Older DLs…. Rock Hudson question ….

He was before my time, as well, but he was definitely gorgeous. I don’t find it difficult to think that he fooled the public, regarding his sexuality. He was a conventionally handsome and masculine male. The closet queen I can’t wrap my head around is Liberace!! How in the fuck did any straight person ever believe he was anything other than a raging, insatiable bottom??!

"Amusing" and feminine gay men like Liberace weren't threatening because they came off as asexual, so straight people didn't care about his sexuality, especially straight women, who adored him. A conventionally masculine gay man like Rock Hudson, on the other hand, would've threatened the straight community back then because he emit a sexual vibe. If they knew he was gay, their minds would go to him having sex with another guy every time they saw him on the screen.

[quote]I find it fascinating he fooled basically the entire country in thinking he was straight.

It's not like this was a rare thing to happen. People also thought Cary Grant, Marlon Brando, James Dean, Tab Hunter, etc... were straight.

To answer your question, op, yes Rock Hudson was the Brad Pitt of his era. His being Gay was one of the worst kept secrets in Hollywood. I remember hearing rumors about him and Jim Nabors as a little kid in the 60s before I even knew was Gay was. So although it was common knowledge people liked Rock Hudson as a leading man and chose not to believe the rumors

Rock sucked cock and took cock up the ass.

People see what they want to see and believe what they want to.

In Rock's era, there was no social media. Today, I can probably find out what my favorite actor ate for breakfast and where.

Rock was friendly and outgoing but people only saw him at the Oscars; there was no ET or E! News back in the 1960s or even in the McMillan and Wife era.

As a kid, I totally believed Rock and Susan Saint James as a couple.

He's well before my time but he was a gorgeous man. He was the full package in that he was tall, well built, handsome, and had a deeply resonate voice. Those films he made with Doris Day are delightful to me.

I was a kid in the 1970's and other kids at my flyover area school called Rock Hudson a faggot and said he was fucking Jim Nabors, so it wasn't like people were unaware without internet or social media.

[quote] The closet queen I can’t wrap my head around is Liberace!! How in the fuck did any straight person ever believe he was anything other than a raging, insatiable bottom??!

Are you familiar with the term “hiding in plain sight”? This term applies to Michael Jackson being a pedo, too.

In the pre-AIDS, internet & social media era, there wasn’t much speculation about who was gay. Unless you were a flamer, it was just assumed you were straight. Especially if, like Rock, you were or had been married to a woman.

Also, the studios did a lot of cover for Rock and other popular gay stars AFAIK. Didn't Tab Hunter get outed by their mutual manager so Rock could continue with an A List career?

R8...BULLSHIT. Are you that desperate for attention ? People in the industry might have known he was gay, but it wasnt widely known until his later years.

I have a much older friend (in his 70s) who told me that "everybody" (he said) knew about Rock Hudson even in the 50s because there were tons of rumors around. But as long as there wasn't anything definite, like pics of him with a guy or a Coming Out speech or whatever, nobody cared (though str8 guys, he said, made jokes about him even then), and that it wasn't that different from when there are rumors about a star today.

One of those tabloids (Confidential?) ran a story about Rock bruh in some homosexual commitment ceremony, right? Or was that Harry Belafonte?

What R8 says is true, though: there were rumors about Rock Hudson and Jim Nabors and they were in circulation by the early 1970s. There was always a lot of gossip about Hollywood stars, even by people who had no industry connections.

When you try to compare him to Leo or Brad, it’s really Apples & Oranges.

Celebrities and movie stars were bigger in a different way. They were truly icons.

Example: Elizabeth Taylor at her peak outshines Meryl Streep at her peak. Streep is a better actress, but does not lead a glamorous, jet-setting life off camera. Taylor was an icon off/on camera.

shouldn’t you compare him more with George clooney? He was more of a leading man in the George clooney “one fine day” mold. However I think he was probably less annoying than clooney and not a sanctimonious type of person. Without having grown up in that era it’s hard for me to know how things really differed, but it does seem that it was much more interesting when we were only granted access to what the stars wanted us to see and know. No tmz…

They were fucking during the filming of Giant.

Was he bisexual? Did he have sex with Jim Nebors? I know nothing about him except that he was hot and died of aids.

The only bigger bisexual than Rock Hudson was Liberace!

[quote]Would he be like Leo, or Brad Pittt today or bigger?

Mmm, he was probably more like Ariana Grande

Rock was hiding in plain sight. Anyone catch his appearance on I Love Lucy? He gives the eye to a handsome shirtless extra lounging around the pool. Ya just know they hooked up at some point.

There have been rumors about him, known to the general public. He was handsome but had a limited range as an actor.

I don't think he even tried to hide his sexuality. Didn't he host a ton of mostly male pool parties at his house?

If you wanted to believe it was easy to believe that Liberace (Paul Lynde etc) was simply adopting a flamboyant stage persona in the old music hall style. It's not like the public ever knew them for real.

to young....oh dear!

Rock feigns being gay in Pillow Talk.

Popular films like "Some Like It Hot" and cross-dressing comedians Milton Berle and Flip Wilson helped ease their generation's concerns about gays in the industry. I don't know what they thought of Little Richard!

