JOHN BENJAMIN HICKEY

FILE - This May 12, 2014 file photo shows playwright Larry Kramer at the premiere of HBO Films' "The Normal Heart" in New York. Kramer, the playwright whose angry voice and pen raised theatergoers consciousness about AIDS and roused thousands to militant protests in the early years of the epidemic, died Wednesday, May 27, 2020 in Manhattan of pneumonia. Please know that AIDS is a worldwide plague. Kramer, whose angry voice and pen raised consciousness about AIDS and roused thousands to action, died Wednesday at 84. As support for AIDS research increased, he found some common ground with health officials whom ACT UP had criticized.

FILE - In this Dec. 10, 2014 file photo, playwright Larry Kramer attends Acria's 19th Annual Holiday Dinner Benefit in New York. (Photo by Donald Traill/Invision/AP, File)NEW YORK Larry Kramer, the playwright whose angry voice and pen raised theatergoers consciousness about AIDS and roused thousands to militant protests in the early years of the epidemic, has died at 84. Bill Goldstein, a writer who was working on a biography of Kramer, confirmed the news to The Associated Press. Kramer's husband, David Webster, told The New York Times that Kramer died of pneumonia on Wednesday. But for many years he was best known for his public fight to secure medical treatment, acceptance and civil rights for people with AIDS.