Today is the 97th birthday of the legendary screen heartthrob Rock Hudson. I once read a recount of how he got his gravely voice. He was told by movie executives to go up into the mountains and scream until he lost his voice, this damaged his vocal cords in a way that left him with the very low voice he had for his entire career. I am not sure if it is true, but it is crazy to think that someone would tell a person to do that. With his legendary good looks and impressive resume of film credits behind him, he publicly announced he had AIDS to the world and took it from being a fringe disease that no one personally knew who had it to being on the cover of People Magazine. The bravery at the end of his life is an example of true strength of character. He propelled the image of AIDS mainstream, we all now knew someone with it, it became immediately personal for all of us. The world is a better place because he was in it and still feels the loss that he has left.
NAME: Rock Hudson
OCCUPATION: Film Actor
BIRTH DATE: November 17, 1925
DEATH DATE: October 02, 1985
PLACE OF BIRTH: Winnetka, Illinois
PLACE OF DEATH: Beverly Hills, California
ORIGINALLY: Roy Harold Scherer, Jr.
REMAINS: Cremated (ashes scattered at sea)
HOLLYWOOD WALK OF FAME: 6104 Hollywood Blvd.
BEST KNOWN FOR: Rock Hudson was a leading man of the Hollywood screen in the 1950s and 1960s. His death from AIDS in 1985 greatly increased awareness of the disease.
Rock Hudson was born Roy Harold Scherer Jr. on November 17, 1925, in Winnetka, Illinois, and would go on to become an immensely popular actor, recognized widely for his good looks. During the Great Depression, His father, Roy Harold Scherer, lost his job as an auto mechanic and left the family. When Hudson was age 8, his mother, Katherine Wood, remarried and the actor took the surname of his stepfather, Wallace Fitzgerald. Growing up, Hudson did not excel academically, but had a certain charisma that made him popular among classmates.
In 1944, Rock Hudson joined the U.S. Navy and served in the Philippines. Shortly after his discharge in 1946, he decided to move to Hollywood, California, to pursue an acting career. While he found work as a truck driver, most of his free time was spent hanging around the studios and handing out headshots to studio executives. It’s not surprising that people soon began to take notice of the aspiring actor, with his good looks and charm.
In 1947, talent scout Henry Wilson took an interest in Hudson, taking the soon-to-be actor on as his protégé and crafting the moniker by which he’s now best known: “Rock” for the rock of Gibraltar, and “Hudson” for the Hudson River.
Hudson had no professional training as an actor, which proved a difficult feat to overcome. After a few setbacks, Hudson broke into the business, acquiring a contract with Warner Brothers and landing his first role in the feature film Fire Squadron. In 1948, Universal Pictures bought out Hudson’s contract with Warner Brothers and provided him with acting lessons.
Hudson went on to play bit roles in a number of films until he was hired as a lead in Douglas Sirk’s Magnificent Obsession. This film established Hudson as a star and his career, subsequently, began to skyrocket. He starred in several dramatic movies, including the critically acclaimed Giant (1956), which also starred heavy-hitters Elizabeth Taylor and James Dean. Hudson received an Academy Award nomination for his performance in the film.
A pivotal period for Hudson’s career came in 1959. He was cast opposite Doris Day in Pillow Talk, the first of a film series in which he portrayed the romantic lead. The dashing actor quickly became a heartthrob; women lusted after him and men wanted to be him. He paired with Day in a number of later films, including Lover Come Back (1961) and Send Me No Flowers (1964). In 1966, the actor took a chance and accepted a role that was well out of his now-normal spectrum: He starred in John Frankenheimer’s Seconds, a sci-fi thriller that wasn’t well-received by audiences.
In 1971, Rock Hudson joined the cast of the popular television investigative series Macmillin and Wife. In the ’80s, he appeared on the show Dynasty.
Hudson married Phyllis Gates, an aspiring actress, in 1955. Unbeknownst to Phyllis, the marriage was arranged by her employer, Hudson’s agent, Henry Wilson, to keep up appearances. A gay man, Hudson was not outward about his homosexuality due to the social stigma surrounding the topic at the time; he feared that publicly discussing it would be negative for his career. The marriage lasted for only three years; while Hudson was in Italy filming 1957’s A Farewell to Arms, the couple divorced.
Throughout his career, Rock Hudson’s public image remained untarnished, but his private life was somewhat torturous. He had a number of homosexual lovers, but continued to keep his sexuality a secret.