He was a HUGE star when he did his romantic comedies with Doris Day. I think of him more like Hugh Jackman, because of Jackman's wit and sense of humor, though Jackman doesn't make RomComs.

The studios knew all about Rock's proclivities. He was a huge commodity for them, so they were constantly at odds with him and his private life and having to cover up for him. He didn't seem to care about being famous, and fame chased him, because of his charisma and looks.

There was this one homophobic Director who used to fuck with Rock's wardrobe. I think it was Douglass Sirk. He would demand wardrobe put hats on Rock to make him look femme-- to mock him. But Rock didn't care and just rolled with the punches.

Young people don't understand that before gay lib there was no conception of "being in the closet". In the USA there was the assumption that men and women were hetero. Certainly glamorous movie stars. Now in fact, I was a kid in the 60s and 70s and people knew and I heard of men like Bowie and Mick Jagger sucking some cocks but being mostly straight, and we made jokes about Rock Hudson and Jim Nabors, and Rod Stewart hoovering cum loads. And old stars like Dietrich maybe munching pussy and Eleanor Roosevelt having a gal friend. My grandmother was in fashion and she would say a friend for some lesbian or gay mans lover. But there was NO sense of "being in the closet" or deceiving people. If you knew, you knew these things about people. Other people who didn't want to know, didn't know. It was simple. If some was a cock sucking homo, or pussy eating lesbian, but otherwise a successful person, it was just added information. People were not defined by HETERO/BI/HOMO - it wasn't a question.

Movie Star = Rock Hudson

R29 Hardly. Doug Sirk was as queer as a $3 bill.

[quote]Rock sucked cock and took cock up the ass.

You say that like it's a bad thing.

r32 Oh really? I can't remember who it was. We watched some scenes in film school discussing the Lavander Closet of the 50s, and some director had him in a little white baseball cap pushed to the back of his head which looked so fuckin' gay, it was hilarious.

It wasn't a matter of people like Hudson and Grant fooling the country. It's that people naturally assumed Hollywood actors were straight. The question that they might be gay, which is asked today, never arose in people's minds. So they didn't have to do very much to hide. Homosexuality simply wasn't talked about. EVER. Not in the press, not on the radio, and certainly not in the new medium of television. And America was very prudish. Double beds never appeared in TV shows even for married couples. The Dick Van Dyke show etc had twin beds. Look how MTV even banned the anodyne Queen cross-dressing video that ruined their career in America. And that was like almost the 1980s(?)! Crazy right. But the past is another country.

The Doris Day films really pushed the 'we know he's gay, we know you know he's gay" especially Rock's relationship with his "buddy" the flaming Tony Randall.

Better actor than the hunks of today, he was so handsome. Cary grant too.

Good thread actually. There's always something new to find out about Rock.

I can't name a single actor today comparable to Rock Hudson in looks and persona. He was a star!

R38 Has this thread revealed anything new?

The only one I can think of that reminds me is Tom Cruise - who had the star power and charisma when he was in his prime. Though short. And weird. On screen he was kind of magic. Not a great as Rock and Cary, of course.

A man in a dress was "comedy"! Even in the 80s, Freddy Mercury, in a music video, in a dress, with a moustache, was "comedy". It was Shakespeare level comedy.

In the classic 1930s screwball comedy "Bringing up Baby" Cary Grant ends up in a silk lingerie robe, which was hardcore "comedy" for the 30s! An Uber-Masc male in women's lingerie was over-the-top!

Also, back then, the way they described a gay man (because there was no word for it before the 60s) was "a confirmed bachelor". That was code for "gay".

OP, I'm 58. When I was a kid, I knew Rock Hudson as the star of the television show, "McMillan & Wife." I was around 13 or 14 then, and as a kid who was starting to have those funny feelings about guys, I remember thinking he was handsome. And I clearly remember in high school hearing the rumors about him marrying Jim Nabors, so the fact that they were gay was a big, open secret. Although, I have to tell you most people ignored or were obvious to what is obvious to us today.

In his heyday, even though Rock Hudson was drop dead gorgeous, he was never the top of the top. I would rank Paul Newman as the Brad Pitt of his day. And James Dean was bigger too. Newman was a much better actor, and he was handsomer too. Marlon Brando too. The public was looking for the brooding, male star...and Hudson wasn't that type. He found greater fame in light, romantic comedies.

His biography was really good k deeply enjoyed it. The writer revealed a good deal about him, and his sex life. Based on the book (all that heaven allows) it sounds like he fucked 100s of guys. It was truly sad when it got to him getting sick. According to the book Nancy Regan noticed a lump or legion on his neck in a White House picture and told him to go get it checked out.

Watching my first Rock Hudson /Doris Day film on the late show with my mom in the 70's. She blurts out:

" I can't believe he married Gomer!"

Rock would have known he was sick LONG before he got kaposi. He wasn't living in denial.

"Nancy Regan noticed a lump or legion on his neck."

Oh, dear!

[quote]I would rank Paul Newman as the Brad Pitt of his day.

No. Just, no. Newman's eyes alone were more of a screen presence than Brad Pitt in his entirety. Moving along, pit Pitt against the following:

Cat On A Hot Tin Roof

Cool Hand Luke

Hud

Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid

Exodus

The Hustler

... somebody stop me!

