Aldyn Mckean

Aldyn Mckean (August 7, 1948 - February 28, 1994) was a singer, actor and advocate for gay rights and the rights of people with AIDS.

Early life Aldyn Mckean was born John Baldwin McKean in Troy, Pennsylvania and raised in Lewiston, Idaho. He attended Harvard University, class 1970, where he performed with the university's Gilbert and Sullivan Players. At Harvard he joined the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) and among other campaigns, he lobbied and obtained the elimination of the ROTC program and the establishment of the Department of African American Studies. After graduation in 1971 he served a tour of duty in Vietnam as an infiltrator of the SDS.

Career As an actor, Mckean appeared in the film Voices From the Front, a feature-length documentary on AIDS activism in America created by the video collective Testing the Limits, and in the Broadway production The Robber Bridegroom.

Legacy Aldyn McKean papers (1974–1994) are hosted at the New York Public Library, Archives & Manuscripts.