Larry Kramer Biography

Fast Facts

• Shortlisted for a Pulitzer Prize for his 1992 work, The Destiny of Me
• Established the Larry Kramer Initiative for Lesbian and Gay Studies at Yale University in 1997, with financial help from his older brother
• Helped co-found ACT UP, the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power
• Helped establish the Gay Men's Health Crisis in the early '80s after several close friends began to die from HIV/AIDS
• Earned his bachelor's degree in English from Yale University in 1957
• Learned that he was HIV positive while undergoing hernia surgery in 1988 and eventually received a new liver in 2001
• Earned his first job in the entertainment industry at 23-years-old, working as a Teletype operator at Columbia Pictures
• Quote: "It's about speaking up, being mean if you have to․ You don't get more with honey than with vinegar․"
• Briefly hoped to write for various theater productions, but later discounted the idea after his first play folded shortly after opening
• After visiting Dachau concentration camp overseas, he would soon be inspired to write The Normal Heart