Rock was handsome, but Paul Newman was beautiful. There's a difference.

r46 Rock actually didn't know, because few medical professionals were well versed on what HIV/AIDS was in the early 80s. His doctors thought he had Liver Cancer! There were few blood tests available yet. He knew he was sick and figured he was dying. He found out just a few months before he died that he had AIDS and flew to France(?) for treatment as a desperate attempt to save his life. But no one could help him.

Rock Hudson died October 2, 1985. Don't believe the PEOPLE magazine storytelling about what he knew and didn't know. Grid was well known in LA in 82. AIDS was used as a term in 82, as well. The HIV virus was identified by the French in 83. Rock was of a generation and behavior where many men he knew were dying from 81 on. He knew.

[quote] he was never the top of the top. I would rank Paul Newman as the Brad Pitt of his day. And James Dean was bigger too.... Marlon Brando too.

I think we perceive it that way now because Newman, Dean, and Brando have endured as influential actors whereas Hudson was a purely manufactured movie star with a different legacy; but in the late 50s, early 60s, Hudson was the biggest male star in Hollywood - a Dwayne Johnson level stardom.

I don't recall...did Rock know he had HIV when he did Dynasty and infamously kissed Linda Evans? Looking back, he did look a bit frail on the show but not nearly as awful as during that Doris Day press conference.

(R53) according to the book he did know. The book said he actually tried to do all he could to get the scene cut, or do it half assed. He didn’t want to put her in “harms way” from what was known back then.

r51 No disrespect, I don't know how old you were, but AIDS was not on a doctors' radar in the early 80s like you're implying. I didn't know what AIDS was until they announced Rock died of it, and I still didn't know what it was . I wouldn't fully understand what it was until about "88. Again, there was no internet, no way to spread awareness, just an occasional article in the paper.

R48, you're right without a doubt. But Brad Pitt is A List today. Rock Hudson was never A List. Newman was. And he was a better actor, handsomer and all that than either Pitt or Hudson. But Pitt's a big star today.Newman was then. More so than Hudson.

But honey, R55 you are the ignorant one who had your head in the sand or was not living a gay life in NY, LA; SF, Paris, etc. We all knew what It was And I was in college. We all knew and our doctors knew. Maybe you were lower class or lived in the suburbs or had a hick doctor: What you are describing is IMPOSSIBLE for a rich urban gay male of the early 80s. We all knew. I was in college. Older gay men and my doctor told me in 84 everything I needed to know.

[quote] And he was a better actor

R56 They both knew how to stand in front of a camera. Both were handsome in their own ways.

But one of them used a fake name and one of them allowed himself to be treated as a buffoon or an ornament by pushy women.

I very specifically remember being told. I was at Cornell nd my bf was at Yale and were planing to move to SF in 85 after graduation and my doctor told us we should think twice. And we went to NY. And then his friends were dying. Village Voice was writing about AIDS AIDS AIDS all through 84. It was you who didn't know until 88. Sick Gay men with doctors in BIG CITIES - we knew.

R56, Rock Hudson ranked in the top 5 star rankings from1956 to 1964, two years at #1, three years at #2 below Doris Day.

Don't be a sasshole, r57. I'm speaking from my experience.

According to you, you didn't know until 84, what it was. You're contradicting yourself, sweetie. He found out in 84 too. Again, his doctors thought he had liver cancer from drinking. His symptoms were typical for alcoholism. These were people who didn't know he was gay, so they wouldn't think to test him for HIV.

I came out while in college in North Carolina in 1982.

I started hearing about the "gay cancer" almost as soon as I came out. Later that year, they started calling it "GRID" (Gay Related Immune Deficiency). Sometime in 1983, the name became AIDS.

The gay press was covering the new mysterious disease widely in 1982, even in North Carolina.

My partner and I lived in Atlanta in the 80s and everyone there understood what AIDS was. We had a close friend die in '82 from AIDS and could only be waked at Spring Hill Funeral Home because they were the only ones who would handle AIDS corpses. There were AIDS benefits weekly, Elizabeth Taylor was in town often to lend her support

No - its your time line that is off. Rock Hudson may know have known in 1980 but he knew in the last years of his life. That is my point. You seem to be making a case that many people didn't know about AIDS in the early 80s and its patently shitty history. EVERYONE in NY PARIS AND SF knew including doctors, the press, government. There grew gay demonstrations about AIDS in 85, nimrod. A doctor in Paris told me in 84 and I was a college boy and not sick and not HIV+ but gay. And I had been reading about it in the papers. And Yale was filled with sick boys already. Cornell was a bit remote. Rock Hudson was a wealthy man with sophisticated doctors and he knew about aids form the get go. So GRID, Then AIDS. his generation had many sick men. He died in 85. NOT 82. He knew for several years what he had though there was a big PR to hide it.

Of course Nancy and Ronnie not only dropped their "good friend" Rock as soon as his AID's went public. Nancy refused to help him get an experimental AID's drug. REPUBLICUNTS gotta CUNT.

r64 Your doctor told you in Paris in 84! Your words. You're on the same timeline as Rock Hudson. He didn't know because HE WAS TOLD HE HAD LIVER CANCER YOU FUCKTARD! He was undergoing chemo, you stupid cunt. There are plenty of Documentaries about his life and death! Jesus christ.

