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Rock Hudson (November 17, 1925 – October 2, 1985) was a popular American film and television actor and a romantic leading man in the 1950s and 1960s. more...

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Hudson was voted Star of the Year, Favorite Leading Man, or any number of similar titles by numerous movie magazines and was unquestionably one of the most popular and well-known movie stars of the time. He completed nearly 70 motion pictures and starred in several television productions during a career that spanned over three decades. Hudson also was one of the first major Hollywood celebrities to die from an AIDS related illness.

Biography

Early life

Hudson was born Roy Harold Scherer, Jr., in Winnetka, Illinois, United States, the son of Katherine Wood, a telephone operator, and Roy Harold Scherer, Sr., an auto mechanic who abandoned the family during the depths of the Great Depression, in the early 1930s. His mother remarried and his stepfather Wallace "Wally" Fitzgerald adopted him, changing his last name to Fitzgerald. Hudson's years at New Trier High School were unremarkable. He sang in the school's glee club and was remembered as a shy boy who delivered newspapers, ran errands and worked as a golf caddy.

After graduating from high school, he served in the Philippines as an aircraft mechanic for the Navy during World War II. In 1946, Hudson moved to Los Angeles to pursue an acting career and applied to the University of Southern California's dramatics program, but he was rejected due to poor grades. Among a number of odd jobs, Hudson worked as a truck driver for a couple of years to support himself, longing to be an actor but with no success in breaking into the movies. A fortunate meeting with powerful Hollywood talent scout Henry Willson in 1948 got Hudson his start in the business.

Early career

Hudson is cited as stating that Willson coined Roy's new name, a combination of the Rock of Gibraltar and Hudson River, and Hudson made his debut with a small part in the 1948 Warner Bros.' Fighter Squadron. According to Hollywood gossip, Hudson needed no less than 38 takes before successfully delivering his only line in the film.

He was further coached in acting, singing, dancing, fencing and horseback riding, and he began to feature in film magazines where he was promoted, possibly on the basis of his good looks. Success and recognition came in 1954 with Magnificent Obsession in which Hudson plays a bad boy who is redeemed opposite the popular star Jane Wyman. The film received rave reviews, with Modern Screen Magazine citing Hudson as the most popular actor of the year. Hudson's popularity soared in George Stevens's Giant, based on Edna Ferber's novel and co-starring Elizabeth Taylor and James Dean. As a result of their powerful performances, both Hudson and Dean were nominated for Best Actor at the Oscars.

Read more at Wikipedia.org