Elizabeth Glaser

Elizabeth Glaser, the Hollywood wife who became a tireless AIDS activist after she and her two children were infected with HIV through a blood transfusion, died Saturday. She was 47. Glaser, wife of actor Paul Michael Glaser, died at her Santa Monica home of complications from AIDS, said Carol Pearlman, a close friend and associate at the Pediatric AIDS Foundation, which Mrs. Glaser co-founded. Mrs. Glaser's health had deteriorated in recent months after she developed a brain infection, said her physician, Dr. Michael Gottlieb. President Clinton called on the nation to "honor her memory by finishing the work to which she gave everything she had." "Elizabeth confronted the challenge of AIDS in her own life and lost her beloved daughter to AIDS at a time when our government and our country were too indifferent to this illness and the people who had it," Clinton said in a prepared statement. Mrs. Glaser electrified the 1992 Democratic convention in New York with her account of her family's confrontation with the virus. "I am here tonight because my son and I may not survive another four years of leaders who say they care - but do nothing," she said. "A thousand points of light (President Bush's volunteerism phrase) just wasn't enough. My house has been dark for too long." She brought many members of audience to tears speaking of the death of her 7-year-old daughter Ariel from AIDS: "She taught me to love when all I wanted to do was hate; she taught me to help others when all I wanted to do was help myself." In 1981, when Mrs. Glaser was nine months pregnant with Ariel, her first child, she began bleeding and was rushed to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, where she was given seven pints of blood. The baby was delivered successfully. Three weeks later, Mrs. Glaser read a newspaper article telling of the dangers of contracting HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, from blood transfusions. She said her doctor reassured her and she was not tested for the virus. Four years later, Ariel became seriously ill. Hospital tests found her red blood count low but doctors assured recovery. Four months after that, doctors finally tested the family for human immunodeficiency virus. Mrs. Glaser tested positive, and she had passed the virus to Ariel through her breast milk. She had also given the virus to her second child, Jake. Her husband was the only family member who remained uninfected. Jake, 10, has shown no signs that he has developed AIDS, Ms. Pearlman said. "We had been dealt the worst hand of cards any family could have gotten," Mrs. Glaser told the Los Angeles Times in 1989. "I thought about throwing up my hands and giving up. But we decided to play that hand offensively." After Ariel died, Mrs. Glaser went to Washington to lobby members of Congress. A friend arranged a White House meeting with President Reagan and his wife, Nancy. Mrs. Glaser concluded that the administration wasn't doing enough, made friends in Congress, and got the budget for pediatric AIDS raised from $3.3 million to $8.8 million. Mrs. Glaser became a tireless crusader. In 1988, she co-founded the Pediatric AIDS Foundation and helped raise millions for care and treatment of young AIDS victims. In eight months she raised $2.2 million to finance 40 research grants. In one of her last public appearances, Mrs. Glaser received a presidential citation for her efforts from Hillary Clinton at a New York benefit in September for her Pediatric AIDS Foundation. She and Glaser married in 1980 after meeting while he was starring on "Starsky and Hutch" in the late 1970s. In addition to her husband and son, Mrs. Glaser is survived by her parents, Max and Edith Meyer, and a brother. Funeral services will be private, Ms. Pearlman said. Plans were being made for a memorial service in Los Angeles at a later date.