You're on Ignore, so don't bother responding.

I can still respond and put out to the world your ASSINE IGNORANT experience stated in R55, about AIDS being unknown to doctors in the AIDS capitals of the early 80s. Idiot hick.

Maybe "AIDS" wasn't the term yet, but by mid-82 for certain you started see friends end up in the hospital and then dying shortly afterwards.

You have also chosen to believe what was told to the world by Rock Hudson and what was told to him by his doctors. Dumb ass.

I never liked him. Rod Taylor was more my style.

^ Rock was as smooth as velvet but Rod was manly.

Rock threw famously bawdy pool parties.

No one has any pictures of these "famously bawdy pool parties".

I moved to NYC in 1979 and commenced my personal gay life there almost immediately, at age 21. My heart almost stopped beating when the New York Native (the gay newspaper of NYC) ran an article about a scary new disease seeming to hit gay men in 1981. By one year later, every gay man in New York was aware of it, because seemingly everyone had a friend or a friend of friend who had passed away from some mysterious illness or was in the hospital. In May 1983, Michael Callen published a pamphlet/book, "how to have sex in an epidemic" and it quickly became a bible in gay circles in NY. It described common safe sex practices without using the term safe(r) sex. I'm sure the same timeline applied to SF and LA. There is no question that Rock Hudson was well aware of the "gay disease" by at least 1983. But there was no test for HIV until March 1985. Unless you had one of the illnesses particularly associated with HIV (KS or pneumocystis pneumonia, for the most part), a doctor couldn't definitively diagnose you with it. I don't have the faintest doubt that Rock Hudson suspected he had AIDS when he started to feel sick, which was probably in 1983 or maybe before. But unless he had one of those diseases mentioned above, his personal physician couldn't have told him with certainty that he had it. At the most, he could mention it as a possibility. The articles about him say that he was diagnosed with HIV in 1984, but he could have only been diagnosed as being Immune deficient, based upon various blood markers, like CD4 counts, because there was no test.

Although Rock Hudson had extensive fame during his heyday (1955-1965), he really was not considered a great actor, mostly just a very pretty face appropriate for light comedy, and he stopped being cast in big films by the mid1960s. It was television that saved his career and kept him as a household name. McMillan and Wife ran from 1971-1977 and it was a very popular TV show at a time when there were only 3 major networks.

There's no way to compare him to current stars. There was a movie star system in the 1950s and a publicity machine that generated endless articles about movie stars in every kind of magazine and tabloid. Now we have People and US to do something similar, but they don't reach nearly the same numbers. There is also not a male movie star out there of our time who has made the transition from leading romantic lead in films to a long-running television program in quite the same way.

Thank you for a very thoughtful reply r74.

Thanks especially for the reminder that the ELISA didn't come out until March 1985. Prior to that, you were diagnosed via the symptoms you displayed. I was going to mention that but you beat me to it and explained it much more eloquently than I could have.

Newman was a star who ultimately became an actor. Hudson was basically a star throughout his career with limited range as an actor---he was akin to Tom Cruise, although a somewhat better actor. Cruise looks so earnest when he's trying to act. Hudson was competent enough that he never had to do that. Clooney seems to be in on the joke of his stardom, whereas I doubt that Cruise is.

Keep in mind that Rock Hudson's initial fame came from serious drama/melodrama: after a string of supporting, then lead roles in westerns (Winchester '73, Bend of the River) and costume epics (The Golden Blade), he became a superstar in the Douglas Sirk soaps like Magnificent Obsession (1954), All that Heaven Allows (1955), Written on the Wind (1956), and the George Stevens historical epic Giant (1956); he wasn't known for comedy, so casting him in Pillow Talk (1959) was a risk -- he demonstrated he was rather adept at it and the public really embraced this aspect of his persona -- adjusted for inflation, Pillow Talk grossed about $250 million in the US and Canada alone.

Rock was handsome and pretty and all that, but he was basically a mannequin emitted no sexual energy, unlike, say Brando, who was walking sex in his prime.

Hudson was as close to being A-list as was possible at a D-list studio (Universal) at a time of change in Hollywood. He rose at a time when the historically biggest studios (Warner and MGM) had lost the power to really make stars---Warner was reduced to trying to elevate often D-list tv contract players into movies. Columbia and United Artists became major powers in this era but didn't have the pr machines of the old big studios.

Children, I saw just released Pillow Talk with my girl friend in high school. Rock was a big movie star as far as we were concerned.

Gay was not a thing that my crowd even knew about. In 1959 that was not an option at my high school and we lived 30 miles from Hollywood, CA

My sister graduated high school in 1960 in suburban Cleveland. They knew about gay--one of her classmates was one of my junior high teachers, known as Roy the fag in his time. If you were sheltered in the late 50s, it was because you were sheltered not that the times were that naive.

Homosexual activity was illegal in all 50 states until 1962. Homosexuality was considered a mental illness until 1974.

