During the 1980s as AIDS swept through the gay community, actor Zelda Rubinstein quickly became known as its compassionate ‘Mother’ through the L.A. Cares safe-sex campaigns.

Rubinstein, best known to horror fans for playing the medium Tangina Barrons in Poltergeist and its sequels, starred in a series of AIDS prevention advertisements in which her character was known simply as ‘Mother’. Throughout the campaign, she appeared as a kindly, maternal figure, reminding her ‘sons’ to practise safe sex and offering advice on HIV/AIDS prevention.

Mother was usually accompanied by a tall, muscular male model playing one of her many sons. The posters featured slogans such as “Play Safely” and “Don’t Forget Your Rubbers”, raising awareness of safe sex during the early years of the epidemic.

In the television advertisements, Mother fondly reminisces with her sons of nursing them back to health as children, before warning that if they become sick now, she can no longer make them better. 

L.A. Cares’ campaign was launched in 1984, at a time when HIV/AIDS awareness and activism remained highly stigmatised. Rubinstein’s activism even predated the work of both Elizabeth Taylor and Madonna, and she continued campaigning throughout her career.

The actor faced scrutiny for appearing in the campaign so soon after her breakthrough role in Poltergeist. Speaking to The Advocate, she admitted that she did “pay a price, career-wise”.

However, she felt strongly about the cause. Zelda Rubinstein told The Advocate, “I lost a friend to AIDS, one of the first public figures that died of AIDS.”

She added, “I knew it was not the kind of disease that would stay in anybody’s backyard. It would climb the fences, get over the fences into all of our homes.”

The stigma did not deter her from continuing her campaigning. She also took part in the first Project Los Angeles AIDS Walk on July 28, 1985.

Speaking at the event’s 25th anniversary, she said, “I wish you a comfortable walk, not so comfortable that you forget what you’re walking for, but comfortable enough to make you keep coming year after year until this virus is totally eradicated.”

Rubinstein passed away on January 27, 2010, but her iconic ‘Mother’ character continues to resonate around the world. Decades later, it reappeared in a Brazilian AIDS education campaign.