Max Cantor

Michael "Max" Cantor (May 15, 1959 – October 3, 1991) was an American journalist and actor in films such as Dirty Dancing (1987) and Fear, Anxiety & Depression (1989).

Cantor's father was the theatrical producer Arthur Cantor.

He grew up in the Dakota Apartments on West 72nd Street in Manhattan, New York City.

Cantor attended Collegiate School but graduated from Buxton School in Williamstown, Massachusetts.

He spent his summers until age 14 at Camp Hillcroft in Billings, New York, alongside fellow campers such as the children of American Federation of Teachers president Albert Shanker and actor Burt Lancaster.

At camp, he won top roles in Winnie the Pooh and The Velveteen Rabbit.

Cantor was a 1982 graduate of Harvard University, where he lived in Adams House and starred in several productions by student director Peter Sellars.

Cantor wrote for The Village Voice about ibogaine as a cure for heroin addiction, and had taken an interest in the cult surrounding East Village cannibal/murderer Daniel Rakowitz.

He died from a heroin overdose at the age of 32.

At the time he died, he was conducting research and writing a book about Rakowitz and the murder of dancer Monika Beerle.

"The Strange Sad Death of Max Cantor", Sarah Ferguson, 'Esquire' February 1992, pp. 45 - 49.