Fame's Gene Anthony Ray dead at 41

Gene Anthony Ray, an actor and dancer best known for his roles in the 1980 movie Fame and its spin-off television series, died Friday in Manhattan of complications from a stroke. He was 41. Ray was also HIV-positive, his mother said. The actor attended New York's High School of the Performing Arts, but he dropped out after a year. Ray returned to the role of Leroy for the Fame television series, which ran from 1982 to 1987. He went on to appear in the films Out of Sync (1995) and Eddie (1996), starring Whoopi Goldberg. Ray appears in a Fame reunion documentary, Fame: Remember My Name, which was taped in April for the BBC but has not yet aired.