It was not considered a good career move to publicize your preference during Rock's tenure in public life. It's still considered a risky long term career move. There was a slew of men who, during the 70s, mentioned being bi and promptly fled back into the closet and/or got married in the 80s once the "gay cancer" news hit the NYT on July 3, 1981.

R81, I said that poorly. What I meant was I didn't know about the gay culture on Christopher St in NYC, Palm Springs, CA and West Hollywood, Silverlake, CA, etc

Why has no one revealed if he was cut or uncut?

Rock was uncut - and I know this from personal experience.

@r84, Because we don't know, but judging by when he was born, uncut would be the educated guess

Does anyone know if he was a top or a bottom?

^ Versatile/top

Well if he was uncut, one hopes he was a top!

Older gossip threads indicate he was almost exclusively a bottom despite being well hung.

^ Yeah, I googled "Rock Hudson top or bottom"... bottom :(

He must have been taking it Up Da Butt if he died of the AIDS in 1985

[quote]Homosexuality was considered a mental illness until 1974.

Anyone who reads this board on a regular basis might wonder why that classification was ever changed.

^ Lol, One can be Gay AND crazy. They're not mutually exclusive

Rock Hudson was the biggest movie star on the planet in 1950s. The only other stars who were in his league was his costar in several movies, Doris Day and Liz Taylor. Who is that idiot who said he isn't A-list or not in Brad Pitt's league ? If Rock Hudson isn't A-list then A-list has no meaning. He was certainly a bigger star than Henry Fonda, James Cagney, Fred Astaire, Gregory Peck , Laurence Olivier, William Holden, Kirk Douglas, James Dean , Harrison Ford, Dustin Hoffman, Robert Redford.

The only reason why he isn't remembered as one of the greatest stars is because he didn't star in many iconic movies.

It's said that Hudson used to frequent the baths on Jermym Street in London. In 1985, the Daily Mirror ran a story that in 1952, when Hudson was 27 years-old, he'd actually been arrested and thrown out of the Savoy baths for importuning. Presumably they had been sitting on the story for thirty-three years before daring to publish it.

Rock was versatile.

I was introduced to Rock by a mutual friend, Sydney Guilaroff in 1980. WE went out a couple of times.

Rock loved being topped IF the man topping him had a large, thick cock. (At least 8 inches). He had a beefy ass and anyone topping him with less, would not have pleasured him as much.

I have about 6.7 inches and he was very frank about not wanting me to try topping him and told me why. I wasn't offended in the least and he topped me. His cock was thick and about 8 inches. It felt amazing and he knew how to use it.

I'd like to importune him at the baths.

The first major celebrity to die of AIDS -- Ricky Wilson of the B52s died a few weeks later.

How did men clean out in the 50s? Or did they? ( ew! )

I was born in 1954 and started having sex in 1967 when I was 13.

I was advised by a slightly older man (23) that drinking lots of water each day (12 glasses or more) would keep bodily openings cleaner than not doing this. In addition, he advised me on foods I should avoid and proper ways of showering to keep the ass clean. Showering at least once a day, doing an enema about once every two weeks and paying close attention to how I washed my ass, seemed to work well.

I do not recall anyone ever making a face or stopping what they were doing because of an odor or anything else. If I had an upset stomach or stomach flu, I would kindly decline to engage in a particular activity. In fact the only time someone expressed a level of disdain was when they remarked, "Jesus Christ, you're so clean down here you don't even smell like a living person..."

I ate a lot of ass in the late 60's and throughout the 70's and never found myself in a situation that would be called repugnant.

Did Rock flood your ass with his load in 1980? How did that work out for your health?

(r102) He did indeed flood it. I'll be 67 at the end of this month and I am still working (teaching in a college) and recently took part in a marathon, so I guess things are fine.

I am HIV negative and look back on the experience with a great deal of satisfaction. In fact it still makes me hard to recall it, as opposed to it being hard to recall it.

Pre-viagra days it was really difficult for guys to get it up. I was 6'5" and blond mid -2O's when I was offered up to Rock. I had to decline because I was a bottom and had a hard time getting erect. Also I hated smokers. I actually met him twice.

good for you! I know bottoms who survived the epidemic and HIV-

You beautiful guys were lucky that Rock took an interest in you. I'm so plain and homely, he wouldn't have pissed on me if I were on fire.

I thought all bottoms bought the farm. No way a strict bottom wasn't going to get infected in the late 70s/early 80s when it was silently spreading. No one used condoms in those days. Only the strict tops, internally homophobic guys who wouldn't do anything more than oral, and ugly guys who couldn't get laid survived.

Hudson’s heyday was kind of short, compared with Newman. He was making schlock like Pretty Maids Allin a Row”. Fortunately, he was able to do tv.

(r107) Not all of us!! This is (r103) and I stopped bottoming from about 1981 until the early 90's when I only did it with a condom. After Hudson's passing, I started working for AIDS organizations recognizing that I was very fortunate to have not become infected in light of some of the activity I engaged in during the 70's, in particular.

This may be stretch but I think Rock is a perfect example of how all the speculation on closeted actors on this site could be true to a degree. I’m not saying every person someone names on here as being gay is true, but just because most people think they are straight doesn’t mean shit basically. You never know!

Cut? Uncut? Sizemeat?

