comedy film Cop and a Half. Personal life In May 1981, Sharkey married model Rebecca Wood. The marriage ended in 1986 due to Sharkey's drug abuse. In 1988, he married actress Carole Graham. That marriage produced one daughter, Cecelia, in 1989. In November 1992, Graham divorced Sharkey, also citing his drug abuse as the reason for the divorce. On September 22, 2015, Sharkey's daughter, Cecelia Bonnie Sharkey, was charged with capital murder for the death of her boyfriend's mother, Patricia Metropoulous (Hickerson). In November 2017, she pleaded no contest, was declared insane at the time of the crime and was committed to Patton State Hospital. Illness and death Sharkey was diagnosed as HIV positive in the late 1980s. He reportedly contracted the virus through intravenous drug use. After his death, Sharkey's manager Herb Nanas admitted that they both decided to keep his diagnosis a secret, fearing it would hurt his career. Despite his diagnosis, Sharkey remained in denial about his HIV-positive status and, according to his manager, had sex with an estimated 100 women after he was diagnosed. Sharkey began a relationship with model/actress Elena Monica, daughter of comedian Corbett Monica, in April 1991. She became ill and was hospitalized with aseptic meningitis in July 1991. During a routine check, she tested positive for HIV. Monica believed she contracted the virus from Sharkey, who continued to deny that he had infected her. Monica ended the relationship in October 1991 due to her suspicions. In July 1992, she learned that another woman also suspected that Sharkey had infected her with HIV as well. Later that same year, Monica filed a $52 million lawsuit against the actor for knowingly infecting her with HIV. In an interview with Details magazine conducted in March 1993, three months before his death, Sharkey told the reporter that he was in fact HIV-positive by saying that he "harbored a strain of HIV" that he believed would never develop into AIDS. At the time of the interview, Sharkey weighed , had a hacking cough and was suffering from a brain lesion. When asked about his ex-girlfriend Elena Monica who accused him of infecting her with HIV, Sharkey said, "This disease is funny. One day you're negative and the next day you're positive. And people suffer. I don't think she suffered from me." Monica won her lawsuit against Sharkey by default judgment after his death (Sharkey declined to challenge