When AIDS was a relatively newly discovered disease, there were a handful of notable celebrity
figures that passed away from the illness, including Rock Hudson In this video, we’ll
be taking a look at some of the most notable celebrities that have passed away from AIDS.
Join Facts Verse as we explore Old Hollywood celebrities who died of AIDS.
Anthony Perkins The first celebrity we’ll be taking a look
at in this video is actor Anthony Perkins.
Of course, Anthony is best known to the public nowadays for his role as the killer in Alfred
Hitchcock’s classic film Psycho.
That killer went by the name of Norman Bates, and he had some serious issues with his mother!
Despite the fact that Anthony’s Psycho role undeniably defines his acting legacy in the
eyes of the public, Anthony was already a widely recognized actor by the time he secured
himself the part of Norman Bates in the classic thriller.
Before playing the role of Norman Bates in Psycho, Anthony had already received a Golden
Globe Award and been nominated for a Tony Award.
While Anthony Perkins wasn’t in love with his mother like the character that he played
in Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho, he did have some aspects of his sexuality that he wasn’t
always keen on sharing with the public.
Like many of the celebrities that we’ll be taking a look at in this video, Anthony
was a bisexual that preferred the company of both men and women over the course of his
lifetime.
One of the many men that Anthony was rumored to have had relations with over the course
of his lifetime was fellow celebrity, Stephen Sondheim.
It’s unclear how exactly Anthony Perkins ended up contracting AIDS, but what is clear
is that the actor did his best to be proactive about the whole ordeal after it happened.
According to the late Anthony Perkins, AIDS was something that was sent by God to help
people learn to be more compassionate towards each other.
After unsuccessfully battling the disease, Anthony Perkins ended up succumbing to AIDS
in 1992.
The cause of death ended up being AIDS-related pneumonia.
Despite the fact that Anthony was bisexual, he was married to a woman at the time of his
death.
Anthony died with his wife at his side, as well as his two sons.
Anthony’s wife was a female photographer by the name of Berry Berenson, and she ended
up dying in the September 11 attacks.
This means that both the husband and wife died of rare and notable causes.
Anthony was only married once over the course of his lifetime, and his and Berry’s kids
are Elvis and Oz.
Freddie Mercury Another notable legend that passed away as
a result of AIDS is Freddie Mercury.
Like Anthony Perkins, Freddie Mercury’s career was defined by one role.
However, that role wasn’t an iconic role on the big screen!
Instead, the role that defined Freddie Mercury’s career was that of the lead singer of the
rock-and-roll band Queen.
Freddie was the face of the band, which rocketed to huge levels of success during the 1970s.
Some of the group's many hit songs include “Bohemian Rhapsody” and “We Will Rock
You”, both of which are arguably just as popular today as they were at the time of
their release.
However, those two songs only represent the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the incredible
amount of great songs that Queen left behind after Freddie’s passing.
The legacy that the rock-and-roll band Queen left behind is doubly notable due to the fact
that their lead singer wasn’t alive for all that long.
Freddie wasn’t all that old when he tragically passed away of AIDS, having been born in 1946
and passed away in 1991.
This made the singer a little over 40 years old, though Queen fans will know that the
band hadn’t scored a hit in quite a while at the time of Freddie’s death.
Because of this, it’s unlikely that the band would’ve gone on to create much more
iconic output if Freddie hadn’t passed away at such an untimely point.
Like the aforementioned Anthony Perkins, Freddie Mercury was a closeted bisexual that carried
on relations with women in public and men behind the scenes.
Freddie was likely a good deal more promiscuous than Anthony Perkins, which makes the fact
that he contracted the disease a good deal less surprising.
Freddie was a rock star through and through, and he led a lifestyle of debauchery and excess
that few other celebrities from the time could match.
Besides having countless affairs with both men and women, Freddie was known for throwing
wild parties that featured such things as little people walking around with trays on
their heads featuring free lines of cocaine for the singer’s guests.
It’s unclear just how long Freddie Mercury knew he was suffering from AIDS before he
let his adoring public know.
However, it seems that the singer kept the information to himself for as long as he possibly
could.
Freddie didn’t decide to announce his illness to the public until his dying days.
