Larry Kramer, playwright and AIDS activist, dies at 84

Bruce Jay Friedman, an Oscar-nominated screenwriter, popular playwright and author known for the wry comedy and subtle pathos of such novels as Stern and About Harry Towns and for his scripts for Splash and Stir Crazy, has died. He was 90.

Bruce Jay Friedman, novelist and screenwriter who earned an Oscar nomination for the screenplay of the Tom Hanks film “Splash,” died Wednesday at the age of 90, his son told The New York Times. The cause of death is not yet known.

By Bruce Haring

By Dave McNary

By Greg Evans

Beloved Nigerian reggae star Majek Fashek has died at age 57.

Fashek had been battling serious illness in New York

John McCormack, who nurtured emerging writers, directors, actors and designers on the New York not-for-profit theater scene for nearly four decades, has died. He was 61.

By Greg Evans

Herbert Stempel, the contestant on NBC’s “Twenty-One” who helped uncover the quiz show rigging scandals of the 1950s, died on April 7 at the age of 93.

Larry Kramer in 2010 (Photo: David Shankbone)

The likes of Mark Ruffalo, Joe Biden and Lin-Manuel Miranda have also honoured Kramer's life and career

NEW YORK -- Time never softened the urgency of Larry Kramer’s demands.

NEW YORK -- Reaction to the death of Larry Kramer, the AIDS activist and playwright who turned his fury into mass protests and helped raise the profile of the disease:

NEW YORK — Larry Kramer, an author, playwright and film producer who helped shape U.S. healthcare policy with his early advocacy of a national response to AIDS when it first emerged in the 1980s, died on Wednesday at 84.

Hollywood stars and public figures took to social media on Wednesday to pay tribute to Larry Kramer, the Oscar-nominated screenwriter, playwright, author and trailblazing gay rights and AIDS activist who died Wednesday of pneumonia. He was 84.

By Jazz Tangcay

Larry Kramer, the Oscar-nominated screenwriter, playwright, author and trailblazing gay rights and AIDS activist best known for the Tony Award-winning The Normal Heart, has died. He was 84.

Larry Kramer, the famed playwright and AIDS activist, has died. He was 84.

By Marc Malkin