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 was later adopted and acquired the name
Roy Fitzgerald. 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 in the early
1980s, just shortly before his death. Gates insists
that for her the marriage was real.
Hudson never actually publicly acknowledged his gay
status. However, when journalist Boze Hadleigh asked
him, "Rock, do you think you were born gay?"
the actor smiled and said, "Probably. But only
after I came out of the womb!" In a late press
release, he speculated that he got AIDS from multiple
blood transfusions he received when he had undergone
a heart bypass. Hudson, in fact, did undergo a bypass
years earlier when blood was not tested for the not-yet-known
HIV antibody.
Following Hudson's death, his partner
Marc Christian filed a palimony lawsuit against his
estate and won on the grounds of emotional distress
caused by Hudson's failure to reveal his positive
HIV status.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)
source from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki
More Articles..
