Profile of Rock Hudson on Famous Like Me

Rock Hudson (November 17, 1925 – October 2, 1985) was an American actor, famous for his rugged good looks. He was the first major American celebrity known to have died from AIDS (specifically, AIDS-related cancer of the lymph glands), and the announcement of his death from the disease at the age of 59 brought it wider public attention in the United States.

Hudson was born Roy Harold Scherer Jr. in Winnetka, Illinois. He served in the United States Navy during World War II as an airplane mechanic. His good looks and strapping size got him a Hollywood audition; capped teeth and a name change got him a small part in the 1948 film Fighter Squadron. In 1956 he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance in Giant, and two years later, Look Magazine named him Star of the Year.

During the 1950s and 1960s, Hudson was known for three 'bedroom farces' co-starring Doris Day. The two made Pillow Talk, Lover Come Back and Send Me No Flowers together. After his death, fans would note the irony in the fact that in both Pillow Talk and Lover Come Back Hudson played a straight man that would pretend to be girl-shy or even gay in order to get a woman into bed; and in Send Me No Flowers, he played a middle-aged husband who believed he had a medical condition with only a few months to live.

Many consider the finest performance of his career to be that as the young Malibu painter Tony Wilson into whom the elderly New York City banker Arthur Hamilton is transformed in John Frankenheimer's 1966 science fiction film Seconds. From 1971 to 1978, Hudson starred opposite Susan Saint James, with whom he did not get along, in the popular American television series McMillan and Wife that aired on NBC.

Hudson married studio employee Phyllis Gates in 1955, and the news was made known by all the major gossip magazines. The couple divorced in 1958. It is thought the studio used this sham marriage in order to cover Hudson's homosexuality, which at the time would have been a liability at the box office if it were made known. Hudson remained in the closet until his sexual orientation became known toward the end of his life. Gates insists that for her the marriage was real.

Following Hudson's death, his live-in lover Marc Christian filed a palimony lawsuit against his estate and won.

Hudson has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6104 Hollywood Boulevard.

Filmography

• Fighter Squadron (1948)
• Undertow (1949)
• One Way Street (1950)
• I Was a Shoplifter (1950)
• Peggy (1950)
• Winchester '73 (1950)
• The Desert Hawk (1950)
• Shakedown (1950)
• Tomahawk (1951)
• Air Cadet (1951)
• The Fat Man (1951)
• Bright Victory (1951)
• Iron Man (1951)
• Bend of the River (1952)
• Here Come the Nelsons (1952)
• Scarlet Angel (1952)
• Has Anybody Seen My Gal? (1952)
• Horizons West (1952)
• The Lawless Breed (1953)
• Seminole (1953)
• Sea Devils (1953)
• The Golden Blade (1953)
• Gun Fury (1953)
• Back to God's Country (1953)
• Beneath the 12-Mile Reef (1953) (narrator in opening sequence)
• Taza, Son of Cochise (1954)
• Magnificent Obsession (1954)
• Bengal Brigade (1954)
• Captain Lightfoot (1955)
• One Desire (1955)
• All That Heaven Allows (1955)
• Never Say Goodbye (1956)
• Giant (1956)
• Written on the Wind (1956)
• Battle Hymn (1956)
• Something of Value (1957)
• A Farewell to Arms (1957)
• The Tarnished Angels (1958)
• Twilight for the Gods (1958)
• This Earth Is Mine (1959)
• Pillow Talk (1959)
• The Last Sunset (1961)
• Come September (1961)
• Lover Come Back (1961)
• The Spiral Road (1962)
• Marilyn (1963) (documentary) (narrator)
• A Gathering of Eagles (1963)
• Man's Favorite Sport? (1964)
• Send Me No Flowers (1964)
• Strange Bedfellows (1965)
• A Very Special Favor (1965)
• Blindfold (1965)
• Seconds (1966)
• Tobruk (1967)
• The Man Who Makes the Difference (1968) (short subject)
• Ice Station Zebra (1968)
• A Fine Pair (1969)
• The Undefeated (1969)
• Darling Lili (1970)
• Hornets' Nest (1970)
• Pretty Maids All in a Row (1971)
• Showdown (1973)
• Embryo (1976)
• Avalanche (1978)
• The Mirror Crack'd (1980)
• The Ambassador (1984)

Television

• McMillan and Wife (1971-1976)
• McMillan (1976-1977)
• Wheels (1978)
• The Martian Chronicles (1980)
• The Star Maker (1981)
• World War III (1982)
• The Devlin Connection (1982)
• The Las Vegas Strip War (1984)
• Dynasty (1984-1985)

External link

• Rock Hudson at the Internet Movie Database
• Classic Movies (1939 - 1969): Rock Hudson

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