BRAD DAVIS

ACTOR

An actor of considerable range, Brad Davis was born in Tallahassee, Florida, November 6, 1949. He graduated from the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York, and by the mid1970's he was working on national television in such series as How to Survive a Marriage and Roots. For his performance as an imprisoned drug smuggler in the film Midnight Express (1978) he won a Golden Globe Award as Best New Actor.

Davis gave convincing portrayals of both heterosexuals-as in Chariots of Fire (1981)-and homosexuals, as in Rainer Werner Fassbinder's film Querelle (1983). On TV he played the title role in the seven-part series Robert Kennedy and His Times (1985). On stage he had great success in The Normal Heart by Larry Kramer (see card 97), one of the first plays to deal with the AIDS epidemic. In Los Angeles on September 8, 1991, Davis died of AIDS, leaving a wife and daughter. His wife attributed his infection with HIV to his use of drugs in his youth. In Davis's reflections on AIDS, published after his death, he wrote that he had been an alcoholic and IV drug user. "And I was sexually very promiscuous. I've never known any addicts who weren't." He went on to accuse the Hollywood film industry of hypocrisy in its discrimination against people with AIDS, which forced him to keep his condition a secret. "I make my money in an industry that professes to care very much about the fight against AIDS-that gives umpteen benefits and charity affairs with the proceeds going to research and care. But in actual fact, if an actor is even rumored to have HIV, he gets no support on an individual basis. He does not work." Next Card 12: "JANE DOE": Nurse

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