Longtime AIDS and Anti-Drugs Activist Hank Fiolle, Dies at 51

Henry Lee “Hank” Fiolle, 51, died due to complications of AIDS at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Beverly Hills, Calif.

He spent the past two decades helping people with addition to alcohol and crystal meth through various 12-step and drug programs.

Fiolle attended William McKinley Elementary School, Bret Harte, Walter Reed Middle School and John Burroughs High School in Burbank.

Fiolle worked as an AIDS activist after he tested positive for HIV in 1987. He never took AIDS medications and until recently, was never ill from the virus. He worked on independent films as a production assistant and helped raise money for Aid for AIDS, the AIDS Health Foundation and many other causes. He also assisted in organizing Marianne Williamson’s spiritual lectures since the 1990s and volunteered for Crystaliarium, a drug treatment program.

He also worked as a personal assistant to comedian Paul Lynde from 1979 to just before his death in 1982 when he was on the Hollywood Squares.

Fiolle was working on a book about Mama Cass Elliot.

Above is a series of photos about his life.

(EDITOR'S NOTE: I knew Hank off and on since I moved to Studio City in 1985. He will be sorely missed by our family.)