Michael Kearns

Biography

Michael Kearns(born January 8, 1950, in St. Louis, Missouri) is an American actor, writer, director, teacher, producer, and activist. He is noted for being one of the first openly gay actors, and after an announcement on Entertainment Tonight in 1991, the first openly HIV-positive actor in Hollywood. Kearns attended the Goodman School of Drama in Chicago before moving to Los Angeles in 1972, where he has maintained a successful mainstream film and television career alongside an extensive theatrical involvement for over 25 years. He has been actively engaged in the Los Angeles art and political communities, incorporating activism into his theater works. Kearns co-founded Artists Confronting AIDS in 1984 and is a current commissioner of Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG).