11 Celebrities Who Died Of AIDS

While many people live normal and healthy lives with HIV, the horrible truth is that AIDS has claimed the lives of almost 40 million people since the outbreak of the epidemic in the early 1980s. Like any other disease, AIDS also knows no race, sexual orientation or social status.

These are the most famous celebrities who have put a face on HIV/AIDS and eventually lost their lives to AIDS-related conditions. Here are 11 stars who lost their battle with AIDS:

1. Rock Hudson

Rock Hudson was one of the biggest Hollywood stars during the 1950s and 1960s, starring in some of the greatest movies of his time and attracting the attention of hundreds of thousand ladies worldwide. He was remarkably successful, undeniably handsome and completely gay – though he tried to hide his sexual orientation for quite some time.

He was diagnosed with AIDS in 1984 and kept his disease a secret from almost everybody, balancing his personal life and the pursuit of a treatment that would help him keep the illness under control.

When he couldn’t hide his condition anymore, his publicist claimed he had liver cancer and admitted that Hudson was, in fact, suffering from AIDS only after his death in 1985. He was the first major Hollywood celebrity to die of AIDS and his death stirred a lot of controversy among fellow actors and actresses.