Columnist Army Archerd dies at 87

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Army Archerd, whose breezy column for the entertainment trade publication Daily Variety kept tabs on various Hollywood doings for more than a half-century, has died. He was 87.

Archerd’s wife, Selma, said he died Tuesday at UCLA Medical Center of mesothelioma, a cancer of the lungs strongly tied to asbestos exposure. She said the cancer was the result of his time spent in shipyards while serving in the Navy during World War II. She said he had become very ill over the last two years, especially in the last two weeks.

Over the years, Archerd won praise from the Hollywood establishment for always checking the accuracy of his news tips before printing them. His biggest scoop came in 1985 when he was first to report that veteran leading man Rock Hudson had AIDS. It was the first time a major Hollywood star was disclosed to be an AIDS victim, and it helped break down some of the secrecy surrounding the disease.

Archerd — born Armand Archerd in New York in 1922 — also broke the story that Julia Roberts had jilted fianc Keifer Sutherland in 1991 and that longtime bachelor Warren Beatty had married Annette Bening in 1992. His source for the Beatty-Bening story was Beatty himself.

For more than 50 years, Archerd also served as the greeter-interviewer at the Academy Awards.

After wartime service in the Navy, he returned to Los Angeles and began his news career working with this reporter on a daily Hollywood column for The Associated Press.

In 1953 he was chosen to write Daily Variety’s “Just for Variety” column, which was required morning reading for Hollywood’s movers and shakers. He later went on to become one of the first journalists to be honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

His marriage to Joan Archerd, which produced two children, Amanda and Evan, ended in divorce in 1969 after 25 years. He married his second wife, Selma, in 1970.

Archerd is survived by his wife, his son and two stepsons.