Larry Kramer is an Oscar-nominated screenwriter and producer of the literate adaptation of D.H. Lawrence's "Women in Love" (1969, directed by Ken Russell) and screenwriter of the less successful 1973 remake of "Lost Horizon". Additionally, he enjoyed success with the somewhat controversial 1978 novel "Faggots", which depicted some of the excess of gay men in the 1970s. By the early 80s, however, he had shifted his energies from film and fiction to the AIDS epidemic, co-founding the seminal community organization, the Gay Men's Health Crisis.
In 1985 the New York Shakespeare Festival produced Kramer's groundbreaking AIDS drama, "The Normal Heart", a searing chronicle of the disease's rapid growth, the fear and indifference manifested by the political and medical establishments, and the infighting within GMHC. The play has since been seen in more than 600 productions worldwide but although it has been optioned for the movies, sadly remains unfilmed. Kramer went on to co-found the more confrontational AIDS activist group ACT UP (the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power) and wrote the flawed but moving 1992 autobiographical drama "The Destiny of Me", which focused on the teenage years of "Normal Heart" protagonist Ned Weeks. More recently, Kramer, who is HIV positive, co-founded the Treatment Data Project which gathers statistics on the protocols of several hundred thousand people worldwide with HIV disease.
- Born:
June 25, 1935 in Bridgeport, Connecticut
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Job Titles:
Screenwriter, Producer, Assistant producer, Author, Story editor, AIDS activist
Significant Others
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Companion: David Webster. born c. 1947; met in the mid-1970s and had relationship; separated; reunited after 15 years c. 1993
Education
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Yale College, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, BA, 1957
Milestones
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1960 Joined Columbia Pictures in NYC, then London as a story editor
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1965 Became assistant to David Picker and Herb Jaffe at United Artists
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1968 First film credit, as associate producer and additional dialogue, "Here We Go 'Round the Mulberry Bush"
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1969 Debut as screenwriter, "Women in Love"; also produced; received Oscar nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay
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1973 Penned the screenplay for the musical remake of "Lost Horizon"
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1978 Published novel "Faggots"
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1981 Was a co-founder of the Gay Men's Health Crisis, an organization created to provide services to those infected with HIV
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1985 His semi-autobiographical AIDS-themed stage play "The Normal Heart" produced at NYC's Public Theatre
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1987 Co-founded the protest organization ACT UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power)
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1988 Published "Reports From the Holocaust: The Making of an AIDS Activist"
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1988 Wrote the politically-themed "Just Say No, A Play about a Farce"
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1992 Off-Broadway debut of his second semi-autobiographical stage drama, "The Destiny of Me"
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1998 Was a founder of Treatment Data Project (TDP), which collects treatment data on people with HIV disease worldwide via the Internet
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Did one-year stint in the US Army
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Raised in Washington, DC
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Trained at William Morris Agency in NYC