Rock Hudson

Did You Know?

• Hudson was born Roy Harold Scherer Jr. in Winnetka, Illinois, and was raised as a Roman Catholic.
• He attended New Trier High School in Winnetka, the same school as Charlton Heston and Ann-Margret.
• Hudson was parodied as Rock Quarry in the 1961 Flintstones episode 'The Rock Quarry Story'.

Career

Hudson graduated from high school in 1943 and enlisted in the United States Navy the following year during World War II. After training at the Great Lakes Naval Training Station, he departed San Francisco aboard the troop transport SS Lew Wallace, reporting to Aviation Repair and Overhaul Unit 2 on Samar, Philippines, as an aircraft mechanic. He returned to San Francisco in 1946 aboard an aircraft carrier and was discharged that year. He then moved to Los Angeles to live with his biological father and pursue acting, working odd jobs including as a truck driver.

After being rejected by the University of Southern California's dramatics program due to poor grades, he sent a picture to talent scout Henry Willson in 1947. Willson took him on as a client and changed his name to Rock Hudson, a name Hudson later said he hated, combining the Rock of Gibraltar and the Hudson River. Hudson made his acting debut in 1948 with a small part in the Warner Bros. film Fighter Squadron, directed by Raoul Walsh; a 21st-century source reported it took 38 takes for him to deliver his only line.

He was signed to a long-term contract by Universal-International, where he received coaching in acting, singing, dancing, fencing, and horseback riding, and was promoted in film magazines. His first film credit came in 1949 as Roc Hudson in William Castle's Undertow. In 1950 he acted in several films, including One Way Street, Shakedown, I Was a Shoplifter, Peggy, Winchester '73, and The Desert Hawk. He was billed third in The Fat Man in 1951 and played a boxer in Iron Man.

Hudson was promoted to leading man for Scarlet Angel in 1952 and co-starred with Piper Laurie in Has Anybody Seen My Gal, his first film directed by Douglas Sirk. He appeared in Bend of the River and Here Come the Nelsons that year. In 1953 he starred in The Lawless Breed and Seminole, and appeared in a Camel commercial set on the Seminole set.

Personal life

Throughout his career, Hudson and his agent Henry Willson kept the actor's personal life hidden from the public. In 1955, Confidential magazine threatened to publish an exposé about Hudson's homosexuality; Willson stalled this by disclosing information about two other clients: Rory Calhoun's prison years and Tab Hunter's arrest at a 1950 party. Some colleagues stated that Hudson's homosexual activity was well known in Hollywood, and celebrity friends including Julie Andrews, Mia Farrow, Elizabeth Taylor, Susan Saint James, Audrey Hepburn, and Carol Burnett said they had known and kept it secret.

Soon after the threat from Confidential, Hudson married Willson's secretary Phyllis Gates. Gates later wrote that she dated Hudson for several months, lived with him for two months before his unexpected proposal, and married him out of love, not to prevent an exposé. Press coverage quoted Hudson saying, 'When I count my blessings, my marriage tops the list.' Gates filed for divorce after three years in April 1958, citing mental cruelty, a standard practice to bypass the mandatory wait for divorce approval.

Hudson did not contest the divorce, and Gates received alimony of $250 per week for ten years, as well as assets in Hudson's company 7 Pictures Corporation; she later sued to obtain shares in his new company Gibraltar Productions. She never remarried. In 2005, biographer Bob Hofler told The Village Voice that Gates attempted to blackmail Hudson about his homosexual activities, and in The Advocate claimed Gates was a lesbian who believed from the start that Hudson was gay.

The 1986 authorized biography Rock Hudson: His Story named some of Hudson's lovers, including Jack Coates, Tom Clark, Lee Garlington, and Marc Christian.

Illness and death

Hudson was diagnosed with AIDS on June 5, 1984, three years after the first cluster of symptomatic patients emerged in the United States and a year after scientists concluded that HIV causes AIDS. He kept the illness secret and continued working while traveling to France and other countries seeking treatment. During a 1984 visit to London, he appeared gaunt on the BBC's Wogan talk show, reviewing his career and stating that fate had played a huge part in his success.

On July 16, 1985, he joined Doris Day for a press conference announcing her cable TV show Doris Day's Best Friends; his emaciated appearance shocked viewers, and clips were broadcast repeatedly. Day later acknowledged that Hudson 'was very sick.' Two days later, he traveled to Paris for treatment. After collapsing at the Ritz Hotel on July 21, his publicist Dale Olson claimed Hudson had inoperable liver cancer and denied reports of AIDS.

In Paris, Hudson was denied access to the Hôpital d'instruction des armées Percy for experimental treatment because he was not a French citizen. On July 24, Olson sent a telegram to the Reagans, with whom Hudson had been friendly, asking for intervention; a White House staffer responded that Mrs. Reagan did not feel the White House should get involved and advised contacting the U.S. Embassy. Hudson was later admitted after intervention from French defence minister Charles Hernu.

On July 25, Hudson's French publicist Yanou Collart confirmed that Hudson had AIDS, making him one of the earliest mainstream celebrities whose diagnosis was reported publicly.

Lawsuits

After Hudson's death, his former lover Marc Christian sued the estate for intentional infliction of emotional distress, claiming Hudson continued having sex with him until February 1985, more than eight months after learning he had HIV. Christian repeatedly tested negative for HIV but said he suffered severe emotional distress after learning from a July 25, 1985, newscast of Hudson's diagnosis. He also sued Hudson's secretary Mark Miller for $10 million, alleging Miller lied about Hudson's illness.

In 1989, a jury awarded Christian $21.75 million in damages, later reduced to $5.5 million. Christian later defended Hudson's reputation, stating, 'You can't dismiss a man's whole life with a single act.' In 1990, Hudson's live-in publicist Tom Clark and publicist Dick Kleiner published Rock Hudson, Friend of Mine, in which Clark said he believed Hudson acquired HIV from blood transfusions during 1981 heart surgery and characterized Christian as disreputable.

Christian filed a $22 million libel suit against the authors and publisher. In 2010, the attorney who represented the Hudson estate, Robert Park Mills, released a book questioning Christian's allegations.