Actor, Writer Michael M. Katz

Michael M. Katz, an actor and writer who composed plays about AIDS, has died of complications of the illness that dominated his creativity the last years of his life. He was 32 and died last Wednesday at a Century City hospital.

A veteran of repertory theater in New York, London, San Francisco and Los Angeles, Katz had been seen in title roles ranging from “Oedipus” to “When Ya’ Coming Back Red Ryder.”

His other credits ranged from Shakespeare to Chekhov to industrial films and acting workshops.

But since 1986, acquired immune deficiency syndrome had occupied most of his time. In that year he staged “AIDS/US,” at the Skylight Theatre in Hollywood. It was subtitled “Portraits in Personal Courage,” and members of the cast, many of whom had the disease, and some of their loved ones told how they were struggling for survival and a measure of contentment in the time they had left.

Two years later he extended that concern into “Taking Care,” a musical performed at the California Museum of Science and Industry in which teen-agers discussed with one another in lyrical terms the emotional and physical pitfalls they faced as they matured. AIDS was one of their primary concerns.

In April, Katz participated in the Names Project AIDS Quilt celebration at UCLA. There gays and others spoke of the quilt made up of fabric panels containing the names of those killed by AIDS. The quilt was sewn by the victims’ friends, lovers and relatives. As the names of the dead on the quilt were read, volunteers unfolded panels with even more names of the newly dead.

At that point Katz came to the microphone and told the audience of 4,000: “Someday I may have my place of honor on this quilt sewn so sweetly by those left behind. If I do, remember my name.”

Services were private.