Ian Charleson - Death

Death

Charleson, who was gay, was diagnosed with HIV in 1986, and died of AIDS-related causes in January 1990 at the age of 40. He died eight weeks after performing the title role in a run of Hamlet, in Richard Eyre's production at the Olivier Theatre. Fellow actor and friend, Sir Ian McKellen, said that Charleson played Hamlet so well it was as if he had rehearsed the role all his life.

Charleson requested that it be announced after his death that he had died of AIDS, in order to publicize the condition. This unusual decision by a major internationally known actor — the first show business death in the United Kingdom openly attributed to complications from AIDS — helped promote awareness of HIV and AIDS and acceptance of AIDS patients.

Charleson is buried in Portobello Cemetery, Edinburgh.

Read more about this topic:  Ian Charleson

Famous quotes containing the word death:

    The death clock is ticking slowly in our breast, and each drop of blood measures its time, and our life is a lingering fever.
    Georg Büchner (1813–1837)

    Yet the wound, O see the wound
    This petrified heart has taken,
    Because, created deathless,
    Nothing but death remained
    To scatter magnificence....
    Philip Larkin (1922–1986)

    Because men really respect only that which was founded of old and has developed slowly, he who wants to live on after his death must take care not only of his posterity but even more of his past.
    Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)