Did Brad Davis get AIDS from drug use?

From both, probably.%0D %0D Yes, he was happily married but I'm sure wandered off and had sex with guys from time to time.

test

It was from both. Read "After Midnight."

Did he do anything noteworthy besides 'Midnight Express'?

R4, see Querelle.

Thanks, R5.

He was so beautiful

Indeed - he was hawt. Querelle is a hot mess - but lots of gay sex and Brad is just smoking in it.

He was in "How to Survive a Marriage."

He wasn't beautiful, R7, he wasn't what one would call handsome, either. But he was damned sexy.

Michael Sarrazin was beautiful, Brad Davis was sexy.

Hot -

Davis was notoriously bi-sexual, which of course means he was most likely gay as a Christmas goose.

I love Fassbinder. Querelle was his Marnie, but even more artificial and stylized and emotionally distancing.

Not to everyone's tastes but not without interest for fans of Fassbinder, Davis, or Jeanne Moreau.

I first saw him in Sybil, thought he was so sexy.

Unfortunately, most heroin addicts succum to AIDS. A damn shame that Brad Davis became a heroin drug user, because he was so handsome and talented.

his ex-wife made a point of always saying he got it from drug use (probably to justify her being married to him)%0D %0D if you were doing both iv drugs and gay sex in the 80's...I'm not sure how you could really determine where you got infected

R16= didn't bother to read the rest of the thread.

I won't believe he's gay until I hear it directly from the man himself. Since he cannot speak for himself, there's only one conclusion that can be made: straight. Gavel down.

was Rock Hudson gay r19?

R19- he was openly bisexual, dear.

I remember him from ROOTS. He played Old George, a poor farmer who befriended Tom Harvey (George Stanford Brown), one of the slaves.

Lotsa pics of him here. Sex.

This is my periodic opportunity to relate my experience of meeting Mr. Davis, both of us completely naked, in a very small sauna at Harvard's Blodgett Pool in the late 1970's. He was beautiful. Our conversation revealed that he was at the university to film "A Small Circle of Friends."

There was a third party to the encounter that Brad had his eyes on: a very handsome undergraduate athlete. After chatting for a while about his career, I left, realizing that I had no chance.

Any Harvard grads out there who remember the cruisy, tiny sauna at the Blodgett? The university eventually removed it ...

He probably got it the same way most people got it.

How, r25? By using the public toilet at the mall?

He was beautiful, and pure sex.

He did a Joe Orton play in the Village, Entertaining Mr. Sloan. He replaced Maxwell Caulfield. Only a couple of years before he died. I saw it with Caulfield and remember that he flashed his cock during a scene where he took his pants off. I assume Brad did the same.

After reading about Querelle in this thread, I watched it for the first time. It was a hot mess, like watching the set ups to a collection of porn flicks. But Davis was sex personified.

What is Querelle about?

Can someone start a thread about taxi zum klo? I see it is out on video and would like to know everyone's thoughts.

He was hot sex! Just rugged and manly and yet was truly sensitive with some of his portrays on screen and tv.

With OP it is like one of those chicken and the egg situations with how he got AIDS. It was obviously either from iv drug use or having unprotected sex with either ladies or gentlemen (since he was bi).

"what is Querelle about"

Okay flyover, I want yo to get off DL. Here is your chance to learn something about queer culture that you won't find on Bravo. Go to google and type G- E-N-E-T. Report back to us.

Was he in Taxi Zum Klo?

R26, from mosquito bites.

He always was wide open for a knuckle fuck, as he would describe sex with another man. You'll notice there was never any talk of him being with another woman, because he was always opening his ass for another man. BD was bi-sexual, he was omni-sexual so long as it was with another guy.

Boze Hadleigh closed his interview with Brad Davis with a description of Davis heading to the men's room to await Miss Hadleigh's joining him.

I got to spend some time with him when he did the benefit one-night staging of "the Normal Heart." He was totally professional, friendly, flirty and so short!

Opening his ass. What a lovely turn of phrase.

R39- indeed. Sigh. How I would have loved to open his ass.

He was one hot mess, one of the most fucked up actors I ever heard of.%0D %0D His wife was a plain, somewhat overweight Jewish casting director named Susan Bluestein. She wrote a very good book about her life with him called "After Midnight." It not only gives the reader a good look at what he was really about but also depicts the workings of Hollywood very well. It's very interesting to hear her talk about his career and how he was suddenly a hot property and then just as quickly became a has been. %0D %0D He came from an old Southern family right out of a Tennessee Williams play. His father, Eugene "Doodle" Davis was an alcoholic. His mother was mentally ill and in love with her son, sexually molesting him and insisting they share a bed. When he was a teenager he refused to sleep with her anymore and that caused her to have a mental breakdown. %0D %0D He was compulsively promiscuous, a drug addict and an alcoholic. He lost most of his looks fairly early. He started losing his hair in his twenties and got hairplugs to cover it up. %0D %0D Bluestein insists that he was not gay. She concedes that he probably did some hustling in his starving actor days, but that he didn't go for sex with men. He was just one of those straight men who like to hang out with gay guys and is very comfortable with them. A textbook case of a woman deep in denial.

Rue McClanahan claimed she had sex with him in public! I think he had the same drug-induced sexual appetite that Colin Farrell has/had.

Did Arthur Ashe really get AIDS from a blood transfusion? Was there ever a lawsuit over it?

That bastinado scene in Midnight Express was one of my earliest sexual fabtasies as a kid. I used to repeat it with my Superman/Batman dolls. %0D %0D Brad Davis had beautiful feet.

r42, if drugs can explain Davis' sexual appetite, then what explains Rue McClanahan's - there were two having sex in public, you know.

Hot! I wonder if Tom Bianchi shagged him.

Bluestein admitted that Brad was living with a cross-dressing hustler when she met him, yet she continually states he was straight in her book. DEEP denial...

I knew 2 guys, r43, who claimed to have sex with Arthur Ashe in the early 80s. They both died of AIDS-related illnesses.

I would've licked up every AIDS-riddled drop.

Beautiful, talented actor. RIP Brad.

Yes, his wife made a point in the book that she was writing it so their child would know her father. (His father?-It's been a while since I read it.) Anyway, I kept thinking while reading it that there were aspects to Davis's life that his wife wouldn't and couldn't accept. He reminded me of one of my old roommates--when he was sober, he'd dream of living the "normal" life with his wife and daughters. But he was usually drunk and wired--and living with me.

Gay actor Ian Chrleson (who also had--and died from--AIDS), was shocked when Davis came on to him in a very open and forward manner, when they were making "Chariots of Fire". Supposedly Charleson was very attracted to Davis, but he didn't take him up on his proposition because he was so shocked by Davis' casual and open 'approach'.

[quote]what is Querelle about

It's based on a little-known Jane Austen novel of the same name. Georges Querelle (the part played by Brad Davis in the Fassbender adaptation), a wealthy and handsome newcomer from Brest, refuses to come to tea to meet his neighbors in Derbyshire, the Seblons. The spirited heroine, young Caroline Seblon, must learn to master her emotions near this proud young Regency buck, and extract a proposal of marriage from him. It's a delightful comedy of manners and courtship.

OMG, r52!

To answer your question, OP: Yes he did, and the drug he chose was semen.

"Supposedly Charleson was very attracted to Davis, but he didn't take him up on his proposition because he was so shocked by Davis' casual and open 'approach'."%0D %0D %0D %0D %0D Details, please! %0D

"Supposedly Charleson was very attracted to Davis, but he didn't take him up on his proposition because he was so shocked by Davis' casual and open 'approach'."

Obviously Davis wiggled his ass and said, "YUM!" loudly in Charleson's presence, indicating his mussy had become moistened.

LOL, R57.

Those brazen Americans!

His brother Gene was hot. You can see his ass at 1:41 at the link. He's in the extra features of the "Cruising" dvd. He's put on some weight.

I jacked off to him in "Chiefs" numerous times.

Brad was a friend. I met him during the production of NAOMI COURT, an off-Broadway play where Brad played the hustler from hell. That was in 1974. Brad got his start in soap operas.

We stayed friends until he died. He was actually very shy and sweet. Unfortunately, drugs were his undoing.

r61, was he gay?

