Michael Kearns, Actor, Activist and ‘Jerker’ Director, Dies at 76

Michael Kearns, an actor and director who handled the world premiere of Jerker, a play about gay men that sparked controversy in 1986, has died at 76. The play about two gay men who fall in love over a phone-sex line was controversial in 1986. Michael Kearns, an actor who appeared in Body Double, Cheers and Beverly Hills, 90210 and directed the world premiere of Robert Chesley’s Jerker, a play about two gay men that generated controversy in 1986, has died. He was 76. Kearns died Monday, his friend Karen Ocamb reported. The cause of death was not immediately available. Kearns came out as gay in the mid-1970s during an era of extreme homophobia, then went on NBC in 1991 to announce that he was HIV positive a week after Midnight Express actor Brad Davis died of AIDS — but had kept his health issues a secret so he could keep working.

“I’m doing this for all people with HIV,” he told Ocamb back then. “HIV is nothing to be ashamed of. For me to remain silent indicates shame or fear on some level.” Kearns was set to appear on Sunday (National Coming Out Day) at the Celebration Theatre in Los Angeles to reprise selections from Jerker alongside friend and colleague Joe Gill. A post on the theater’s Facebook page