Whatever happens at the Oscars tonight, it will be hard to beat the heartfelt emotional speech from Brit actor (born in Swaziland)  Richard E Grant when he won the Best Supporting Actor at the Indie Awards last night.  Grant has been nominated for every major award this season (and for the very first time) and it was for his role as an  alcoholic gay man in Can You Ever Forgive Me.  He played Jack Hook who befriends the writer Lee Israel at a low point in her life, but nevertheless he imbibes their friendship with a real sense of joy  (and nooze) even though he has HIV and his days are numbered.

Grant not only dedicated his Indie Award  to the generations lost to HIV but in particular, he said the person who inspired him the most was Ian Charleson – the lead actor in the Oscar nominated Chariots of Fire who died from an AIDS-related illness at age 40 in 1990.  It was a beautiful and generous gesture but not totally unexpected when you know of Grant’s background.

He has always been an ally to our community and in 2006 , he turned real life investigator when, with the help of the BBC’s Newsnight, he exposed a $98 million scam to sell a bogus AIDS cure