I loved Midnight Express.

Brunhilda FlyoverFrauFish at R31... please go on

As has been reported, Brad was bisexual. His drug use was intimately involved with his sexuality.

Brad Davis and his wife had one child, a girl they named Alexandra. Davis wrote his only child a beautiful letter to be read after his death (he didn't leave his wife one) telling her how much he loved her and how he would always be with her in spirit and would be waiting for her on the other side. The child had behavioral problems, due to the volatile nature of her parent's relationship and her father's chronic, fatal illness.

Well, guess what? Alexandra Davis is now ALEX Davis. Yes, the little girl grew up to be a transgendered man. He has videos on YouTube promoting his music (he's a singer/songwriter) and has a show called "Man of the Year." If Susan Bluestein Davis was in denial about her husband's bi-sexuality, then how did she react when her daughter told her she intended to become a man? I'd like to know.

R65, bad parenting will do that to you!

I saw Brad do 'The Normal Heart' in its original production downtown. It was very powerful, much more so than the recent Broadway production which I also saw. Since both he and Larry Kramer got AIDS, I always wondered if Brad slept with Larry in the 80's. Larry had pursued me as well in that period...I'm so glad I didn't let anything come of it.

I remember Blodgett pool, but I never got any action there.

[quote]Since both he and Larry Kramer got AIDS, I always wondered if Brad slept with Larry in the 80's.

You're retarded.

Butt sex.

Davis's role as Jackson Scholz in Chariots of Fire was a small but crucial one, and he did it brilliantly. Ian Charleston, who played Eric Liddell, also died of AIDS.

R67: Yes, since they were the only two men in Manhattan at that time with HIV, your sleuthing skills are impeccable!

Brad Davis was gay. He did drugs as well. Love someone calling him "notoriously bisexual". You know my younger brother is rumored to be "nortoriously heterosexual" and for years it has been known by my family and friends that I am "notoriously homosexual".

Brad Davis was a confused messed up fellow with substance abuse issues as well. But I would call him gay, not even bisexual. I saw him around town etc a lot in the late 70s early 80s and he was GAY. He was cute- hotter on film that in person. He was small and a bit messy is my recollection

His life was a sad one basically.

As for R43 and R48- to my knowledge- and I knew a couple people who knew Ashe well, Vitas Gerilitis (sp?) among them- he was not gay- or bisexual. He was your typical jock professional athlete when it came to women- he like models- very beautiful young women and he dated them- a lot. Ashe had a congenital hyperlipidemia that necessitated triple or quadruple bypass surgery before the blood supply was protected from HIV. This happened in his mid thirties- to an elite athlete. His father died of a heart attack in his early 40s.

Virtually every person with hemophelia over a 5-10 year period before HIV was screened in the blood supply got infected. And many others like Ashe. Talk about bad luck.

Now the old IAB pool at Harvard. I did get action there. But not at Blodgett, nor at the infamous Adams House pool where there was nude swimming.

He messed around with the late Timothy Patrick Murphy (Search for Tomorrow, Dallas) who also died of AIDS in 1988. I knew Tim and Brad's type was exactly his type. I think Tim was also mixed up with former soaper Michael Corbett.

Wow, charlie, you're really something. Now you claim to know more about Brad Davis than even a friend of his did. What a marvel.

I really preferred you when you were holding forth on Streisand. At least you were funny then.

I chew on used condoms I find in New Gingrich's stool samples.

I dunno- perhaps the friend is full of shit?

On the other hand I do not recall anyone on this thread identifying as his friend claiming he was not gay. David has sex with at least on person I knew quite well- and as I said- he was not stranger to NYC gay bars and clubs in the late 70s early 80s. Guess he was doing research, huh? He was assumed by everyone I knew to be doing essentially what we were going. And in at least one case I know of, he was.

"Davis had"

r33 What does ignorance of Genet have to do with geography? "Flyover"? Some of you NYC cunts are ignorant beyond belief.

Saying that Rue and Brad had sex in public paints a picture of them doing it in the road or on a subway. I think what Rue wrote in her bio was that they had sex a couple of times in her backyard and they made so much noise that some of her neighbors might have looked out their windows to see what was going on.

