Steamy truth of Hollywood star Rock Hudson’s double life revealed for first time in HBO documentary

It was Hollywood’s most eagerly anticipated wedding in years.

In November 1955, Rock Hudson married Phyllis Gates, the secretary of his agent, at the Biltmore Hotel, Santa Barbara, and finally silenced those who’d asked when the world’s biggest film star – and seemingly most determined bachelor boy – would finally settle down with a good woman.

The modest ceremony took place only eight days before Hudson’s 30th birthday and the pair honeymooned in the Caribbean before moving into a cottage just off LA’s desirable Sunset Strip.

Naturally, Hudson’s female admirers were jealous. After all, this was a man who came to be known for his rugged good looks and muscular physique as the ‘Baron of Beefcake’.

But the photos and public appearances of the glamorous couple silenced most of the whispers that there might be more to Hudson’s reluctance to marry than a simple love of bachelordom.

And that, of course, was the point of the union – reportedly arranged by his controlling agent, Henry Willson, to conceal Hudson’s career-killing secret: his homosexuality.

The glamorous couple silenced whispers about the reasons behind Hudson’s reluctance to marry. And that, of course, was the point of the union – reportedly arranged by his agent, Henry Willson, to conceal Hudson’s secret: his homosexuality.

Naturally, Hudson’s female admirers were jealous of the marriage. After all, this was a man who came to be known for his rugged good looks and muscular physique as the ‘Baron of Beefcake’.

Three years later, they got divorced, with Gates – reportedly being lesbian or bisexual herself – later claiming that she’d known nothing of Hudson’s true sexuality.

However, according to a new documentary that lifts the lid on Hudson’s carefully concealed double life, there’s no way his wife couldn’t have known the truth.

‘Virtually every bit-player, makeup man, assistant gopher at Universal [the studio where he worked] knew the score about Rock Hudson. How did she possibly miss the memo? It’s just inconceivable,’ says the star’s biographer Mark Griffin.

What is true is that the full extent of Hudson’s private escapades has for decades been known only to a trusted inner circle of gay LA friends and lovers who are now speaking publicly – some for the first time – in HBO’s documentary Rock Hudson: All That Heaven Allowed.

And what they reveal is an incredibly complex character: Hudson as both a strait-laced conservative appalled by the idea of being out as gay – and a lothario who enjoyed a wildly promiscuous sex life.

They describe how a network of friends kept him supplied with amenable young men for his private enjoyment and naked pool parties.

‘I thought I was the last man in California to go to bed with Rock Hudson when I finally did,’ says Armistead Maupin, author of the bestselling novel Tales of the City.

Hudson, best known for starring alongside Elizabeth Taylor in Giant (1956) and Doris Day in Pillow Talk (1959), died aged 59 in 1985 just months after his publicist stunned the world by revealing – possibly without his consent – that he’d been diagnosed with AIDS.

Not only was Hudson one of the first celebrities to publicly disclose that he HIV – he was also a man that many people had believed to be the epitome of heterosexual masculinity.

As such, Hudson’s death has been credited with helping change the world’s reaction to the AIDS epidemic. Though, as the documentary makes clear, Hudson himself was hardly an enthusiastic champion of the gay cause or an AIDS activist.

The full extent of Hudson’s private escapades have for decades been known only to a trusted inner circle of friends who are now speaking – some for the first time – in HBO’s documentary Rock Hudson: All That Heaven Allowed. (Pictured: Hudson and fellow actor George Nader).

Hudson was both a strait-laced conservative appalled by the idea of being out as gay – and a lothario who enjoyed a wild sex life. The documentary reveals how a network of friends kept him supplied with amenable young men for his private enjoyment and naked pool parties.

He voted Republican and had maintained every intention of carrying on his closeted existence as long as he could. Any impact he had was unwitting.

Born Roy Scherer and raised in Illinois, he got his chance to act after leaving the US Navy following the end of World War II and moving to LA.

Despite being super-ambitious, he was painfully naïve, not even knowing what an agent was when he arrived.

