Rock Hudson Biography

Fast Facts

• Served in the Navy during World War II and, post-war, worked as a postman and truck driver while waiting to be discovered by Hollywood
• His first film, Fighter Squadron (1948), was with Warner Bros
• , but he eventually became a contract player for Universal
• Started his film career as a teen idol but finally was recognized for his acting talent with the 1956 release of Giant, in which he co-starred with Elizabeth Taylor and James Dean
• Was paired for the first time with Doris Day in Pillow Talk (1959), the first of a number of box-office hits for the co-stars
• Motion picture exhibitors voted him one of Hollywood's 10 most popular stars for eight consecutive years
• Television work included the 1970s detective series McMillan and Wife and the prime time soap opera Dynasty in the early 1980s
• Died of complications of AIDS in 1985, after becoming the first major celebrity to publicly acknowledge contracting HIV, a revelation that also disclosed his homosexuality