Rock Hudson

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Rock Hudson

From the trailer for Giant (1956)
Born Roy Harold Scherer, Jr.
November 17, 1925(1925-11-17)
Winnetka, Illinois
Died October 2, 1985 (aged 59)
Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, California
Spouse(s) Phyllis Gates (1955-1958)

Rock Hudson (November 17, 1925 – October 2, 1985) was a popular American film and television actor and a romantic leading man in the 1950s and 1960s. Hudson was voted Star of the Year, Favorite Leading Man, and similar titles by numerous movie magazines and was unquestionably one of the most popular and well-known movie stars of the time. He completed nearly 70 motion pictures and starred in several television productions during a career that spanned over four decades. Hudson also was one of the first major Hollywood celebrities to die from an AIDS related illness.

Contents

[edit] Biography

[edit] Early life

Hudson was born Roy Harold Scherer, Jr., in Winnetka, Illinois, the son of Katherine Wood, a telephone operator, and Roy Harold Scherer, Sr., an auto mechanic who abandoned the family during the depths of the Great Depression. His mother remarried and his stepfather Wallace "Wally" Fitzgerald adopted him, changing his last name to Fitzgerald. Hudson's years at New Trier High School were unremarkable. He sang in the school's glee club and was remembered as a shy boy who delivered newspapers, ran errands and worked as a golf caddy.

After graduating from high school, he served in the Philippines as an aircraft mechanic for the United States Navy during World War II. In 1946, Hudson moved to Los Angeles to pursue an acting career and applied to the University of Southern California's dramatics program, but he was rejected owing to poor grades. Among a number of odd jobs, Hudson worked as a truck driver for a couple of years to support himself, longing to be an actor but with no success in breaking into the movies. A fortunate meeting with powerful Hollywood talent scout Henry Willson in 1948 got Hudson his start in the business.

[edit] Early career

Main article: Rock Hudson filmography

Hudson is cited as stating that Willson coined Roy's new name, a combination of the Rock of Gibraltar and Hudson River, and Hudson made his debut with a small part in the 1948 Warner Bros.' Fighter Squadron. Hudson needed no less than 38 takes before successfully delivering his only line in the film.[1]

He was further coached in acting, singing, dancing, fencing and horseback riding, and he began to feature in film magazines where he was promoted, possibly on the basis of his good looks. Success and recognition came in 1954 with Magnificent Obsession in which Hudson plays a bad boy who is redeemed opposite the popular star Jane Wyman. The film received rave reviews, with Modern Screen Magazine citing Hudson as the most popular actor of the year. Hudson's popularity soared in George Stevens's Giant, based on Edna Ferber's novel and co-starring Elizabeth Taylor and James Dean. As a result of their powerful performances, both Hudson and Dean were nominated for Best Actor at the Oscars.

Following Richard Brooks's notable Something of Value in 1957 and a moving performance in Charles Vidor's A Farewell to Arms, based on Ernest Hemingway's novel, Hudson sailed through the 1960s on a wave of romantic comedies. He portrayed humorous characters in Pillow Talk, the first of several profitable co-starring performances with Doris Day. This was followed by Come September, Send Me No Flowers, Man's Favorite Sport?, and Strange Bedfellows. He worked outside his usual range on the science-fiction thriller Seconds (1966). The film flopped badly at the time but it later gained cult status, and his performance is often regarded as one of his best.[2][3]

[edit] Later career

Hudson's popularity on the big screen diminished after the 1960s. He was quite successful on television starring in a number of made-for-TV movies. His most successful series was McMillan and Wife opposite Susan Saint James from 1971 to 1977. In this series, Hudson played police commissioner Stewart "Mac" McMillan with Saint James playing his wife Sally. Their on-screen chemistry helped make the show a success.

In the early 1980s following years of heavy drinking and smoking, Hudson began having health problems. Emergency quintuple heart bypass surgery in November 1981 sidelined Hudson and his then-new TV show, The Devlin Connection for a year; the show suffered for the delay and was cancelled not long after it returned to the airwaves in December 1982. Hudson recovered from the surgery but continued to smoke. He was visibly ill filming The Ambassador in 1983 with Robert Mitchum - the two stars did not like each other, and Mitchum himself had a serious drinking problem.[4]A couple of years later, Hudson's health had visibly deteriorated again, prompting different rumors.

From 1984 to 1985, Hudson landed a recurring role on the hit ABC prime time soap opera Dynasty as "Daniel Reece," a love-interest for Krystle Carrington played by Linda Evans, and biological father of Sammy Jo Carrington played by Heather Locklear. While he had long been known to have difficulty memorizing lines, on Dynasty, Hudson's speech itself began to deteriorate.

