Alexis Arquette lived with HIV for 29 years before fatal heart attack

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The actress and trans activist passed away earlier this month.

Alexis Arquette died after suffering a cardiac arrest, according to her death certificate.

The document – released by gossip site TMZ – also shows that the trans star had been living with HIV for nearly thirty years.

The star – best known for roles in Last Exit To Brooklyn, Pulp Fiction and The Wedding Singer – passed away earlier this month “surrounded by love” as her family “held her and sang her David Bowie’s Starman”.

According to documentation from L.A.’s Department of Public Health, Arquette died after suffering a heart attack as well as battling bacterial endocarditis, cardiomyopathy and HIV.

Earlier this week, it was revealed that a major porn studio had bought a sex tape featuring the actor, before destroying all copies to protect her memory.

xHamster paid $25,000 to a former lover of Arquette, who had started trying to sell the tape just hours after she died, it is reported.

Made around two years ago, the tape featured Arquette in a “compromising position”.

But all copies have now been destroyed, xHamster confirmed, in a bid to stop the man who sold it from “smearing her memory”.

Following the star’s death, her family released a moving statement praising her for her contribution to trans visibility.

Arquette was the sister of actors Patricia, David, Rosanna and Richmond Arquette.

She played a gender neutral singer in the 1998 film The Wedding Singer.

Some reports suggest that Arquette had identified as neither male nor female in the years leading up to her death, with others suggesting that she had been living as male.

Later, in 2007, Arquette appeared in the documentary ‘Alexis Arquette: She’s my Brother’ premiered at Tribeca.

Back in January, Arquette lashed out at Jada and Will Pinkett-Smith after they announced their plans to snub this year’s Oscars ceremony.

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