Actor rock hudson biography market
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New Rock Hudson biography reveals the secrets the closeted star tried to hide
Rock Hudson was everything a romantic leading man could be in the 1950s and ‘60s – hunky, clean-cut, extraordinarily handsome – so much so that he ascended to a place where he was considered the “king of Hollywood” and lived in a Beverly Hills mansion nicknamed “The Castle.”
But as author Mark Griffin points out in his exhaustive and empathetic biography “All That Heaven Allows” (Harper, 496 pp., ★★★ out of four stars), the actor paid a heavy personal price for his preeminence.
Deeply closeted in an era where an openly gay man could never be a celluloid hero, Hudson – a matinee idol of the first order who wooed Elizabeth Taylor, Lauren Bacall, Gina Lollobrigida and Doris Day onscreen, and starred most successfully and famously in films like “Giant” and “Pillow Talk” – spent his life and career hiding in plain sight.
That’s the narrative thrust of this on-screen/off-screen examination of Hudson: “Long b
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Rock Hudson
American actor (1925–1985)
For the 1990 film, see Rock Hudson (film).
Rock Hudson (born Roy Harold Scherer Jr.; November 17, 1925 – October 2, 1985) was an American actor. One of the most popular movie stars of his time, he had a screen career spanning more than three decades. He was a prominent figure in the Golden Age of Hollywood.
He achieved stardom with his role in Magnificent Obsession (1954),[1] followed by All That Heaven Allows (1955), and Giant (1956), for which he received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actor. Hudson also found continued success with a string of romantic comedies co-starring Doris Day: Pillow Talk (1959), Lover Come Back (1961), and Send Me No Flowers (1964). During the late 1960s, his films included Seconds (1966), Tobruk (1967), and Ice Station Zebra (1968). Unhappy with the film scripts he was offered,[2] Hudson formed his own film production companies, first 7 Pictures Corpora
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The public and private Rock Hudson
A Hollywood producer once called him "Prince Charming" – a fitting nickname for a man whose life seemed, for most of it, like a storybook. Rock Hudson started steaming up the screen in the 1950s, and continued for nearly four decades, in more than 60 films. But today he's perhaps overlooked, said documentary director Stephen Kijak.
Smith asked, "Why do you think his name is not up there with the James Deans and the Marilyn Monroes?"
Kijak replied, "I don't know. I think it's partly because the legacy ends up just being, 'Oh, Rock Hudson was that actor who died of AIDS.'"
But now, in his new HBO documentary, "Rock Hudson: All That Heaven Allowed," Kijak explores Hudson's whole life, as a global star, and closeted gay man. In the documentary, Hudson's friend Ken Jillson said, "Our social life with him was very private. We didn't go out to restaurants. We would go to Rock's house. It was called the Castle."
Yes, Prince Charmin