By Kate Linthicum and Veronica Rocha.
Bill Rosendahl, a television talk show host who became the first openly gay man to serve on the Los Angeles City Council, has died. He was 70.
Rosendahl died early this morning at his Mar Vista home, surrounded by friends and family, after a four-year battle with cancer, according to a statement by David Graham-Caso, communications director for City Councilman Mike Bonin.
Mr. Rosendahl was diagnosed in 2012 with cancer of the ureter, the tube that connects the kidney to the bladder. The disease went into remission in 2013, but it reappeared in 2014.
His loved ones were told by doctors in January that Mr. Rosendahl could pass away “any day,” Mr. Graham-Caso said, so for the last three months, they have been visiting his home, holding something of “an amazing living wake.”
Mr. Rosendahl is survived by his longtime partner, book publisher Hedi El Kholti.
His funeral probably will be held at St. Monica Catholic Church in Santa Monica.
U.S. Rep. Janice Hahn (D-San Pedro), who served with Mr. Rosendahl on the City Council for several years, expressed heartbreak over his passing.
“Bill was one of the most selfless and kind-hearted individuals I have ever known,” she said. “That heart made him an incredible advocate and a beloved champion for the people he represented. He was brave in the face of adversity and had a contagious passion for life.”
A gregarious force at City Hall who advocated for the homeless, gays and lesbians and other liberal causes, Mr. Rosendahl in his later years became a vocal proponent of medical marijuana, which he grew and used to help treat pain from his cancer.
In the buttoned-up world of politics, he was an opinionated eccentric, once donning an Army hat in City Council chambers to denounce the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. He was known around town for sharing cartons of eggs produced by the hens he kept in the backyard of his Mar Vista home.
Elected in 2005 from a wealthy Westside district that stretches from Westchester to Pacific Palisades, the lifelong Democrat held his inauguration ceremony on the Venice Boardwalk with a rabbi, a priest and a shaman present. Guests were serenaded by the Venice Drum Circle.
Born May 15, 1945, to German Catholic immigrants who fled Europe during Adolf Hitler’s rise to power, Mr. Rosendahl and his seven siblings grew up in Englewood, N.J.
As a teen, he became involved in the civil rights movement, and he said he was on the Washington Mall in 1963 to hear the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. deliver his “I Have A Dream” speech.
It was not the only time Mr. Rosendahl would have a front-row seat to history. An organizer on Robert F. Kennedy’s presidential campaign, he later described being at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles in 1968 the night Mr. Kennedy was assassinated. As a Councilman, Mr. Rosendahl helped turn the hotel site into a public school complex named after Mr.Kennedy.
After a stint in the Army counseling soldiers returning from the Vietnam War and a job on Eugene McCarthy’s presidential campaign, Mr.Rosendahl took off for 18 months, traveling through Europe, the Middle East, Africa and South America.
He later would say that he was searching for something.
For years, Mr. Rosendahl had been quietly visiting gay bars and introducing himself with a fake name. He said he was conflicted about his sexuality because of attitudes toward gays and lesbians in the Catholic Church.
After his mother’s death in the 1970s, he came out to the rest of his family and moved to San Francisco, where the gay rights movement was gaining momentum. A few years later he moved to Los Angeles, settling in Venice Beach.
Mr. Rosendahl got a job as an executive at cable television provider Adelphia Communications Corp. Along with his managerial duties, he hosted a public affairs shows that featured interviews with local and national politicians. After leaving the company, he decided to make his own run for politics.
On the Los Angeles City Council, he opposed the large-scale expansion of L.A. International Airport and pushed for more public transit to ease traffic on congested Westside streets. He also spoke out on issues beyond the city, publicly criticizing former President Clinton for not doing enough for gays and faulting President Obama for not ending all wars overseas.
Mr. Rosendahl opted not to run for a third term after his cancer diagnosis in 2012. Mr. Bonin, his longtime chief of staff, was elected to replace him.
After leaving office, Mr. Rosendahl spent much of his final years providing hospice care for Swami X, an aging Venice Beach street performer he took into his home. He also served as an advisor to the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, a nonprofit advocacy group.
In 1995, Rosendahl’s partner of 14 years, Christopher Lee Blauman, died of complications from AIDS. He and Mr. El Kholti registered for a domestic partnership in 2012.
Twitter: @katelinthicum
