Michael Kearns

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. In 1984, along with playwright James Carroll Pickett, he co-founded Artists Confronting Aids (ACA), and is a current commissioner of Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG).

Author Assuming the identity of fictitious author "Grant Tracy Saxon" Kearns intitially posed as having written Warner Books' The Happy Hustler (actually by Thom Racina) and was extensively involved in interviews and publicity for that 1975 book which included nude photographs of him. In reality, Kearns is a regular contributor to a number of magazines and newspapers, including the Frontiers, Los Angeles Times, L.A. Parent, IN Magazine, and L.A. Weekly. He is also author of five theatre books: T-Cells & Sympathy, Acting = Life, The Solo Performer's Journey, Getting Your Solo Act Together, and Life Expectancies. Both T-Cells & Sympathy and Acting = Life were nominated for Lambda Literary Awards. He presently lives in Los Angeles with his daughter who was born in 1994. Make Love Not War, that premiered in 2005. The COLA performances "represent a non-thematic cross section of very current work by some of Los Angeles' best artists," according to Noel Korten, Curator and Director of Exhibitions of the Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery.

His two widely lauded solo theatre pieces, Intimacies and More Intimacies, in which he portrays a dozen culturally diverse people with HIV/AIDS, were produced in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Portland, Eugene, Minneapolis, Santa Barbara, San Antonio, Austin, San Diego, St. Louis, Tucson, Phoenix, Washington D.C., New York City, San Diego, Hartford, New Haven, Northampton, Sydney (Australia), Liverpool, London, and Manchester (England). In addition to other solo performance pieces (including The Truth Is Bad Enough, Attachments, Rock), and Tell Tale Kisses, Kearns has written several full-length plays: Myron, Mijo, Robert's Memorial, Who's Afraid of Edward Albee?, Blessings, Barriers, and the lyrics for Homeless, A Street Opera.

As a director Kearns directed and co-produced the Artists Confronting AIDS' landmark productions of AIDS/US in 1986, AIDS/US II in 1990, and AIDS/US/TEENS in 1994. He served as artistic director of Celebration Theatre for their 1986–87 season and of Artists Confronting AIDS for a decade, from 1984 to 1994. "An actor giving the performance of his life," said Richard Shelton, theater reviewer for the Los Angeles Times. In addition to winning a Drama-Logue Award and a Robby Award, he was nominated by the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle for Lead Performance. and originated the role of Christopher, on stage and on video, in Pickett's Dream Man (which has played New York City, San Francisco, Des Moines, L.A., Portland, Washington D.C., Atlanta, Edinburgh, Düsseldorf, Frankfurt, and London). Two revivals of James Carroll Pickett's Dream Man (with American actor Jimmy Shaw) were directed by Kearns: at Madrid's DT Espacio Escenico as part of the Festival Version Original (2005) and the Dublin Gay Theatre Festival (2007).

Television and film Long before coming out of the closet was considered a career move in the entertainment industry, Kearns was the first Hollywood actor on record to come out in the mid-seventies, amidst a shocking amount of homophobia.

1989: Bay Area Theater Civics Award.

1993: Won a Drama-Logue and a Robby Award for his performance in Camille and was nominated by the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle for Lead Performance.