anything or not."
He was nominated for an Academy Award for his screenplay for "Women in Love," the 1969 adaptation of D.H. Lawrence's novel. It starred Glenda Jackson, who won her first Oscar for her performance.
He also wrote the 1972 screenplay "Lost Horizon," a novel, "Faggots," and the plays "Sissies' Scrapbook," "The Furniture of Home," "Just Say No" and "The Destiny of Me," which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 1993. At the 2013 Tonys, he was honored with the Isabelle Stevenson Award, given for philanthropic or civic efforts.
"We have lost a giant of a man who stood up for gay rights like a warrior," Elton John said in a statement.
Author and activist Dan Savage added: "He ordered us to love ourselves and each other and to fight for our lives. He was a hero."
Kramer was as known for his public fight to secure medical treatment, acceptance and civil rights for people with AIDS as he was for his creative writing. He also battled — and later reconciled — with Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, who has been leading the national response to the coronavirus pandemic.
"This is a very, very sad day. It's the passing of a true icon," Fauci told The Associated Press, saying he was glad that he'd recently had a chance for a last phone call with Kramer.
"I had a very long and complicated and ultimately wonderful relationship with him over more than three decades," Fauci said. "We went from adversaries to acquaintances to friends to really, really dear friends."
In 1981, when AIDS had not yet acquired its name and only a few dozen people had been diagnosed with it, Kramer and a group of his friends in New York City founded Gay Men's Health Crisis, one of the first groups in the country to address the epidemic.