He also made his onscreen debut that year on an episode of The Waltons.

Kearns also showed up on TV on The Fall Guy, Murder, She Wrote, And the Band Played On, Days of Our Lives, Making of a Male Model and Knots Landing and in such films as The Kentucky Fried Movie (1977) and Brian De Palma's Body Double (1984).

His theater credits included The Dirtiest Show in Town, Intimacies and More Intimacies - he portrayed culturally diverse people with HIV/AIDS in those - The Truth Is Bad Enough, Attachments and Who's Afraid of Edward Albee?

Kearns also served as the artistic director at the Celebration Theatre from 1986-87 and at QueerWise, a spoken word collective that he founded in 2011; co-founded Artists Confronting AIDS in the '80s; and wrote several books about acting.

Survivors include his adopted daughter, Katherine.