Henry Willson’s behavior was protected by other powerful players in the entertainment industry who depended on him for a steady stream of fresh, young talent.
In episode 3 of “Variety Confidential,” host Tracy Pattin and co-host Matt Donnelly, Variety’s senior entertainment and media writer, unearth the story of Willson, an aggressive, midcentury Hollywood talent agent and manager who succeeded in both spotting and taking advantage of young actors within whom he saw potential for fame.
Willson, a closeted gay man, would lure dozens of handsome young men, or “beefcakes” as they would come to be known, to his Los Angeles home after wining and dining them and promising fame. “He seems to have insinuated himself into their lives,” Pattin explains. “He became their friend, the parent, the protector, and in many cases, their lover.”
Willson prioritized on-screen sex appeal over acting ability, which was key to landing roles for...
In episode 3 of “Variety Confidential,” host Tracy Pattin and co-host Matt Donnelly, Variety’s senior entertainment and media writer, unearth the story of Willson, an aggressive, midcentury Hollywood talent agent and manager who succeeded in both spotting and taking advantage of young actors within whom he saw potential for fame.
Willson, a closeted gay man, would lure dozens of handsome young men, or “beefcakes” as they would come to be known, to his Los Angeles home after wining and dining them and promising fame. “He seems to have insinuated himself into their lives,” Pattin explains. “He became their friend, the parent, the protector, and in many cases, their lover.”
Willson prioritized on-screen sex appeal over acting ability, which was key to landing roles for...
- 1/3/2024
- by Lauren Ames
- Variety Film + TV
Just over 30 years ago, director Mark Rappaport in his playful deconstructionist essay Rock Hudson’s Home Movies, cleverly mined the queer subtext in the midcentury Hollywood superstar’s screen work to speculate on his inner conflict as a gay public figure confined to the closet. Stephen Kijak’s more conventional, though also more heartfelt docu-portrait, Rock Hudson: All That Heaven Allowed, takes a similarly cheeky approach to sniffing out coded behavior in a staggering array of clips that find just as much pathos as amusement.
Contextualizing Hudson’s regimented stardom against the relative freedom with which he lived his sexuality within a trusted circle, the HBO film paints him less as a victim of repressive times — though he certainly was that — than as a savvy product of the studio system who learned quickly how to play the game without losing his sense of self.
The tragic conclusion of his life...
Contextualizing Hudson’s regimented stardom against the relative freedom with which he lived his sexuality within a trusted circle, the HBO film paints him less as a victim of repressive times — though he certainly was that — than as a savvy product of the studio system who learned quickly how to play the game without losing his sense of self.
The tragic conclusion of his life...
- 6/15/2023
- by David Rooney
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
During his lifetime, Rock Hudson was a model for American masculinity. That changed after his death, when the strapping, straight-acting (but occasionally sensitive) hunk from Winnetka became the poster boy for Hollywood homophobia: a closeted star who’d been forced to play a role his entire career that wasn’t true to himself, on screen and off. “Rock Hudson: All That Heaven Allowed” treats that compromise as a tragedy, leaning on the fact Hudson died of AIDS to underscore the injustice, but Stephen Kijak’s documentary does him a disservice, reducing Hudson’s career — in exactly the way he went so far out of his way to avoid — to the dimension of his sexuality.
Built around interviews with a handful of former lovers and friends, Kijak spills private details from Hudson’s personal life, ranging from whom he shagged to how he arranged such trysts in the first place. A...
Built around interviews with a handful of former lovers and friends, Kijak spills private details from Hudson’s personal life, ranging from whom he shagged to how he arranged such trysts in the first place. A...
- 6/11/2023
- by Peter Debruge
- Variety Film + TV
To those who don’t obsessively watch TCM, or generally eschew movies made before 1980, Rock Hudson is little more than a factoid, best remembered for his sexuality than for the movies he made. And yet, while Hudson today is known as a gay man, it was something that he did his best to keep hidden and, as Stephen Kijak lays out towards the end of his HBO documentary, would have taken to the grave if he could have.