But he learned quickly, striking up an affair with Ken Hodge, an ex-Navy friend’s gay older brother and a well-connected radio producer who became his de facto agent.

However, after Hudson met powerful Hollywood talent scout Henry Willson at a party, he rather cold-bloodedly dropped the besotted Hodge like a shot.

The predatory Willson was infamous for representing handsome young male actors on the condition they slept with him.

Under his patronage, Hudson was soon well on his way to stardom.

His strapping frame and strong-jawed good looks perfectly suited a post-war demand for leading men who reflected the rugged soldiers that had dominated wartime propaganda.

Even the new stage name – Rock Hudson – that Willson dreamt up for him was deliberately macho.

It was also Willson who ensured Hudson’s true sexual inclinations were never revealed to spoil his commercially essential ‘heterosexual’ image.

Hudson, best known for starring alongside Elizabeth Taylor (pictured) in Giant (1956) and Doris Day in Pillow Talk (1959), died aged 59 in 1985 just months after his publicist stunned the world by revealing – possibly without his consent – that he’d been diagnosed with AIDS.

His strapping frame and strong-jawed good looks perfectly suited a post-war demand for leading men who reflected the rugged soldiers that had dominated wartime propaganda. (Pictured: Hudson with co-star Doris Day).

Even the new stage name – Rock Hudson – was designed to be deliberately macho. He had maintained every intention of carrying on his closeted existence as long as he could.

While Hudson’s natural affability ensured he made few enemies in the film industry who might be tempted to blab on him, he also relied heavily on the discretion of a small and trusted group of close gay friends and lovers.

Those friends now say he rarely established any lasting relationships with men, since he was too obsessed with keeping up appearances in his ‘other’ life.

‘He was taking women out in public, but then he’d have a few drinks and show up at someone’s apartment late at night,’ says the documentary’s director, Stephen Kijack.

It appears Hudson even tried to chat up his male co-stars. While making Giant in 1955, he fell out with co-star James Dean.

‘I didn’t particularly like him personally,’ Hudson admitted years later.

‘Dean considered it hypocritical that Rock was maintaining this hetero façade in public while privately hitting on Dean,’ explains Hudson biographer Mark Griffin.

‘Some might say that’s a case of the pot calling the kettle black, It’s pretty well documented that early in his career James Dean was kept by a gay radio executive… If you’re talking about shrouded sexuality, they weren’t all that different.’

In 1961, three years after Hudson and wife Phyliss split, he met young aspiring actor Lee Garlington at Universal Studios. Their clearly non-monogamous relationship would last until 1965, although they continued to see each other into the early 1970s.

They regularly vacationed together in the US or Mexico, says Garlington who, according to a biography, Hudson thought of as his one ‘true love’.

Inevitably, in a time when homosexuality was illegal and Hudson was instantly recognizable, their relationship was complicated.

Friends say he rarely established lasting relationships with men, since he was too obsessed with keeping up appearances in his ‘other’ life. But in 1961, he met Lee Garlington. Their relationship lasted until 1965, although they continued to see each other into the early 1970s.

They regularly vacationed together in the US or Mexico, says Garlington who, according to a biography, Hudson thought of as his one ‘true love’.

It appears Hudson even tried to chat up his male co-stars. While making Giant in 1955, he fell out with co-star James Dean. ‘I didn’t particularly like him personally,’ Hudson admitted years later. (Pictured: Hudson, right, with Liz Taylor and Dean).

Garlington tells of how they would ‘sneak around’ – him often going into motels alone and booking a room while Hudson waited discreetly outside, creeping in later.

In a New Orleans bar, the pair almost blundered badly when they broke the golden rule that agent Henry Willson had given them of never being photographed together for fear people would realize they were gay. They managed to save the situation by buying the photo and negative off the snapper.

Hudson, Garlington and their close pals would avoid going out to LA restaurants together – instead gathering at the star’s fabulous hacienda-style home in Beverly Hills, which they nicknamed The Castle.

