Empire") of the television series Rock Follies of '77. Death Charleson, who was gay, was diagnosed with HIV in 1986 during the AIDS pandemic, and died of AIDS-related causes in January 1990 at the age of 40. He died eight weeks after performing the title role in a run of Hamlet, in Richard Eyre's production at the Olivier Theatre. Fellow actor and friend Ian McKellen said that Charleson played Hamlet so well it was as if he had rehearsed the role all his life. Charleson requested that it be announced after his death that he had died of AIDS, in order to publicise the condition. This unusual decision by a major internationally known actor, the first show-business death in the United Kingdom openly attributed to complications from AIDS, helped promote awareness of HIV and AIDS and acceptance of AIDS patients. Honours and commemoration For his performance in Chariots of Fire, Charleson won a Variety Club Showbiz Award for Most Promising Artiste in February 1982. He was nominated for the Olivier Award for Actor of the Year in a New Play, for his starring role as Eddie in Fool for Love in 1984. In The Sunday Times, John Peter named Charleson the Best Male Actor of 1989 for his Hamlet, along with Ian McKellen for his Iago in Othello. In his honour, the annual Ian Charleson Awards were established in 1991, to reward the best classical stage performances in Britain by actors aged under 30. The Royal Free Hospital's Ian Charleson Day Centre for people with HIV, in London, is named in his memory. On 8 April 1990, three months after his Edinburgh funeral, a public memorial service was held for Charleson in London. A recording of his singing of "Come Unto These Yellow Sands" from The Tempest was played. In 1990, following his death, 20 of Charleson's friends, colleagues, and family members, including Ian McKellen, Alan Bates, Hugh Hudson, Richard Eyre, Sean Mathias, Hilton McRae, Ruby Wax, and David Rintoul, contributed to a book of reminiscences about him, called For Ian Charleson: A Tribute, published in October 1990. All royalties from the sale of the book went to the Ian Charleson Trust, a charitable foundation which operated from 1990 to 2007. Two emotional reunion performances of Guys and Dolls, with almost all of the original 1982 cast and musicians, were given at the National Theatre in November 1990 as a