Michael VerMeulen

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Michael VerMeulen (10 December 1956 - August 28, 1995) was an American magazine editor.

Born in Chicago, VerMeulen was a journalist and editor, who came into contact during his late adolescence with playwright David Mamet and the circle of actors surrounding him in Chicago at that time. He formed at a very early age friendships that would endure throughout the rest of his life. VerMeulen was one of the very first reporters to break the story of AIDS in the United States. He contributed regularly to a number of magazines including Vanity Fair and Parade before leaving for London where he worked initially for a financial publication, before joining British GQ in 1988 as its founding features editor.

In the same year he became engaged to an Australian author named Antonella Gambotto-Burke. This stormy relationship was one of two official engagements VerMeulen entered into during before his death. A larger-than-life character, who had been married and divorced once before he emigrated to the UK, and who espoused in public the values of "fun for guys" that he propagated in his magazine, VerMeulen was promoted within GQ to deputy editor in 1990 and to editor in 1992, driving the magazine forward into a leadership position that would influence an entirely new generation of UK men's magazines (Loaded, Maxim) in the UK. Following his death, he briefly became a minor celebrity.

VerMeulen died of a drug overdose on Sunday, 28 August, 1995, with a prostitute, and in his home in Islington, London. A coroner's inquest found over two and a half times the lethal dose of cocaine in his system. An account of his death written by Gambotto in an internationally-published book entitled The Eclipse claimed that his death was an indirect suicide. In the book, she writes of how he had often discussed suicide.

His funeral was held at St. George's, Hanover Square, London. David Mamet sent a special eulogy that was read during the service. Over 400 people, and many of the the most influential editors and writers in the UK, were in attendance.