Keith Christopher

An exceptionally talented vocalist with a wide range and a personable, embraceable quality, Keith Christopher produced music that was melodic and endearing. His songs reflected the emotions and issues of his time in a style that was strong and vulnerable, passionate and clear. Originally from the Pacific Northwest, Christopher performed in Broadway tours across the country, Off-Broadway, and in many of New York's premier clubs and cabarets. As an HIV-positive performer and an environmentalist, he composed special material for the United Nations Environmental Program as well as the Names Project. He had the distinction of being the first openly gay, HIV-positive man to portray an openly gay, HIV-positive character on national television (as Bruce on NBC's Another World), and could also be seen on the long-running CBS daytime drama The Guiding Light as the openly gay and HIV-positive character Wyatt (the character was an HIV counselor who supported a series regular through her testing and diagnosis). Christopher also appeared on an episode of Fox's TV Nation as one of a group of singers serenading Senator Jesse Helms with the song "What the World Needs Now Is Love." He was profiled on PBS' In the Life and featured on Entertainment Tonight, CBS News at Noon, The Charles Perez Show, numerous radio talk shows, and in publications across the country, including Out magazine. Christopher died at the age of 40 in New York City on February 23, 1998. His CD Naked Truth was released posthumously by Significant Other Records later that year.