Longtime Companion is a 1989 American romantic drama film directed by Norman René and starring Bruce Davison, Campbell Scott, Patrick Cassidy, and Mary-Louise Parker.

[3] Longtime Companion chronicles the first years of the AIDS epidemic as seen through its impact on several gay men and the straight friend of one of them.

Willy (Campbell Scott), a personal trainer, and his friend John (Dermot Mulroney) are spending time with affluent gay couple David (Bruce Davison) and Sean (Mark Lamos) at their beach house on Fire Island for the 4th of July.

Sean is a screenwriter for the popular daytime soap opera Other People and David comes from a blue blood background and has a large trust fund.

His boyfriend is Paul (John Dossett), a business executive and their next-door neighbor is Lisa (Mary-Louise Parker), an antiques dealer, whose brother Fuzzy (Stephen Caffrey) is a lawyer who represents Howard.

Willy, Fuzzy, Lisa, David, and Sean gather back on Fire Island with friends Michael and Bob to watch Howard's character come out on the soap opera.

That night Willy catches Fuzzy checking himself for swollen glands and they talk about their fear of dying.

He has to be strapped into his bed and has lost control of his bowels and bladder and has to wear adult diapers as a result.

In a rare moment of levity, Lisa and Willy stumble across a slinky red dress in Sean's closet and consider giving it to the undertaker.

At the following reception, the friends recall a time when David tried on his sister's wedding dress, accidentally tripped, and fell down the stairs, still wearing it.

The beach house featured in the film is located in Fire Island Pines, New York and was built in 1958.

The site's consensus reads, "Longtime Companion is a sensitive ensemble AIDS drama, lensed with sympathy which builds to a moving finale".

[5] Roger Ebert wrote “Longtime Companion is about friendship and loyalty about finding the courage to be helpful and the humility to be helped.”[6] Peter Travers from Rolling Stone commented “Funny, Touching and Vital, Longtime Companion is the best American movie so far this year.