Robert Reed - Death

Death

Reed later contracted the HIV virus. He kept this knowledge private, only telling a few close friends including Florence Henderson and Barry Williams.

Reed died on May 12, 1992 at Huntington Memorial Hospital in Pasadena, California, after a six month battle with colon cancer. While Reed did not have AIDS at the time of his death, Reed's doctor listed HIV as a "significant condition contributing to death." on Reed's death certificate. He was cremated and his ashes are interred in Memorial Park Cemetery, Skokie, Illinois next to his grandparents, Harvey and Elizabeth Rietz, and an uncle who died in childhood.

Reed was a close friend of actress Anne Haney. When Reed became ill with cancer, he allowed only Haney and his daughter to visit him. Haney later said of Reed, "He came from the old school, where people had a sense of decorum. He went the way he wanted to, without publicity."