Can we assume that he was hung? I seem to remember the sight of a very nice package running towards me near the beginning of Midnight Express.

Thanks, Charlie. Your responses are always spot on. How do I know? In fact, we had a few good friends in common back in the day, a few NYC dancers and admin types and one very crazed but dear queen from AO. And I'll leave it at that.

Realizing that these and other responses are yours and that you do indeed know of which you write, has always been a kick. The naysayers have their heads up their own asses.

You're exactly right about Brad Davis. Met him any number of times with a very close friend of Larry's who I worked once with.

Take care, Charlie. Sorry about those Streisand records all those many years ago.

I know Father picked it up from a public toilet.

Brad used to visit Basic Plumbing in LA frequently (a bath).

Why is it 'retarded' to suggest that Brad used the casting couch to secure the part of Ned Weeks? If Gwyneth Paltrow would sleep with Harvey Weinstein, you think it's absolutely outside the realm of possibility that Brad Davis might sleep with Larry Kramer? Brad wasn't the greatest actor in the world, you know. There would have been plenty of actors at the time who would have loved to do the part.

I just think it is sadistic to write any words that cause anyone to think of Larry Kramer naked.

Always thought Davis was a cute one.

I don't know if Brad Davis could accurately be called gay. He was a sex addict. He'd do anything male or female. Who knows if he preferred men? But he sure liked being with gay men and fucking them.

R88, he always struck me as one who wanted to get screwed.

As usual charlie is full of nothing but total bullshit.

Brad Davis was bisexual and he was into drugs and either unprotected sex or IV drug use and sharing needles made him HIV+.

its almost impossible to get aids from a woman!

R91 take your HIV/AIDS denialism and shove it up your ass.

Try telling all of the heterosexual men worldwide who got HIV from having sex with women that it's somehow impossible for a man to get HIV from a woman.

Then again I'm sure you're one of those people who thinks that it's impossible for a raw Top having sex with a man to get HIV.

in this country r92 africa is a cursed continent

Brad shows nice bulge in tight white pants at the beginning of this clip from QUERELLE:

Cool thread!

I was thinking Brad's wife knew he liked men. I have her book but it's been years since I've read it.

Miss Davis got "AID$" the same way everyone else 'gets' it - from the overuse of pharma and rec drugs.

Any Gossip on hot blonde actor Biff Warren? he died of aids but don't know anything else

!!! Miss R84! During the 'golden age' in LA (1978-1984) we practically LIVED at Basic Plumbing on Fairfax! Mary! The magnificent sizemeats(over 8x6) and horsemeats (over 9x7) we feasted on ,,,and NO rubbers!...we are getting 'the vapors' just thinking about it!

How R99 lived to tell the tale is a mystery to me.

Either she got lucky, got meds at the right time, or is making it up as she goes along.

It's hard to believe that Mrs. Patrick Campbell never heard any gossip about Keanu Reeves.

What a talent! Beautiful, vulnerable, sexy... is there a filmed version of his doing "Entertaining Mr. Sloan?"

Brad's ashes are stored here.

If R24 is still around, would you care to describe his nude package?

[quote]It was from both. Read "After Midnight."

You mean it could have been from either.

He only got it from one of the two, though we don't know which. You only get seroconverted once.

On a an denialist board some woman wrote this after her positive test:

"I was immediately referred to an infectious disease doctor. He tested me again and the result came back positive. He also tested my husband who was inexplicably positive. Although a thorough physical examination failed to show any signs of ill‑health‑we both felt fine and all our other blood tests, including T cells and viral load, did not indicate otherwisewe were both advised to begin drug therapy I was told to take AZT for the remainder of my pregnancy while he was told to take the cocktails. Nothing seemed to add up‑we have been together for many years, completely monogamous, are exceptionally healthy (my husband runs 4‑5 miles a day and competes in marathons) and we have no risk factors."

Oh honey, it's not inexplicable and your hubby was not monogamous.

While reading her book it was pretty clear she did not have a clue.

he was supposedly constantly drunk while filming Sybil....caused Sally a great deal of stress

He had an affair with Jill Clayburg? The wife hints at that in the book and mentions an "awful" phone call from Clayburg after the obituary appeared.