Freddie Mercury passed away in 1991, and his passing came only a single day after the signer
had announced the fact that he was suffering from AIDS to the public.
Shortly beforehand, Freddie and his band had released a music video for a song by the name
of “These Are the Days of Our Lives”.
Retrospectively, fans came to look at the song as a dying rock star giving one last
goodbye to his band.
Since his passing, Freddie Mercury has continued to be an incredibly popular figure in popular
music.
Recently, the singer was immortalized in the film Bohemian Rhapsody, which received Academy
Awards recognition and was a big hit with the audience.
In the film, Freddie Mercury was portrayed by actor Rami Malek, from TV’s Mr. Robot.
The film was notably produced by the surviving members of the band Queen, who made sure that
the movie didn’t damage the legacy of Freddie Mercury all that much.
Because of this, the movie ended up leaving out a lot of the sordid details of the singer’s
debaucherous lifestyle, as well as oddly omitting just how much the singer enjoyed romances
with the same sex.
Regardless of whatever sexual preferences the singer and however he liked to spend his
hard-earned fortune, Freddie is a figure that is routinely brought up in conversation when
it comes time to label the best singers of all time.
AIDS may have killed the man, but it only strengthened the legend!
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Rock Hudson Another Old Hollywood figure that passed away
from AIDs is Rock Hudson.
Before his 1985 death from AIDS, Rock was a fading star that was best known to the public,
for his work during Hollywood's Golden Age.
During the 1950s and the 1960s, Rock was one of the biggest male stars there was.
Throughout his early career, Rock got the chance to light up the screen with such beautiful
ladies as Elizabeth Taylor, Julie Andrews, and Doris Day.
Rock and Elizabeth Taylor were said to have been the best of friends, and they remained
friends until Rock's tragic death.
After her longtime friend passed away from AIDS, Elizabeth Taylor ended up dedicating
the remainder of her life to spreading awareness about the disease before her own death in
2011.
Rock had fallen out of the spotlight over the course of his later years, but was given
one last chance to make the public remember him in a positive way when he appeared on
the soap opera Dynasty.
Rock’s role on the program saw him kiss one of the show’s actresses.
After it was announced that Rock had been suffering from AIDS, the public became concerned
that Rock may have passed his illness on to said actress during the filming of the scene.
People didn’t know a whole lot about the disease at that point, apparently.
Rock’s 1985 passing made him one of the very first public figures to pass away from
AIDS.
Despite the fact that Rock got it on with so many leading ladies on the screen, the
actor was actually a closeted homosexual in real life that carried on false relationships
with women as a façade.
Liberace People may look at Liberace nowadays and be
able to identify the performer’s homosexuality in a matter of seconds.
However, there was a time when the performer’s flamboyant way of doing things was just considered
shtick.
Liberace made a name for himself as one of the most interesting performers of his time,
even though the performer based his shows around the rather mundane talent of playing
the classical piano.
In order to spice up his traditional piano performances, Liberace dressed and acted as
crazy as possible.
The public ate it up, and the performer quickly rose to an unprecedented level of fame during
his career.
For a period of time, Liberace was considered to be the highest-paid performer in all of
show business.
The performer’s greatest accomplishment was arguably his time headlining in Las Vegas,
though it’s hard to rank the many periods of Liberace’s fame.
Sadly, things all came crashing down for Liberace when he passed away from AIDS-related pneumonia
in 1987.
At the time of his death, the public still wasn’t totally aware of Liberace’s closeted
homosexuality.
There had been rumors for many years that Liberace had sexual preferences that he wanted
to keep away from the public.
However, it seems that the performer did a pretty good job overall of keeping his homosexuality
known to only a select few.
There were times when rumors persisted about the performer, which resulted in Liberace
taking said rumor starters to court for libel.
Liberace filed numerous libel lawsuits over the course of his lifetime, all of which were
started up by the performer in an effort to mask his homosexuality.
The performer’s 1987 death made him one of the first public figures after Rock Hudson
to pass away from the then-recently discovered disease known as AIDS.
These performers represent the most well-known Old Hollywood celebrities that passed away
from AIDS.
Now it’s time to hear from you: did you know that Rock Hudson was one of the first
celebrities to pass away from AIDS and that the actor was a closeted homosexual that carried
on façade relationships with women?
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