Michael Kearns, the actor and AIDS activist who portrayed Hal in several 1996 episodes of “Beverly Hills, 90210” and was one of the first openly gay actors in Hollywood, died Monday, Oct. 5, 2026, at 76. No cause of death has been released.
Kearns is survived by his daughter, Katherine, whom he adopted in 1995 as a single parent and stayed close to throughout his life. His work stretched across film, television, theater and literature, much of it drawn from the struggles of the LGBTQ+ community, and news of his death has left friends and colleagues across that community in mourning.
Friends Confirm the News
Several of Kearns’ friends confirmed his death. Performance artist Tim Miller, who had known him since 1984, posted a tribute on Facebook. “I am mourning my beloved Michael Kearns,” Miller wrote, calling him one of a kind.
Filmmaker Roland Palencia, a friend and neighbor, said in a social media tribute that Kearns had been in and out of emergency rooms more than five times over a three-month period. Palencia said Kearns texted him just after 6:30 p.m. from the hospital the night before he died, saying doctors were running tests and that he expected to be there all night. Kearns died at 8:45 p.m. on Oct. 5.
From St. Louis to Hollywood
Born in St. Louis, Kearns studied acting at Chicago’s Goodman School of Drama before moving to Los Angeles. He was discovered by Tom Eyen, the book writer of “Dreamgirls,” and spent the 1970s and ’80s appearing in Eyen’s camp-theater extravaganzas and on series television. His screen credits included “Murder, She Wrote,” “Knots Landing,” “Days of Our Lives,” “Body Double,” “The Fall Guy” and “The Waltons.”
When actor Rock Hudson died of AIDS in 1985, Kearns was then Hollywood’s only openly gay actor and the media’s go-to person for sound bites. Six years later, after “Midnight Express” star Brad Davis died of AIDS in 1991, Kearns became the industry’s go-to voice again — this time as the only openly gay and HIV-positive actor willing to talk.
Breaking the Silence on HIV
Kearns disclosed his own HIV diagnosis publicly in 1991, a decision credited with helping to destigmatize HIV and AIDS at a moment when few public figures spoke openly about either. “HIV is nothing to be ashamed of,” he told the Bay Area Reporter that year, adding that staying quiet would, for him, signal shame or fear.
In 1986 he directed playwright Robert Chesley’s “Jerker,” a work about two gay men falling in love. After portions of the play were broadcast on the Los Angeles radio station KPFK-FM, the airing drew national outrage and a warning from the Federal Communications Commission. Kearns later told the Los Angeles Times that the episode marked the beginning of a censorship of queer work that, in his view, had never stopped.
A Life in Queer Theater
Kearns starred in playwright James Carroll Pickett’s “Dream Man” and “Bathhouse Benediction,” performed his own solo works “Intimacies” and “Rock,” and produced and directed AIDS-related ensemble pieces such as “AIDS/US” and “Jerker.” With Pickett, he cofounded the Southland Theatre Artists Goodwill Event (STAGE) in 1984, which became the country’s oldest continual AIDS benefit. He also founded the collectives Artists Confronting AIDS and QueerWise, and he authored two books.
In 2007 he received the L.A. Weekly Queen of the Angels theater award. He lived in Los Feliz, in an apartment appointed with crucifixes he custom-made bearing the images of rebels and gay icons. Alongside the stage work, he taught Express Yourself workshops on Skid Row, volunteered at the Downtown Women’s Center and the Lamp Community, led acting classes in Silver Lake and worked with the archival One Institute to make the work of gay and lesbian writers and performers available on YouTube and other websites.
Kearns married Philip Juwig in 1992; Juwig died that same year. Three years later he adopted Katherine. He had been due back at the Celebration Theatre in Los Angeles for a tribute to LGBTQIA+ theater history, a performance his death preceded by six days.