[edit] Personal life

While Hudson's career was blooming, he was struggling to keep his personal life out of the headlines. Throughout his career, he epitomized wholesome manliness, and in 1955, after several male lovers, he married his agent's secretary Phyllis Gates. The news was made known by all the major gossip magazines. One magazine story, headlined "When Day Is Done, Heaven Is Waiting," quoted Hudson as saying, "When I count my blessings, my marriage tops the list." The union lasted three years. Gates filed for divorce in April 1958, charging mental cruelty. Hudson did not contest the divorce, and Gates received an alimony of US$250 a week for 10 years.[5]

In Gates' 1987 autobiography My Husband, Rock Hudson, the book she wrote with veteran Hollywood chronicler Bob Thomas, Gates insists she dated Hudson for several months and lived with him for two months before his surprise marriage proposal. She claims to have married Hudson out of love and not, as it was later purported, to stave off a major exposure of Hudson's sexual orientation. However, after her death from lung cancer in January 2006, several of her friends revealed that she was actually a lesbian who married Hudson for his money, knowing from the beginning of their relationship that he was gay.[6] She never remarried.

According to the 1986 biography, Rock Hudson: His Story, by Hudson and Sara Davidson, Rock was good friends with American novelist Armistead Maupin and a few of Hudson's lovers were: Jack Coates; Hollywood publicist Tom Clark, who also later published a memoir about Hudson, Rock Hudson: Friend of Mine; and Marc Christian, who later sued the estate.

The book, The Thin Thirty, by Shannon Ragland, chronicles Hudson's involvement in a 1962 sex scandal at the University of Kentucky involving the football team. Ragland writes that Jim Barnett, a local low-level promoter, engaged in prostitution with members of the team, and that Hudson was one of Barnett's customers.[7]

A popular urban legend states that Hudson married Jim Nabors in the 1970s. While Hudson was in fact a closet homosexual at the time, the two never had anything beyond a friendship. The legend was hatched as a joke by a group of "middle-aged homosexuals who live in Huntington Beach" as Hudson put it. The group sent out joke invitations to "the marriage of Rock Hudson and Jim Nabors" as a front to their annual get-together. The joke–the punchline of which was that Hudson would be known as "Rock Pyle"–was taken seriously, and as a result of the false rumor, Nabors and Hudson never spoke to each other again.[8]

[edit] Later years

In July 1985, Hudson joined his old friend Doris Day for the launch of her new TV cable show, Doris Day's Best Friends. His gaunt visage, and his nearly incoherent speech, were so shocking it was broadcast again all over the national news shows that night and for weeks to come. Day herself stared at him throughout their appearance.

Hudson had been diagnosed with HIV on June 5, 1984, but when the signs of illness became apparent, his publicity staff and doctors told the public he had inoperable liver cancer. It was not until July 25, 1985, while in Paris for treatment, that Hudson issued a press release announcing that he was dying of AIDS. In a later press release, Hudson speculated he might have contracted HIV through transfused blood from an infected donor during the multiple blood transfusions he received as part of his heart bypass procedure. At the time of his operation, blood was not tested for HIV, which was then unknown.

Hudson flew back to Los Angeles on July 31, where he was so physically weak he was taken off by stretcher from an Air France Boeing 747, which he chartered and was the sole passenger along with his medical attendants.[9] He was flown by helicopter to Cedars Sinai Hospital, where he spent nearly a month undergoing further treatment. When the doctors told him there was no hope of saving his life, since the disease had progressed into the advanced stages, Hudson returned to his house, "The Castle," in Beverly Hills, where he remained in seclusion until his death on October 2 at 08:37 PST. He was 59 years old.

Shortly before his death Hudson stated, "I am not happy I am sick. I am not happy I have AIDS. But if that is helping others, I can at least know my own misfortune has had some positive worth."[citation needed] After Hudson's death Doris Day, widely thought to be a close off-screen friend, said she never knew he was gay.[citation needed] Carol Burnett who often worked on television and in live theatre with Hudson, was a staunch defender of her friend, telling an interviewer she knew about his sexuality and did not care.[citation needed] Morgan Fairchild said "Rock Hudson's death gave AIDS a face.[1] Hudson's most accurate biographer, David Bret maintained that the actor, sexually, was invariably the active partner (known as a top) and that he therefore more than likely contracted AIDS from an infected blood transfusion during open-heart surgery: the hospital where the proceduree took place certainly recorded a number of such cases at the time.