Rock was cut. About 8 inches, larger than average balls, nice bush and quite thick. Loved being rimmed.

The wedding story about Rock and Jim Nabors was created as a joke by some LA queens. At the time, Nabors was acting as Gomer Pyle on Andy Griffin show. The queens sent out a party invitation celebrating the marriage using Rocks “new” name - Rock Pyle.

There was also talk of Rock being involved with Rod McKuen, which was not true. The rumors about Nabors had a serious impact on his career momentum. While he continued to work regularly over the years, he was never looked at or utilized within the industry in the same way he had been from the mid 60's until the very early 70's. One of his most loyal friends continued to be Carol Burnett who had him as her guest on the first episode of her weekly series, each season.

Idc what they say, Brando was straight....100%. Dean was bi (at least) but Brando was traight. He was just egregiously bored and wanted a challenge. Rock was handsome but too wooden for my tastes.

R115

Oh, dear. We have a lost gay with a head injury on our hands. Who wants to post the photo of Brando sucking Wally Cox's massive cock? Or quotes from Brando admitting to bedding men.? I'm too tired to care.

Um I am sure that Brando has sucked cock before but that Cox (lol) picture was doctored. As if we would know what Cox's cock looked liked anyway. My point still stands, Brando was bored.

Brando was a true bisexual, very rare amongst men, which is he just seemed like a "bored" guy. As Quincy Jones said, he'd fuck a mailbox.

Brando was straight but willing to try new things.

Dean was bisexual but leaning more to men.

Clift was gay with rare dalliances with women.

Hudson was 100% homosexual.

So just a Kinsey 3, 4, 5, and 6 respectively, R119?

r117 The photo wasn't doctored and is actually from the late 30s early 40s while he was living in Paris with artists and ex-pats. It was a sold around Paris and he was not yet "Marlon Brando" in the US. That would come after Brando and Cox moved back to NYC and Brando's stage career took off. Brando was unknown when he and Cox posed for that photo.

Brando was 15 years old in the late 30's. He arrived in NYC in 1943 and went to live in Paris in the early 50's, post Streetcar. And I say the pic was doctored, thoughh I guess we'll never find proof either way. xoxo-a Brando historian of sorts.

Brando told a journalist: "If Wally had been a woman, I would have married him and we would have lived happily ever after."

Yep, totally straight

[quote] a Brando historian of sorts.

I have a theory that Brando went into semi-insanity when he was in Japan in 1957.

R124, He did a in depth interview spanning several days with Capote around that time where he admitted to "experimenting" with other guys. I guess spending that much time with Capote WOULD drive one insane, so, could be.

r122 You may have a tighter grasp on the timeline, but sweetheart, Photoshop didn't exist in the 40s. There is no such think as "doctoring photos". Just look at the photo. There are silver prints from the time the photo was taken (whether is was 40s or 50s) You can't doctor a silver print.

Just a 3 second google search has taught me photo doctoring has existed about the same time as photos have. I honestly could care less and am not saying Brando hasn't gone homo a few times. I just think that particular pic was doctored. You are more to welcome to disagree.

HE ADMITTED TO HAVING SEX WITH MEN, YOU FUCKIN' MORON!

Marlon is quoted as saying (by Wally's widow) on Wally Cox's deathbed, "Wally was the only person I ever loved!"

So if he were to have admitted he had sex with women that would make him straight? Look , we all have our theories. Whether Brando had a vested interest in his same sex is pretty irrelevant to me. Not the most interesting thing about him. But if it helps you sleep better at night to know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that Brando sucked Cox's cock at some point in the early 50's and someone decided to make that moment last forever, so be it.

@r129, Yes, but was he gay gay or just metaphorically gay

R126 If we could present an Ignoramus of the Day trophy, this poster would surely deserve it.

Can someone create a thread about Marlon Brando, poor Rock's lost our attention already.

r130 In the photo, he isn't sucking his cock! He's kissing his cock! Google it!

And, FUCKTARDS! "Straight" Richard Pryor has admitted to bedding Marlon Brando! Neither identified as GAY! They both had children with many women! But they got their fuck on with each other, at some point!

I know that Dean and Rock did not get along well at all during the filming of Giant. Liz loved both though. She should have hooked them up.

According to someone's bio (I can't remember who- (Capote, Tennessee, Hudson, Perkins, Bowers, etc). Hudson-- the bigger star-- summoned James Dean to his hotel in San Fran, and tried to seduce Dean, but for whatever reason, Dean wasn't interested and that created a lot of the tension between them on "Giant".

Hudson could have probably had anybody why should he be hell bent on seducing another actor like dean. I think most of these stories of big stars seducing other big stars is just fantasy. I’m much more likely to believe that Hudson was more intent on seducing some handsome crew member as it would be more discreet.

R137, I have to agree. I think the animosity had more to do with Hudson being an A list fabricated Hollywood star of sorts while Dean was the cool young anti establishment beatnik type of actor. It's nice to know that queer/gay people can get along or not without it having to be about g6etting in each other's pant's, or failing to..

'Dean was unknown at the time of the "audition" in San Fran with Hudson but he was "up-and-coming", behind the scenes. Just TV credits. Hudson knew this. None of Dean's films had been released, yet, that would ultimately make him a bonifide star (after his death. ) He became famous posthumously, just from 3 or 4 films that resonated with the teen youth at the time, coupled with his tragic death.

