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by Peggy Roche The more I researched Gene Anthony Ray, the more I felt the movie that will make everyone "remember his name" has yet to be written and produced. His real life would stand up to the best episode of Fame with more poignancy than could be wrestled out of a fictional script. His birthdate is alternately given as 1961-1964, though pulling all the information I could together I believe 1962 was the likeliest to be accurate. He grew up, literally, in the streets and from early days was dancing on the sidewalks in Harlem. Like his character, Leroy, in Fame, he did in fact attend the School of Performing Arts in New York City, but unlike Leroy, he was tossed out after a year. His mother is quoted as saying the school was "too tame for her wild child", but a little research on mama shows that it was probably that his homelife was too chaotic for him to concentrate. He won the audition for Fame on his first try tho he had only the partial year at the school of Performing Arts under his belt. Outstanding in the film, he was part of the cast of the television series which was canceled in the States after about a year and a half but went on in syndication until 1987 and was hugely popular in England. Gene was not in the cast after 1984, however, because he missed 100 rehersals that year coping with home issues. His mother was arrested and jailed as the leader of a major drug ring which harkens back to her assertion he was a "wild child". Apparently she would have known one when she raised one! After a period of literally sitting in his home in what seems to have been a major depression, he revived himself and his career (with the assistance of Debbie Allen who always encouraged him and fostered his career). He received excellent reviews himself for the Royal Shakespeare musical production of Carrie on Broadway (yes, a musical of Carrie...pig blood and all) in 1987, tho the show itself bombed spectacularly. In the nineties he was in two movies, both with the participation of Debbie Allen , and he also moved to Milan Italy where he danced and unfortunately, partied to excess. He was diagnosed HIV positive in the early nineties and sadly somehow the tabloids seized this fact and bandied the fact a "former" star of Fame was "dying of AIDS". At the time he was living in Europe with a female porn star roommate and as far as I can deduce was involved himself in some "photography sessions". His final film (produced by the BBC in early 2003 and not yet shown) was a retrospective of the "kids" from Fame. He suffered a stroke in June of this year and died at his mother's home in Manhattan from complications November 14. In all sincerity he was enormously talented and could have been a well known dancer instead of still being eulogized for his role in Fame after more than two decades. I would like to see someone do a documentary about him. I think his last movie really is yet to be filmed. Peggy Roche is a regular poster at Celebrity Obits. |
November 15, 2003 - Cliff Young
November 8, 2003 - Walter Trohan
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