A Look Inside The Life Of Rock Hudson – New Documentary Features Hudson’s Gay Lover
A new trailer from HBO has dropped announcing the upcoming release of Rock Hudson: All That Heaven Allowed. The documentary features archival clips of Hudson in the public eye with photographs of his life away from the film crews.
Hudson was a famously closeted gay man whose identity was a tightly-kept secret by the studios and his partner speaks out about this experience as seen in a brief clip in the trailer.
The man, the myth and the legacy
Rock Hudson: All That Heaven Allowed explores both the public and private life of one of Hollywood’s leading men during the golden age of cinema. Rock Hudson was heralded as the man every woman wanted to be with and every man wanted to be. His career in Hollywood earned him many awards including four Golden Globes and an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor. Hudson’s life away from the cameras was kept a secret from his adoring fans. He was a gay man and this fact was kept under wraps to maintain Hudson’s heartthrob status in Hollywood.
Throughout his life Hudson is rumoured to have had many gay lovers, some of whom have spoken out after his death to either confirm or deny their relationship. In 1985, Hudson was diagnosed with AIDS and subsequently revealed his status making him among the first celebrities to do so. Being such a major name in Hollywood, Hudson’s revelation that he had AIDS is said to have changed the conversation significantly and motivated greater government acknowledgement.
Rock Hudson: All That Heaven Allowed explores the immensity of Rock Hudson’s star-power and the impact he had on the mobilisation of AIDS efforts. Unwittingly, Hudson became the face of AIDS in Hollywood and of closeted stars from the golden age. In the wake of his death from AIDS-related illness, many of Hudson’s celebrity friends expressed their support for him and dedicated funds to eradicating AIDS.
Hudson’s relationships were also a highly-contentious matter following his death. Among those who claimed a relationship with Rock Hudson, Lee Garlington was the one that Rock Hudson mentioned in his biography as his “true love”, reports People. Garlington has given very few interviews about his lover but the few he has provided all speak of the actor with tenderness. Rock Hudson: All That Heaven Allowed will feature Garlington on camera speaking of what it was like to date Hollywood’s leading man behind the scenes and we will get a deeper insight into Hudson’s secret life.
