Dana Miller, Producer, AIDS Advocate and Frontiers Columnist, Has Died - FrontiersMedia
Entertainment
“Dana was legendary in gay L.A. and Hollywood during the AIDS crisis. He was a brilliant and warm friend to so many, including Frontiers, the City of West Hollywood and several nonprofits," says Frontiers Publisher Michael Turner
December 10, 2014 - by Karen Ocamb
Dana Miller, the witty, sometimes cantankerous and always passionate entertainment producer, AIDS advocate and longtime columnist for Frontiers magazine, was found dead in the South Pasadena home of his late mother by his partner, Brody Darren Robertson, on Tuesday, Dec. 9. Dana was 59.
(Update 10:05 a.m.) According to Detective-Sgt. Robert Bartl of the South Pasadena Police Department, Dana was supposed to meet with a real estate agent on Monday, but he never showed up. Brody also had not heard from Dana and flew in from Hawaii to check on him, finding Dana’s body yesterday. The Fire Dept. arrived around 4:13pm. The investigating police officer estimated that Dana died sometime over the weekend, either Saturday or Sunday. Bartl said there were no signs of foul play nor signs of suicide. He presumes an autopsy will determine the exact cause of death.
“Dana was legendary in gay Los Angeles and Hollywood during the AIDS crisis. He was a brilliant and warm friend to so many, including Frontiers, the City of West Hollywood and several nonprofits. We will miss his stories, sense of humor and the contributions he made to Frontiers,” New Frontiers Media owner and publisher Michael Turner said in a statement. “Dana was looking forward to hosting Toy Box this year, benefiting the families supported by APLA. Please join us for Toy Box this Sunday at Pump Restaurant from 5-8 p.m. to celebrate a little of Dana in each unwrapped toy donated.”
This is the 19th year AIDS Project Los Angeles is holding its annual Toy Box Party—an event Dana loved producing. One year, he shut down Larrabee Street, between Eleven Nightclub and Revolver in West Hollywood and trucked in bags of fake snow as a holiday adornment for Santa’s throne and the huge pile of toys to rest upon. He also invited aging Hollywood actors to pose for pictures with gays who still considered them icons. (Visit Toy Box Party on Facebook for more information on this year’s event.)
When not producing fundraisers for AIDS organizations, Dana wrote a regular column, first for IN Los Angeles magazine and then for Frontiers after the two publications merged—a gig he acquired through his close friendship with the late Mark Hundahl and co-owner/publisher, David Stern. Dana’s “Out & About” column not only provided space for Dana’s voice but also the voices of old gay Hollywood and gays and lesbians who remembered when advocacy was more important than fleeting infamy. And he could skillfully slice and dice the powerful with his rapier wit or skewer them just for fun, as in this look at The Real Housewives of the West Hollywood City Council, one of his last feature stories.
“Dana’s wit was unparalleled, and he had a gift for finding humor in all that life threw at him. He also called it like he saw it, especially in situations that he thought could be improved upon. As the publisher of IN and Frontiers, that at times caused me a bit of backlash, but it was well worth it, because his overall intention was always for the greater good,” Stern said in a statement. “We lost a historian, not only in our own gay culture but in the history of Hollywood. I can picture Dana now taking his proper place in heaven, in a seat reserved for him somewhere between Mark Hundahl and Elizabeth Taylor. And that visual is exactly who Dana Miller was. Rest in peace, dear friend.”
Dana knew Elizabeth Taylor and helped AIDS Healthcare Foundation produce its Elizabeth Taylor tribute float in the 2011 New Year’s Day Rose Parade in Pasadena, the first time a gay or AIDS float appeared in the parade seen around the world.
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