[quote] Hudson could have probably had anybody why should he be hell bent on seducing another actor like Dean.

Just for fun. .. There's the story that Liz Taylor made a bet with Rock on who could seduce Dean.

Who said what about not doctoring photos until photoshop?

They totally look like lovers.

Speculation over the years that he actually acquired the virus in 1981 during emergency quintuple heart bypass surgery.

Hudson's manager the notorious predator Henry Willson had an agreement with Rock that any good looking "new meat" actors he "discovered" he would give Hudson first crack at bedding them. Two who turned down Rock's 8 inches of charm were straight John Gavin (Reagan's ambassador) and French bi-twink Alain Delon.

R143 yes Rock most certainly got HIV from the one surgery, not the thousands of toxic loads that flooded his guts through the 70s, when HIV was circulating.

I love our eldergay who had Delon in the peep booths! Where is he?

After bisexual Troy Donahue was cast with Rock in 1958's The Tarnished Angels knowing that blonde Troy was Rock's type all his friends wanted to know all about the bedding down. Rock shrugged and said:

"Great cocksucker tiny cock."

I tend to agree with r145. There is no real evidence that Rock was gay. A lot of it is anecdotal. Sure, maybe he experimented sexually with other guys, as many young good looking Hollywood actors did back in the day and probably still do, but my gut tells me he was primarily straight with a tendency to "dabble". It is very likely that he contracted AIDS during heart surgery. The timing could not have been more perfect.

Robert Osbourne TCM summed it up in a clip.... if you played the game, the studio and press would leave you alone....it is hard to imagine such a time post internet.

R148, not sure if you're joking, but the dude was GAY. Like, the gayest of the gays. Hollywood literally had to hire a beard wife for him he was so uninterested in the opposite sex.

R143’s article doesn’t mention emergency surgery, it was planned in advance. And you usually didn’t receive transfusions, as far as I know, during heart surgery.

[quote]Nabors was acting as Gomer Pyle on Andy Griffin show.

Oh, dear.

r148 BWAHAHAHAHA! He was barely in the closet around Hollywood. Everyone knew! He got in fights with the studio heads for being reckless and overt. It would cost them a lot of money to pay rag mags from running stories about him.

He worked with Melanie Griffith on a mini series when she was starting out. Does she ever mention working with him? I know Sharon stone said positive things about her experience working with him at the start of her career.

It was Rory Calhoun, not Tab Hunter, whose past got outed when Confidential magazine was going to out Hudson. Whichever studio it was at the time -- maybe Universal? -- got wind of Confidential's plans and offered the magazine the dirty dish on Calhoun instead, including criminal convictions and prison time, with mug shots. One assumes money changed hands too.

"And you usually didn’t receive transfusions, as far as I know, during heart surgery."

You can require a blood transfusion from almost any type of surgery. Depending on a host of factors.

Oh brother. half a million gay men died of AIDS in USA but Rock Hudson was a straight stud who got HIV from a doorknob. That's why he didn't even know he had it until his final months. None of California's top doctors ever though of AIDS for a he-man like Rock.

r157 has got to have a negative IQ and/or a dumb fraucunt. You actually think Rock was a straight stud? You think it's possible to contract HIV from a doorknob? How stupid can you be? This board has really done downhill.

R68 the term back then was 'gay cancer'

R158, have you never heard of sarcasm? Were you educated beyond the 6th grade?

Rock didn't get the AIDS from a door knob. I heard from a really reliable source it was from sitting on a tractor.

Another theory is he got it from eating off dishes at known heterosexualist Liberace's birthday party.

He got it from a toilet seat. When he suggested that to his doctor, the doctor said, son that's a funny place to take a sailor. Rock said, no, it's not.

The problem with Rock is he kept putting the doorknobs in his butt. And THAAAAAAT's how he got the AIDS!

R162, Nah he got it from Liberace's girlfriend. Liberace pounded the puss everywhere and gave it to her. He likely got it from one of the 3 dime store whore he menaged with a few months prior.

Rock Hudson gave AIDS a face-Morgan Fairchild

R148 My gut tells me Rock still wouldn't fuck your gut Karen.

"When his AIDS diagnosis was still a secret, Hudson informed former lovers anonymously."

[quote] It fell to one of Hudson’s closest friends, George Nader, to deliver the news, which took the form of an anonymous letter sent to four people with whom Hudson had sexual relations before his diagnosis. The letters, which were mailed by Nader from Palm Springs so recipients would not trace them back to Hudson, read as follows: “We recently had sex together and I have been informed by my doctor that I may have AIDS. Please go to your doctor and have a check-up.” According to Nader’s partner, Mark Miller, “Only one person ever responded …” It was a 22-year-old man from New York whom Hudson had a fling with. The man found out the next day he had AIDS, and, having guessed the identity of the correspondent, sold his story to one of the tabloids for $10,000. “He died six months later,” according to Miller, who added, “His name was Tony.”

(( sigh )). No one should die from having a sexual encounter, especially a 22 year old. I'm just reflecting back to how horrible that time was. It was gut wrenching and scary, because there was no end in sight. There still isn't.

