Hudson Rock

American actor, a matinee idol whose name stood for the Hollywood Golden Age of wholesome heroics and light hearted romance. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor in "Giant" in 1957 and won the Golden Globe for Favorite Film Male four times. Born above a Walgreens drug store in a quiet mid-western town, he was the son of an auto mechanic and his mom, Kay, a housewife. His parents divorced when he was small and his mom remarried when he was seven. Roy took his step-dads name, Fitzgerald, when he was eight although the man beat and verbally abused him. His relationship with his mom was very close; he loved her deeply and she was a major figure in his life. His mother is quoted as telling him, "Never make a fool of yourself and more importantly, never embarrass me." His schoolmates at New Trier High School saw him as a quiet young man having difficulty making friends and when he left to join the Navy he kept very few ties to his home town. He served in the Philippines as an aircraft mechanic in World War II and moved to Los Angeles in 1946 to be with his dad. He wanted to be an actor and while waiting to be discovered he drove a delivery truck. Having had some homosexual contact while he was in the Navy, when he moved to Southern California he was happy to find an area where he could practice his chosen lifestyle in relative obscurity. His first lover in Los Angeles was Ken Hodge, a staff member of the Lux Radio Theater. They moved into a Hollywood apartment in 1948 and from that time on whenever he had a male roommate he had two phone lines and was the only one to answer them. He was always careful not to be photographed with another man. At a party Hudson met agent Henry Wilson, a notorious homosexual who was a shrewd judge of talent and brilliant at launching careers. As a novice actor he was a frequent target of ridicule. His unsuccessful first screen test was a standing Hollywood joke that became an instruction reel at 20th Century Fox, "How Not To Act." Due to his appealing dark good looks and his 64" frame he was signed by Universal in 1947 to do small parts. The studio changed his name to Rock Hudson, which at first he hated, but he grew to tolerate it and later named his production company Gibraltar. He promptly started lessons in acting, singing, dancing, horseback riding and fencing. His first film was "Fighter Squadron" in 1948. Hudson was not merely a survivor of the studio system, he was a master of it. Universal had invested a lot in him and when the scandal sheet "Confidential" threatened to print a story about his sexual orientation, the company made a deal with them, Hudson stayed out of their magazine, but George Nader, a close friend of Hudsons, was "ousted." His career was always his determining factor. Hudson appeared on the cover of Life Magazine in the early 1950s with the story, "The Simple Life of a Busy Bachelor" and his popularity soared as women loved him and men envied him. A very romantic man, he enjoyed flirting with women and occasionally had affairs with them. One of his gay friends said he had fewer feminine traits and mannerisms than anyone he knew, even in private. A shallow man, despising introspection, he never grew emotionally past childhood. In four years Universal used his talents in 22 feature films. His big break came in 1954 when he played opposite Jane Wyman in "Magnificent Obsession." He took his mother to the premier. This film proved his talent Read less