In June 1984, Hudson went to visit a doctor about an irritation on his neck. The irritation turned out to be a lesion and a sign of Kaposi sarcoma, a cancerous tumor that affects AIDS patients. Rock Hudson was diagnosed with AIDS on June 5, 1984. A year later, on Jul 25, 1985, he publicly announced that he was suffering from the disease—becoming one of the first celebrities to do so, as well as one of the first to disclose his homosexuality. His openness was a catalyst for public awareness of the worldwide epidemic.
Hudson spent the remainder of his life surrounded by friends and family. He died from AIDS-related complications on October 2, 1985, at the age of 59, in Beverly Hills, California. He was the first major celebrity to die from an AIDS-related illness. Today, Rock Hudson is remembered not only for his legacy as a talented screen actor, but for his courageous choice to go public about his AIDS diagnosis.
TELEVISION
Dynasty Daniel Reece (1984-85)
The Devlin Connection Brian Devlin (1982)
McMillan and Wife Stewart McMillan (1971-76)
FILMOGRAPHY AS ACTOR
The Ambassador (23-May-1984)
World War III (31-Jan-1982)
The Mirror Crack’d (19-Dec-1980)
The Martian Chronicles (27-Jan-1980)
Avalanche (30-Aug-1978)
Embryo (21-May-1976)
Showdown (8-Jun-1973) · Chuck
Pretty Maids All in a Row (28-Apr-1971)
Hornets’ Nest (9-Sep-1970)
Darling Lili (24-Jun-1970)
The Undefeated (7-Nov-1969) · Col. James Langdon
A Fine Pair (10-May-1969)
Ice Station Zebra (23-Oct-1968) · Cmdr. James Ferraday
Tobruk (7-Feb-1967) · Maj. Craig
Seconds (5-Oct-1966)
Blindfold (23-Dec-1965)
A Very Special Favor (2-Aug-1965)
Strange Bedfellows (10-Feb-1965) · Carter
Send Me No Flowers (14-Oct-1964) · George
Man’s Favorite Sport (29-Jan-1964) · Roger Willoughby
A Gathering of Eagles (21-Jun-1963)
The Spiral Road (3-Aug-1962)
Lover Come Back (20-Dec-1961) · Jerry Webster
Come September (9-Aug-1961) · Robert Talbot
The Last Sunset (7-Jun-1961) · Dana Stribling
Pillow Talk (6-Oct-1959) · Brad Allen
This Earth is Mine (26-Jun-1959)
Twilight for the Gods (6-Aug-1958)
The Tarnished Angels (6-Jan-1958)
A Farewell to Arms (14-Dec-1957) · Lt. Frederick Henry
Something of Value (10-May-1957) · Peter McKenzie
Battle Hymn (14-Feb-1957) · Dean Hess
Written on the Wind (Dec-1956) · Mitch Wayne
Giant (10-Oct-1956) · Bick Benedict
Never Say Goodbye (10-Mar-1956)
All That Heaven Allows (7-Jan-1956) · Ron Kirby
Captain Lightfoot (18-Feb-1955)
One Desire (1955)
Bengal Brigade (6-Nov-1954)
Magnificent Obsession (4-Aug-1954)
Taza, Son of Cochise (18-Feb-1954) · Taza
Back to God’s Country (Nov-1953)
Gun Fury (30-Oct-1953) · Ben Warren
The Golden Blade (12-Aug-1953) · Harun
Sea Devils (Apr-1953)
Seminole (Mar-1953) · Lance Caldwell
The Lawless Breed (3-Jan-1953) · John Wesley Hardin
Horizons West (11-Oct-1952)
Has Anybody Seen My Gal? (4-Jul-1952)
Scarlet Angel (20-Jun-1952)
Here Come the Nelsons (23-Feb-1952) · Charlie Jones
Bend of the River (23-Jan-1952)
Iron Man (18-Aug-1951) · Speed O’Keefe
Bright Victory (16-Jul-1951) · Dudek
Air Cadet (14-Mar-1951)
Tomahawk (5-Feb-1951) · Burt Hanna
Shakedown (1-Sep-1950)
The Desert Hawk (5-Aug-1950)
Winchester ’73 (12-Jul-1950) · Young Bull
I Was a Shoplifter (27-Apr-1950)
Undertow (1-Dec-1949) · Detective
Author of books:
Rock Hudson: His Story (1986, biography)
Waldina 
One comment