Hudson was cremated, just hours after his death, and his ashes later scattered at sea.[citation needed] Following the funeral his partner Marc Christian sued Hudson's estate on grounds of "intentional infliction of emotional distress."[10] Christian tested negative for HIV but claimed Hudson continued having sex with him until February 1985, more than eight months after Hudson knew he had AIDS. Hudson biographer Sara Davidson later stated that, by the time she had met Hudson, Christian was living in the guest house, and Tom Clark, who had been Hudson's life partner for many years before, was living in the house.[11]

[edit] Awards

  • Academy Award: Nominated 1957 Best Actor for Giant
  • Golden Globe: Winner 1959 World Film Favorite: Male actor
  • Golden Globe: Winner 1960 World Film Favorite: Male actor
  • Golden Globe: co-Winner with Tony Curtis 1961 World Film Favorite: Male actor
  • Golden Globe: Winner 1963 World Film Favorite: Male actor
  • Hudson received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6104 Hollywood Boulevard.

[edit] Bibliography

  • Bret, David (2006). Rock Hudson. London: Robson. ISBN 1861055579. 
  • Clark, Tom; Kleiner, Richard (1990). Rock Hudson, Friend of Mine. New York, NY: Pharos Books. ISBN 0886875625. 
  • Gates, Phyllis; Thomas, Bob (1987). My Husband, Rock Hudson. Garden City, NY: Doubleday. ISBN 0385240716. 
  • Hudson, Rock; Davidson, Sara (1986). Rock Hudson: His Story. New York: Morrow. ISBN 0688064728. 
  • Ragland, Shannon P. (2007). The Thin thirty. Louisville, KY: Set Shot Press. ISBN 097912221X. 

[edit] References

  1. ^ The Man Who Invented Rock Hudson: The Pretty Boys and Dirty Deals of Henry Willson by Robert Hofler, Carroll & Graf, 2005, pp. 163-164 ISBN 0-7867-1607-X
  2. ^ YouTube - Rock Hudson in "Seconds"
  3. ^ Apollo Movie Guide's Review of Seconds
  4. ^ Server, Lee Baby, I Don't Care (2001)
  5. ^ Dennis Mclellan. "Phyllis Gates: Her marriage to Hudson had fan magazines raving", Los Angeles Times, 16 January 2006. Retrieved on 2007-09-05. 
  6. ^ Robert Hofler (2006). Outing Mrs. Rock Hudson: the obits after Phyllis Gates died in January omitted some important facts: Those who knew her say she was a lesbian who tried to blackmail her movie star husband. CNET Networks, Inc. Retrieved on December 20, 2007.
  7. ^ Ragland, Shannon P. (2007). The Thin Thirty. Louisville, KY: Set Shot Press. ISBN 097912221X. 
  8. ^ Barbara Mikkelson (10 August 2007). Good Nabors Policy. Snopes. Retrieved on 2007-09-05.
  9. ^ Shilts, Randy. And the Band Played On: Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic. New York, New York: St. Martin's Press. 1987. p.580. ISBN 0312009941
  10. ^ Willard Manus. "The Cleaning Man Airs Rock Hudson's Dirty Laundry in L.A.", Playbill, 18 Dec 2000. Retrieved on 2007-09-05. 
  11. ^ Marc Christian. Interview with Larry King. Rock Hudson's Ex-Lover Speaks Out. Larry King Live. CNN. 29 March 2001. Retrieved on 2007-09-05.

[edit] External links


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Hosts of the Academy Awards ceremonies

Bob Hope (1961) · Bob Hope (1962) · Frank Sinatra (1963) · Jack Lemmon (1964) · Bob Hope (1965) · Bob Hope (1966) · Bob Hope (1967) · Bob Hope (1968) · Helen Hayes / Alan King / Sammy Davis, Jr. / Jack Lemmon (1972) · Carol Burnett / Michael Caine / Charlton Heston / Rock Hudson (1973) · John Huston / Burt Reynolds / David Niven / Diana Ross (1974) · Sammy Davis, Jr. / Bob Hope / Shirley MacLaine / Frank Sinatra (1975) · Goldie Hawn / Gene Kelly / Walter Matthau / George Segal / Robert Shaw (1976) · Warren Beatty / Ellen Burstyn / Jane Fonda / Richard Pryor (1977) · Bob Hope (1978) · Johnny Carson (1979) · Johnny Carson (1980)