At first glance, the announcement of Hollywood A-lister Perry Moore's death at 39 might elicit an "oh, that's too bad." Look closer. The openly gay Moore, who produced the three films in the Chronicles of Narnia franchise, was also an advocate for gay youth, touching many with his talent for prose.
"I loved the book Hero," wrote reader Shane Newman at Amazon.com. "It was a gift from my father. I had come out as a lesbian the previous year."
Published in 2007, Moore's novel Hero told the tale of Thom Creed, a high school basketball star who was dealing with his emerging superpowers and his homosexuality. When he appeared at San Diego's Comic Con, Moore talked about his experiences growing up in the South, which pushed him into creating gay characters. "I don't want kids to believe they will burn in hell," he said. In 2008, Hero won the Lambda Literary Award for best LGBT Children's/Young Adult novel of the previous year.
At the time of his death, Moore was close to securing a deal to bring Hero to television. He also had financing to produce a fourth Narnia film. The first three films in the series have grossed $1.5 billion worldwide. He'd hoped to eventually bring all seven Narnia books to the big screen.
Moore had recently entered the world of low-budget independent cinema. He and partner Hunter Hill co-wrote and co-directed the well-received drama Lake City, with Sissy Spacek, Troy Gerrity and Keith Carradine. The film touched a theme that appeared in Hero, the healing of a parent/child relationship.
Moore had suffered from knee and back problems which required corrective surgery and pain medication. On the morning of Feb. 17, Hill found Moore's lifeless body in their Greenwich Village home in New York City. Police reports indicate no evidence of foul play. Moore evidently died from an accidental overdose of his medication.
His father, Bill Moore, told MTV that he and his son had spoken the night before he died. Perry was excited about the fourth Narnia film. He had begun work on a sequel to Hero, while he and Hill were in talks with Julianne Moore about a film project separate from Narnia. RIP Perry Moore, 1971-2011.