LOS ANGELES -- Patrick Lippert, executive director of last year's Rock the Vote voter registration campaign, has died of AIDS. He was 35.
Lippert died Tuesday at Daniel Freeman Marina Hospital in Marina Del Rey.
Lippert was a friend and political adviser to some of the top names in Hollywood, including Meg Ryan and Jane Fonda.
'He was an idealistic man and he lived that way,' Ryan said. 'On top of all these other things, he was so relentlessly optimistic, and he inspired that in a lot of people.'
Lippert was diagnosed with AIDS in 1991 but told few about it until mid-1992. He worked on various causes almost until the end, including an Oscar-night fund-raiser for the Elton John AIDS Foundation and a record by the rock group 10,000 Maniacs that will benefit Rock the Vote.