There might be some end in sight. We'll see how Moderna does it. So far they've beaten all the other vaccines. And things are monumentally better than they were 30 years ago.

R140 I’ve never believed this story. Hudson hated Dean and Dean looked much closer with Taylor in the set photos.

[R140] I also have never believed that story.

A very tall, dumb WASP and a possibly-equally-as-dumb, short, myopic, scruffy, screwy mess.

Did Rock suck off Desi when he guest-starred on I Love Lucy?

^ Not when he had this bughole wrecker.

"If Rock Hudson had collapsed in Los Angeles instead of in a Paris hospital, he would have died with all of his secrets still intact."

Skip to 10m30s mark for the kiss

R78 at least Rock kept his good looks right up until he died.

Roger Ebert, 1986:

"Did Hudson engage in some of the more bizarre gay sexual practices?"

I am the person who met Rock twice. I have posted this before. I was with three other friends South of Market. A friend of Rock's asked me to meet him at the Glory Holes club. The friend met me out front. I went inside and Rock was in a booth his friend pointed me to. I talked to him there and he wanted me to have an orgy with him there and fuck him. After the action was underway I slipped out of the booth in the dark. His (also my) friend never got AIDs and neither did I. I was invited down to LA and one his parties. Two friends of mine were going to to rent a luxury car and drive down the coast staying in expensive hotels on the way down. I was told my share of the expenses was going to be $2,000 which I could not afford so I didn't go. I was also worried because everyone thought I was a top and I had performance issues. When my friends came back to SF they had not done anything sexually with Rock - although one claimed they did later. Every time I see him interviewed about his sexual encounter it pisses me off because I know it never happened. It's amazing how people can lie.

I also met Rock when he came to SF and was in "On The 20th Century" a musical. His manager and him drove me around in his limo and we went to a bunch of bars. He kissed me a few times but he stank of cigarettes which completely turned me off.

R179 Somewhat off-topic but did Rock sing the lead role in “On the 20th Century?” I would have thought some of it was way beyond Rock’s singing ability. I saw him and Carol Burnett in “I Do! I Do!” in the 1970s and he did fine, but the part was written originally for Robert Preston, who had a pleasant but not particularly strong singing voice.

Rock was the lead in the first national tour of 20th Century and I can't imagine there is any way he wasn't doing his own singing. Although I too am surprised he managed that. The part is written for a trained baritone.

^ Meant to add that I don't know for whom the part was written but John Cullum ended up playing the part on Broadway in the first production and he was indeed a fine singer with a good traditional voice.

I saw Cullum twice on Broadway in 20th Century and remember raising an eyebrow or three when Hudson was announced for the tour. Hudson could carry a tune but that part requires more.

R182 & R183. Thanks. I shudder to think what Rock’s voice must have sounded like by the end of the Sunday matinees. Then again, many people weren’t really there to hear Rock sing.

I knew as a kid that John Cullum had a good voice from the OBC recording of “On A Clear Day…” but I was quite bowled over when I heard him on the “20th Century” recording.

Hudson carried the part on sheer star power and got good reviews, with the help of revised orchestrations. Yes, the part was written for a better singer,

wouldn't this clip be approx the time Rock toured in 20th Century? 1980?

This is slightly off topic but this is first time I've ever posted it anywhere.

Back in the early 70s I worked as a proofreader for a major Wall Street law firm and had a coworker kept insisting to anyone who would listen that the film On the 20th Century needed to be adapted as a musical for Bernadette Peters and John Wood.

He was tolerated because he was otherwise a nice guy and really good at his job. And he was highly displeased by Kahn and Cullum.

R186 The mention of poppers in the lyrics is quite apropos. Rock mostly talks his way through this, with vocal cover from Bea. He got cover from Carol Burnett when I saw them, and cover from Judy Kaye in On the 20th Century. OK, I see the pattern that got him through all the singing gigs.

Was Rock fucking Bea?

^ Well, Rock was into guys, what do you think?

[quote]Back in the early 70s I worked as a proofreader for a major Wall Street law firm and had a coworker kept insisting to anyone who would listen that the film On the 20th Century needed to be adapted as a musical for Bernadette Peters and John Wood.

Obviously you weren't paying close attention, because the original film is called "Twentieth Century."

[quote] Village Voice was writing about AIDS AIDS AIDS all through 84. It was you who didn't know until 88. Sick Gay men with doctors in BIG CITIES - we knew.

Plus there were posters, flyers and literature warning us about a new mysterious disease killing gay men. They were distributed at every bathhouse, gay bar, gay center or even in cruise areas, ever since 1981. By 1982, I was fully informed of what was known until then, and I had just moved to NYC from college.

I believe Bea was fucking Rock.

When we were out visiting the bars a older guy told him how good he was in 20th Century and praised his singing. This actually offended him since he knew he was terrible. I think he had once recorded an album.

^^^ get out your turntable.....not sure this ever made it to cd...

Well, r191, I stand corrected but it was over 40 years ago. It is still amazing how obsessed this guy was about this one thing. I was a show queen and actually agreed with him.

"But that was many years ago. I doubt that anyone would know."