Coco Hernandez: [the girls are fighting over Leroy]
"You know what they say? The darker the berry, the sweeter the juice."
Hilary van Doren: "Yes, but who wants diabetes?"
Amazingly it is five years to the day since the death of Gene Anthony Ray, most famously known as Leroy in both Fame the movie and the TV series.
Always the "naughty boy", on screen and off, Leroy was THE dancer amongst the Kids. With his ultra tight shorts and cheeky smile, I had a massive crush on him in what I continually refer to as my "wilderness years" before I came out!
Unfortunately the adage "Fame Hurts" proved to be all too true for Gene. Drink and drugs played a huge part in his life, and after he was sacked from the TV show for continually turning up late for recordings he never attained that level of success again, struggling to get parts in music videos and commercials.
Never out nor "outed", he sadly died very young (he was only 41) of a stroke. It was implied, but never proved, that his early death was as a result of complications of being HIV+. And in his obituaries, it was observed "he never married".
A sad end for a beautiful man.
Gene Anthony Ray obituary in The Times
No comments:
Post a Comment
Please leave a message - I value your comments!
[NB Bear with me if there is a delay - thanks to spammers I might need to approve comments]