The public and private Rock Hudson

it's Sunday morning on CBS and here again is  Jane Pauley for all appearances Rock Hudson   seemed to be Central casting for the Hollywood  heartthrob but as we now know there was so much   more to his story Tracy Smith looks back at  The Life and Legacy of Rock Hudson [Music]   you are my inspiration   Marie a Hollywood producer once called him  Prince Charming can't you see it's impossible no fitting nickname for a man whose life seemed  for most of it like a storybook well hello   hello I'm an inspector what  would you like to inspect? you [Music] Rock Hudson started steaming up the  screen in the 1950s and continued for nearly   four decades in more than 60 films I'm liked to  kiss you [Music] that's even easier than dancing   but today he's perhaps overlooked says documentary  director Stephen Kijak why do you think his name   is not up there with the James Deans and the  Marilyn Monroe's I don't know you know I think   it's partly because the Legacy ends up just being  a Rock Hudson was that actor who died of AIDS   The Rock was an icon it was by far the  biggest star in Hollywood not only did   women say that's the man I want to marry many men  said that's the man I'd like to be but now in his   new HBO documentary all that haven't allowed Kijak  explores Rock Hudson's whole life as a global star   and closeted gay man talking to friends like Ken  Jillson our social life with him was very private   I mean we didn't go out to restaurants we would  go to The Rock's house it was called the castle   yes Prince Charming really did call his home  the castle a Beverly Hills mansion that must   have seemed a million miles away from Winnetka  Illinois where Hudson grew up as Roy Fitzgerald   I could never freely say I'm going to  be an actor when I grow up yeah because   that's sissy stuff he comes from very modest  backgrounds biographer Mark Griffin says when   Roy from Illinois met notorious Hollywood agent  Henry Willson the first thing he did was change   his name to a manly Rock Hudson and then you have  to groom the person to match the name as it were   and rock really was Henry Willson's most  successful creation by far he molded him into   exactly what America was looking for yeah perfect  archetype for American masculinity at that time he was paired with the biggest stars  Jane Wyman in Magnificent Obsession and three movies with Doris Day starting with  pillow talk look I don't know what's bothering   you but don't take your bedroom problems out on  me I have no bedroom problems there's nothing   in my bedroom that bothers me oooh that's too  bad in real life Hudson was dating men like   Lee Garlington we were ordered never to have our  picture taken together because somebody would know   said we were gay Hudson even married his agent  secretary Phyllis Gates it lasted just three   years but Hudson's commitment to playing straight  never faltered and friends like Doris Day kept   his secret many many people would ask me you  know Is Rock Hudson really gay and I said it's   something that I will not discuss I mean first  of all I know nothing about his private life   Hudson's career evolved allowed me to finish  my champagne from movies to TV including the   hit '70s series McMillan & Wife but in the '80s  his life collided with the emerging AIDS epidemic   I was asked to see a celebrity patient  Rock Hudson and determined in fact that   he did have AIDS I guided him as best  I could it was still the Dark Ages   and so everyone was afraid there was a lot of  fear it was a lot of denial and I think his way of   coping was just to keep working and to deny that  anything was wrong because no one knew in those   days nobody knew what was going to happen as is  Health worsened Hudson took on one last role with   one last leading lady Linda Evans on Dynasty as  the documentary tells it his diagnosis was still   a secret to everyone including her but it was so  much thinner and didn't look like he felt good   shoulder at a time when some feared that kissing  could transmit the virus that causes AIDS the   script called for just that I know I'm fine they  wanted it to be passionate and it didn't end up   being that how was he kissing you very timidly  very unromantically and I knew he knew how to kiss   passionately and that's why I was surprised  he's a fine actor he knows what he's doing   so it was confusing tonight David Dow  reports another case of AIDS has been   confirmed affecting the most well-known victim  yet but on July 25 1985 it became clear with   a publicist's announcement from Paris where  Hudson had gone for treatment Mr Rock Hudson   has acquired immune deficiency syndrome  which was diagnosed over a year ago   in the United States how famous was he one press  conference announcing That Rock Hudson has AIDS   and in about five minutes it's a worldwide news  story it's on every newspaper every news program   it's the lead I was just devastated for him and  then in thinking back I felt very strongly that   that he kissed me like that to protect me  nobody knew but they said kissing could be   one of the ways that you could catch it possibly  and the thing that was so hard so hard was the   Press was so brutal with him after that and  they didn't realize what he was going through   returning from Paris was its own ordeal he's  actually forced if you can believe it to Charter   at the expense of $250 000 at chartered 747  which would fly him back to America essentially   home to die as it were because no commercial  flights at that time would willingly accept   even an A-list celebrity who was dying of  AIDS back in the castle on his deathbed he was   comforted by his dear friend Elizabeth Taylor and  everyone was maintaining a very polite distance   and Taylor quite admirably said well this is  ridiculous and she crawled into bed with him   and cuddled with him and hugged him as though kind  of a little bit of a maternal gesture Elizabeth   Taylor became a leader in the fight against AIDS  and Griffin says Rock Hudson played a vital role   because everyone knew Rock Hudson now everyone  in the world knew somebody who had AIDS and   suddenly there was public interest so is it  fair to say that there was AIDS before Rock   Hudson AIDS after Rock Hudson it was Rock's own  physician who said Rock Hudson was the single   most influential AIDS patient in history because  he changed the way that the disease was perceived   Rock Hudson died at age 59 on October 2nd 1985.  just a few weeks earlier he'd send a note to be   read aloud at an AIDS fundraiser I am not happy  that I am sick I am not happy that I have AIDS but   if that is helping others I can at least know  my own Misfortune has had some positive worth

Channel: CBS Sunday Morning

Views: 186,885

Keywords: CBS Sunday Morning, CBS News, news, Rock Hudson, AIDS, HIV, Stephen Kijak, Rock Hudson: All That Heaven Allowed, Mark Griffin, Linda Evans, Dynasty, heterosexuality, homosexuality

Id: PhZRqiT6WxY

Length: 8min 59sec (539 seconds)

Published: Sun Jun 25 2023