Larry Kramer was an American writer, producer, and activist.

His first job in Hollywood was as a Teletype operator at Columbia Pictures, which led to a position in the studio’s story department doing rewrites and polishes on scripts.

Kramer would go on to receive an Academy Award nomination in 1971 for Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium, for his work on Women in Love.

Though he is perhaps best known as a trailblazing gay rights and AIDS activist, expressing his frustration with the deadly epidemic by writing the play The Normal Heart (1985) and becoming a beacon to an entire community.

In 2014, he received a Primetime Emmy nomination for Outstanding Writing for a Miniseries, Movie or a Dramatic Special for HBO movie based on his play, The Normal Heart.

Kramer died May 27, 2020, in Manhattan, New York. He was 84.