Did Clayburg have AIDS too?

Not even bothering with reading the thread. Answer to drugs causing it, um...no. Emphatic no. Undoubtedly wished some morons to believe it but got it the old fashioned way.

During the filming of "Unspeakable Acts" (a tv movie about child molestation) Jill Clayburgh and Brad Davis were always going off together to...what? They spent a lot of time together, and judging from a freaked-out phone call Clayburgh made to Susan Davis after Brad died, I don't think they spent all that time going over their lines.

No doubt they had an affair. Brad must have won over Clayburgh with charisma and sex appeal, because his physical appearance at the time was not good. In fact, in that movie he looked downright terrible; very sickly and unwell.

He was unbelievably sexy in Midnight Express, and even though his body was still great in Querelle, his face started to show the decline of drug abuse.

Everyone here keeps describing him as small. How tall was he in real life?

He did heorin and fucked anything that moved. Chances are he was exposed to HIV multiple ways. How he got the virus is a ludicrous question.

It's a valid question r113 since the wife INSISTS he got it from drug use.

A valid question?--he fucked everything and did drugs. His wife can say whatever she wants but she's no Oracle o dismissed from the beginning.f Delphi. It's a stupid question and his wife's opinion was m

[quote]Everyone here keeps describing him as small. How tall was he in real life?

IMDB says that he was 5'9", but he was shorter than I am, and I'm 5'7". I would guess he was about 5'5".

I shared earlier in the thread that he was a friend. I didn't share that he slept with my ex, a producer in Los Angeles. I wasn't upset - my ex slept with lots of my friends, that was his nature - and Brad never mentioned it.

This is the Brad that I will always remember.

Hard to believe he'd have been 65 this month.

He got it from a dentist in Atlanta.

Billy Boy hugs, bro. (Ok, ok hugs to all of you, jealous bitches!)

Brad Davis was so hot and such a great actor. What a pity he died so soon. Life and her bitchy ways!

"Did he do anything noteworthy besides 'Midnight Express'?"

He originated the role of Ned in "The Normal Heart"

[quote]he was supposedly constantly drunk while filming Sybil....caused Sally a great deal of stress

Sally Field popularized Sybil the greatest miscarriage of mental health ever.

She should be sued and be begging everyone for forgiveness for playing this liar.

Any chance Brad Davis gave Ian Charlston aids? They did Chariots of Fire together in 1981, Davis was diagnosed in 85 and Charlston was diagnosed in 86.

I’m watching a baaad TV movie called Vengeance on Amazon Prime, and I decided to look up some gossip on Davis and found this thread. Billy Boy’s posts are so poignant and sad.

Tragic to think of all the lives cut short by this illness just because they were exposed to it at the wrong time. I’m relieved that my boyfriend, who is HIV+, didn’t seroconvert earlier than he did, or he wouldn’t be alive today. I’m also glad I’m a top, because I was as compulsively promiscuous as Brad Davis was said to be, before I met my boyfriend.

Anyhoo... the movie Vengeance is kind of a hoot for all the wrong reasons. Frances McDormand is also in it.

I should add that Vengeance is from 1986, but Brad looks perfectly healthy and sexy in it. Maybe not Midnight Express sexy, but still.

Why are so many desperate nellys believing what Susan wrote about in the book. You're believing a nutjob that insisted her husband was bisexual so as to save face.

Miss Davis was gay. Not bisexual, gay. Unless you know the paternity of Alex Davis, you don't even know if Susan fucked him.

He was a gay slut of the highest order and that was how he contracted AIDS. Whilst Susan was home alone raising a freak, Brad was out getting his hole filled with infected cocks and getting his grubby mitts on drugs.

He was a whore darlin', a gay whore

Susan barely raised the kid. She admits in the book she was a work a holiC and was never home. Poor kid never had a chance.

I never thought he could be gay, he was married with a child and never heard that kind of rumour about him.

Even the wife admits he was a hustler when he first got to NY.

He was a little guy and looked like he had tiny-dick Irish heritage. Did he have a small one?

I ask that with the utmost respect, of course.