Mark Patton, the star of 1985 horror film “Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge,” is hospitalized in Mexico and is asking for the public’s help with his medical costs.
His manager Peter Valderrama set up a GoFundMe account that so far has raised more than $5,000 of the desired $18,000 goal. Patton, who is a regular at horror conventions, has had to cancel recent appearances, Valderrama noted. “Mark was truly looking forward to this show for quite some time ,but sadly his health has taken a drastic turn for the worse.”
Valderrama said that Patton has “been ill for quite some time now,” from what was originally thought to be effects of COVID. “But now it is quite clearly AID-related ailments that he is managing. He has been quiet for his own privacy, but with the cancellation of his events at the Music Box Theater [in Chicago] and Horror House Shop, he has decided to release his news in the hopes that his community could help him,” Valderrama wrote. The actor was diagnosed with HIV in 1999.
“Mark is currently in a Mexican hospital where they speak very little English, and they are completely overcome with COVID cases there. He needs to be transported to an American hospital down there where he can be receive more specialized care in a safer setting. For this, we humbly need to ask for help,” his manager added.
He included a statement from Patton in which the 63-year-old actor said, “Basically I am asking for help. I will not be embarrassed, I just want to be healthy and at home with family… I have faced these medical challenges before and I know I have a lot of fight left in me, but the last few years have been crippling for me financially.”
Patton concluded, “If anyone is able to contribute it would mean a life-saving option for me to be recovering in a place that can cater to my condition.”
Patton was the subject of the 2019 documentary, “Scream, Queen! My Nightmare On Elm Street,” which detailed how his sexuality was blamed for the film’s poor performance at the time. He has since become an icon in the horror community and one of its first male “Scream Queens.”
His other films include 1982’s “Come Back to the 5 & Dime Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean” with Cher and 2016’s “Family Possessions.”
He told Plus in 2013, “I [was diagnosed with HIV] on my 40th birthday and three days later I was in the hospital… I almost died there, but thankfully my friends took me to an AIDS health clinic, which saved my life.”
He and his husband Hector Morales Mondragon live in Puerto Vallerta, Mexico, where they own and operate an art gallery.
