‘Suddenly, he was the face of Aids’: Rock Hudson’s tragic diagnosis destroyed his career but changed the world

The star of ‘Pillow Talk’ and ‘All That Heaven Allows’ – who was publicly closeted for much of his fame – defined clean-cut, heterosexual Americana, writes Geoffrey Macnab. A new documentary on his life and death seeks to reappraise his legacy, however, celebrating his private hedonism as well as his sterling, often overlooked talent as an actor

‘He was really the embodiment of romantic masculinity. For a certain generation of moviegoer, he defined clean-cut, red-blooded, all-American manhood’ (Shutterstock)

Rock Hudson was rugged, handsome and a strapping 6ft 5in tall. He was as deft in action thrillers as he was in light comedies. Hollywood liked him. He was polite, genial, professional. He was also gay, his 1985 death – at the age of 59 – of an Aids-related illness transforming him into the first celebrity face of the epidemic. Hudson never came out during his lifetime, but many have subsequently called him an “inadvertent activist” due to his cause of death. At a time in which Ronald Reagan’s administration roundly ignored the disease as it tore through America, Hudson put it on the front pages and changed social attitudes in the process.

Almost 40 years on, Hudson is edging back into the limelight. A feature documentary about him, Stephen Kijak’s Rock Hudson: All That Heaven Allowed, is being released later this month, while many of the actor’s best-known films are again available on streaming platforms. It’s a timely moment to assess the career of a star whose credits ranged from westerns with John Wayne, Texan epics with James Dean and, late in his life, even episodes of Dynasty, TV’s schmaltziest soap opera.

“He was really the embodiment of romantic masculinity in films throughout the Fifties and Sixties,” Hudson’s biographer, Mark Griffin – whose book inspired the new documentary – tells me. “For a certain generation of moviegoer, he really defined clean-cut, red-blooded, all-American manhood.”