LARRY RILEY

ACTOR

An accomplished musician and a successful stage and film actor, Riley reached his widest audience in the role of Frank Williams on the television series Knots Landing.

Born in Memphis, Tennessee, June 21, 1952, Larry Riley graduated from Memphis State University and trained for the stage at the Goodman Theatre School in Chicago. He made his first major Broadway appearance in the all-black cast that took over the musical I Love My Wife (1979), and he sang in several off-Broadway shows, such as Styne After Styne, Maybe I'm Doing It Wrong, and Shakespeare's Cabaret. He had great success in A Soldier's Play (New York, 1981-82; Los Angeles, 1982). The play won the Pulitzer Prize, Riley won Obie and Clarence Derwent Awards for his performance, and he starred in the film version, A Soldier's Story (1984). On television Riley appeared in such highly rated shows as One Life to Live and Hill Street Blues. In 1988 he went into Knots Landing. He was married twice, and had a son by his first wife.

Like Anthony Perkins (see card 39) and Brad Davis (see card 11), Riley feared professional ostracism if it became known that he had AIDS. His second wife Nina was one of the few who knew of his illness, for he denied it to interviewers, attributing his dramatic weight loss to kidney trouble. After his death on June 6, 1992, one of the supermarket tabloids printed rumors about Riley's sex life and possible drug use, but these were not documented. His family and colleagues expressed surprise at the nature of his illness and could offer no explanation of how he might have become infected. Next Card 45: MAX ROBINSON: TV News Correspondent