They’d often all adjourn to nearby Laguna Beach where the scene on the ‘gay beach’, says Hudson’s friend Ken Jillson, was ‘very erotic’.

Former gay-rights activist Ken Maley also recalls taking an enthusiastic Hudson out to a secretive gay sex club in San Francisco named Glory Holes, where customers were encouraged to engage in sexual activity through gaps in the walls of adjacent booths.

‘We watched Rock walk around and go in a booth and you could hear this scream, “Oh my God, it’s Rock Hudson!”,’ Maley recalls. ‘It obviously didn’t bother him because we didn’t leave. We stayed quite a while.’

Ex-hospital laboratory boss Joe Carberry, another of Hudson’s close gay friends and occasional lovers, doesn’t his mince words about the actor’s carnal instincts either.

‘He had boyfriends. They were mostly young and pretty and showed huge baskets [slang for genitalia],’ he says.

The documentary contains a recording of an extraordinary conversation between Hudson and a friend who clearly supplied him with casual sexual partners.

The latter describes a ‘damn fun boy’ who works at Paramount Studios and was 6’2” and ‘works out’.

Hudson, Garlington and their close pals would gather at the star’s fabulous hacienda-style home in Beverly Hills, which they nicknamed The Castle. They’d often all adjourn to nearby Laguna Beach where the scene, says Hudson’s friend Ken Jillson, was ‘very erotic’.

Ex-hospital laboratory boss Joe Carberry, another of Hudson’s close gay friends and occasional lovers, doesn’t mince words about the actor’s carnal instincts. ‘He had boyfriends. They were mostly young and pretty and showed huge baskets [slang for genitalia],’ he says.

Interested, Hudson asks: ‘How’s the equipment?’

‘Well, the equipment is about, oh, nine inches I’d guess and he’s very good in that department, too,’ the friend replies – and the star arranges for the damn fun boy to call him.

Hudson also relied on the services of another well-connected friend, West Hollywood optometrist Wes Wheadon, who would ring around and swiftly summon up a crowd of good-looking, muscly gay men for an impromptu pool party where they’d ‘get the chance to meet Rock’. Clothing was optional.

The arrival of AIDS in the early 1980s put paid to the partying.

Oddly enough, then-First Lady Nancy Reagan – who was close friends with Hudson – was one of the first to notice there was something wrong with him, telling his friends he needed to get a large ‘pimple’ on his neck checked after he attended a dinner at the White House in 1984. (The pimple was a lymph gland).

When Hudson was diagnosed with AIDS later that year, he swore his friends to silence.

He went to France to take part in the clinical trial of an anti-viral drug and was there when he was hired to guest star in the smash hit 1980s TV soap Dynasty.

He played the romantic interest of main character Krystle Carrington (Linda Evans) – and, in an episode that aired in February 1985, the pair kissed on-screen.

Hudson refused to kiss Evans properly no matter how many times they re-shot the scene.

It was only later revealed that he had been terrified of giving her AIDS.

The arrival of AIDS in the early 1980s put paid to the partying. Then-First Lady Nancy Reagan – who was close friends with Hudson – was one of the first to notice there was something wrong with him, telling friends he needed to get a large ‘pimple’ on his neck checked. The pimple was a lymph gland. (Pictured: Hudson, left, with the Reagans).

‘I used every possible mouthwash known to man,’ the naïve Hudson had told friends. ‘I kept my mouth closed and so did she.’

In the documentary, an emotional Evans admits she was ‘confused’ at the time, adding: ‘It makes me cry because I know he was protecting me.’

Eight months after the episode was broadcast, the ‘Baron of Beefcake’ was dead.

His last few months helped enormously to de-stigmatize the disease and kickstart efforts to raise funds for scientific research.

His longtime friend and Giant co-star Liz Taylor was spurred into creating an AIDS foundation to help sufferers.

But for Hudson, who’d never dared reveal his true self, it was hardly the Hollywood ending he’d always had in his films.

‘God, what a way to end a life,’ he sighed to a close friend when his AIDS secret was finally revealed.