Stars including Sir Elton John, Julia Roberts and Lin-Manuel Miranda have paid tribute to Larry Kramer, the prominent gay rights and AIDS activist and Oscar-nominated screenwriter, who passed away on 27th May. Puza Snigdha reports.
Larry Kramer passed away at the age of 84 after a battle with pneumonia. Bill Goldstein, a writer who was working on a biography of Kramer, confirmed their death to the media.
Mentioning his death as “the saddest news,” Elton John paid tribute by saying: “We have lost a giant of a man who stood up for gay rights like a warrior. His anger was needed at a time when gay men’s deaths to Aids were being ignored by the American government.”
Further tributes from the arts community flooded in, with Hamilton star Lin-Manuel Miranda on Twitter saying: “What an extraordinary writer, what a life.”
“A true hero that so many people owe their lives to today. I was honoured to spend time in his orbit,” said Robert who starred alongside Mark Ruffalo in the movie adaptation of The Normal Heart.
Kramer’s work as a writer in the 1980s and 1990s is seen as instrumental in changing the US’s national health policy around the AIDS crisis, a disease that Kramer had contracted himself.
He was nominated for an Academy Award for his screenplay for Women In Love, the 1969 adaptation of DH Lawrence’s novel.
