Keith Christopher

Keith Christopher (April 27, 1957 – February 23, 1998)

Biography Originally from the Pacific Northwest, Christopher performed in Broadway tours across the country, Off-Broadway, and in many of New York's premier clubs and cabarets.

Christopher was diagnosed with HIV in 1982, after he had started inexplicably bruising and bleeding while on the road in The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, where he played a dancing football player. The doctors initially believed he had leukemia, but it turned out to be ITP – a platelet deficiency often associated with HIV. With Christopher's foremost love for music, he sang backup for his fellow singer/PWA, Michael Callen, who died of AIDS related complications in 1993.

By 1995, Christopher was extremely ill and made an agreement with God that if he got out of the hospital, he would devote his life to AIDS education and awareness. Christopher made television history in 1995 when he portrayed the first openly gay, HIV-positive character, Bruce, on network television on NBC's soap opera Another World. The news of an openly HIV positive character being portrayed by an openly HIV positive actor led to Christopher appearing on various talk shows, such as The Sally Jesse Raphael Show, as well as public-speaking engagements at colleges.

In the period spanning from late 1995 to 1996, Christopher moved on to appearing in the CBS daytime drama The Guiding Light. He played another HIV positive, gay character, Wyatt Sanders – a HIV counselor who supported a series-regular through her testing and diagnosis. At the time of his death, Christopher's debut album Naked Truth was near completion. The instrumental and backup tracks of some songs on this release were completed after his death and the album was then posthumously released by Significant Other Records later that year.

Filmography Another World (NBC) – 1995 Guiding Light (CBS) – 1995–1996

Discography

Albums 1998: Naked Truth