Lee Mathis

In 1993, Mathis realized that he had not worked enough to qualify for Screen Actors Guild (SAG) health benefits. Against the advice of family and friends, he placed a $99 ad in Variety which read: "Healthy HIV-positive actor needs $3,500 worth of SAG work by Dec. 31 to maintain his health insurance." He told Entertainment Weekly in 1994, "Friends said it would ruin my career. But I figured, f- it, I need the benefits." Despite press coverage of his predicament, Mathis only made his deadline "with $44 and three days to spare" after paying for his Variety ad to run a second time. Several casting directors responded, offering bit parts and in 1995, he landed a recurring role on the daytime soap opera, "General Hospital," playing Jon Hanley, a HIV positive character. Jon, a longtime friend of series regular Lucy Coe (played by Lynn Herring) was the first gay, HIV-positive actor to play a similar character on a soap opera. "People with HIV tend to feel illegitimate, ineligible and basicall