Cohn went on to become a ruthless, high-powered and unethical New York lawyer who became Trump's lawyer in the late 1970s and early 1980s. As Trump rose in New York's real estate world, "so too did the hidden hand of his attorney Roy Cohn, always there to help with the shady tax abatements, the zoning variances, the sweetheart deals, and the threats to those who might stand in the project's way," reported Vanity Fair in 2017.
"You knew when you were in Cohn's presence you were in the presence of pure evil," said lawyer Victor A. Kovner, who had known him for years in the Vanity Fair report. "Cohn's power derived largely from his ability to scare potential adversaries with hollow threats and spurious lawsuits. And the fee he demanded for his services? Ironclad loyalty," the report continues.
"All I can tell you is he's been vicious to others in his protection of me," Trump was quoted by Vanity Fair in a 1980 interview. "He's a genius. He's a lousy lawyer, but he's a genius."
Cohn was also a closeted gay man and died of AIDS shortly after being disbarred from his profession in 1986. In his epic "Angels in America," Tony Kushner immortalized him as a self-hating schemer who pulls political strings to gain access to a drug (AZT) that was an early treatment for HIV-infection. He is likely best-remembered by many in Al Pacino's Emmy-winning performance in Mike Nichols' HBO miniseries based on the play.
Now, HBO is premiering a documentary about Cohn that is being made by a filmmaker with a personal connection: Ivy Meeropol - the grandson of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. His film, "Bully. Coward. Victim. The Story of Roy Cohn," premieres on June 19, the 67th anniversary of their 1953 execution, and "delves into how a closeted gay man became a 'rabid anti-homosexuality activist' and a Trump mentor,"
In Kushner" s="" re-imagining,="" Ethel="" Rosenberg="" visits="" the="" delirious="" Cohn="" at="" the="" hour="" of="" his="" death. The documentary, which premiered at the 2019 New York Film Festival, "draws on unearthed archival material and audiotapes to paint a portrait of Cohn's life from the late 1950s as chief counsel to Senator Joseph McCarthy, through to the 1980s when he embedded himself in the Reagan White House as a "rabid anti-homosexuality activist and political mentor" to current U.S. president Donald Trump before dying of AIDS in 1986," writes Deadline.
Kushner is one of the talking heads interviewed in the film, along with Nathan Lane, who played Cohn in a recent Broadway revival, John Waters, Cindy Adams and Alan Dershowitz.
"Roy Cohn made his name prosecuting and pushing for the execution of my grandparents Ethel and Julius Rosenberg," Meeropol told Deadline. "Many years later he became Donald Trump's lawyer, mentor and close friend. If there was ever a time to reflect on how we got here it is now. I am so grateful for the opportunity to share the film with HBO audiences."
"One thing I didn't know until 1988 was that Cohn was gay and had succumbed to AIDS. Learning this about him made me want to know more about this man and the secret life he led. This clash of feelings, hating a man and believing he was evil while simultaneously feeling empathy for that same man who no doubt suffered in the closet, drove my approach in making this film," Meeropol continued.
"Cohn's life was filled with contradictions," adds the Daily Mail. "He was a vicious gay-baiting homophobe who was a deeply closeted homosexual; he was a Jewish anti-Semite; and in politics, he was a life-long registered Democrat who aligned himself almost exclusively with the elites of the Republican party."
The film delves into his gay life in Provincetown in the 1970s and 1980s, where he was seen discreetly in public places.
"The only place I ever saw him was in Front Street," long-time Ptown resident John Waters says. "People that owned it. They'd say, 'Well, I just always spit in his food every time I serve him.' I would've done more than spit." (Don't forget what Waters made Divine do in "Pink Flamingos.")
