So many celebrities have lost their lives to AIDS since 2003. Being rich and famous does not make them immune to the disease and does not giving them a better chance of living with it than any non-celebrity infected with HIV or AIDS. Only time will tell if an AIDS cure can ever be found.

No one is immune to the AIDS disease, including celebrities. Many famous figures in the entertainment industry have died of this illness. Here are only a handful of them.

Rock Hudson

In 1986 Rock Hudson was among the first of celebrities killed by the AIDS virus. He passed away not long before his 40th birthday. Upon his death, close friend Elizabeth Taylor began to help raise money for AIDS research. She was involved in this fundraising effort until she herself died.

Liberace

Liberace himself was HIV positive when he died in 1987 at 67 years old. Despite the circumstances his official cause of death was not actually listed as HIV. It is unknown what the official cause of death was said to be.

Robert Mapplethorpe

Robert Mapplethorpe, a famous photographer as well as an artist, passed away in 1989 from AIDS complications. In the wake of his death a foundation named after him has been working to raise millions for the medical research being conducted to try and prevent both HIV and AIDS.

Photo: Mapplethorpe.org

Amanda Blake

In 1989, Gunsmoke star Amanda Blake also passed away, at the age of 60. Though prior to her death the actress was battling throat cancer the rumor in Hollywood was that she had been infected with HIV from her own husband. It was allegedly AIDS complications that killed her.

Freddie Mercury

In 1991 Freddie Mercury passed away of AIDS at 45 years old. A few days before his death, he finally admitted to the media that he had been HIV positive and was infected with AIDS.

Photo By: Peter Still

Anthony Perkins

Anthony Perkins always passed away of AIDS complications in 1992 at the age of 60. Rumors have circulated that in his younger days he had affairs with multiple male Hollywood stars.

Robert Reed

In 1992 Robert Reed passed away at the age of 50. At the time of his death doctors reported that he was HIV positive but had never been infected with the AIDS virus.

Isaac Asimov

Isaac Asimov passed away in 1992, allegedly from kidney and heart failure. However, 10 years after his death his widow stated that the kidney and heart failure were a direct result of AIDS, which the author contracted through a heart bypass surgery when he was given tainted blood.

Photo: Mondadori Portfolio

Arthur Ashe

In 1993 tennis star Arthur Ashe passed away from AIDS at the age of 49. He contracted the virus through a blood transfusion and while he was battling the disease he spoke in front of the World Health Organization in 1992 in honor of World AIDS Day.

Michael Jeter

Broadway actor Michael Jeter was HIV positive at the time of his death in 2003. He was discovered dead in his own home at the age of 50.