- Born
- 17 November 1925Winnetka, Illinois, USA
- Died
- 2 October 1985Beverly Hills, California, USA · aged 59
Rock Hudson
Rock Hudson’s screen image depended on concealing his sexuality; his public AIDS diagnosis later transformed attention to the epidemic.
Rock Hudson was born in Winnetka, Illinois, in 1925. Born Roy Scherer, he served in the US Navy before seeking acting work in Los Angeles.
The agent Henry Willson helped construct a new name and public image. Hudson became a leading man in Douglas Sirk’s melodramas, received an Academy Award nomination for “Giant” and developed a successful comic partnership with Doris Day. Television later brought another audience through “McMillan & Wife”.
His relationships with men were known to people within the industry but concealed from the wider public. A brief marriage to Phyllis Gates formed part of that carefully managed image.
In July 1985, the announcement that Hudson had AIDS brought extraordinary attention to a disease already devastating less visible communities. His financial support helped launch what became amfAR, alongside the work of activists, researchers and other donors. Hudson died in Beverly Hills on 2 October 1985, aged fifty-nine. His story exposes both the costs of Hollywood secrecy and the inequalities that shaped public concern about AIDS.