“Rock Hudson: All That Heaven Allowed” is in the vein of other prominent documentaries aimed at telling the real story behind the Old Hollywood façade, including HBO’s most recent “The Last Movie Stars.” The revelations within the documentary’s 104-minute runtime aren’t revolutionary, but seek to give viewers an authentic look at a man whose life so often was swathed in artifice.
It’s impossible to underscore Hudson’s appeal...
“Rock Hudson: All That Heaven Allowed” is in the vein of other prominent documentaries aimed at telling the real story behind the Old Hollywood façade, including HBO’s most recent “The Last Movie Stars.” The revelations within the documentary’s 104-minute runtime aren’t revolutionary, but seek to give viewers an authentic look at a man whose life so often was swathed in artifice.
It’s impossible to underscore Hudson’s appeal...
- 6/11/2023
- by Kristen Lopez
- The Wrap
Rock Hudson’s life as a closeted Hollywood icon is now captured in documentary “Rock Hudson: All That Heaven Allowed.”
Helmed by Stephen Kijak (“We Are X,” “Shoplifters of the World”), the HBO film charts the “Giant” heartthrob’s career as an actor of the studio system until his final role in “Dynasty” ahead of his 1985 death from AIDS.
Among the most iconic Hollywood men of the 1950s and ’60s, Rock Hudson embodied masculinity and straightness until his diagnosis and death from AIDS in 1985 shattered those notions in the eyes of the public. “Rock Hudson: All That Heaven Allowed” tells the story of Hudson as a man who lived a double life; while his public persona was meticulously curated by his handlers, controlled by the studio system, and falsely anchored by a lavender marriage, Hudson had to keep his homosexuality behind closed doors due to anti-gay sentiments at the time,...
Helmed by Stephen Kijak (“We Are X,” “Shoplifters of the World”), the HBO film charts the “Giant” heartthrob’s career as an actor of the studio system until his final role in “Dynasty” ahead of his 1985 death from AIDS.
Among the most iconic Hollywood men of the 1950s and ’60s, Rock Hudson embodied masculinity and straightness until his diagnosis and death from AIDS in 1985 shattered those notions in the eyes of the public. “Rock Hudson: All That Heaven Allowed” tells the story of Hudson as a man who lived a double life; while his public persona was meticulously curated by his handlers, controlled by the studio system, and falsely anchored by a lavender marriage, Hudson had to keep his homosexuality behind closed doors due to anti-gay sentiments at the time,...
- 6/8/2023
- by Samantha Bergeson
- Indiewire
Hollywood icon Rock Hudson gets a new twist on his history in Netflix's Hollywood. If you're wondering whether the real Rock Hudson ever got married, you're in for a sad answer. Despite being gay, Hudson did get married in the 1950s. Although Hollywood gives him a much happier romance, the real Hudson's marriage was disastrous on all fronts.
In 1955, Hudson married Phyllis Gates, the secretary of his agent, Henry Willson. Gates actually does appear in a few scenes in Hollywood, though only in her capacity as Willson's secretary, not as Hudson's love interest; the show's alternate history has Hudson (played by Jake Picking) falling in love with a (wholly fictional) screenwriter, Archie Coleman (played by Jeremy Pope). In her 1987 book, My Husband, Rock Hudson, Gates said she had lived with and dated Hudson before he proposed and she had believed their marriage to be a love match at the time.
In 1955, Hudson married Phyllis Gates, the secretary of his agent, Henry Willson. Gates actually does appear in a few scenes in Hollywood, though only in her capacity as Willson's secretary, not as Hudson's love interest; the show's alternate history has Hudson (played by Jake Picking) falling in love with a (wholly fictional) screenwriter, Archie Coleman (played by Jeremy Pope). In her 1987 book, My Husband, Rock Hudson, Gates said she had lived with and dated Hudson before he proposed and she had believed their marriage to be a love match at the time.
- 5/5/2020
- by Amanda Prahl
- Popsugar.com
In Ryan Murphy's Hollywood, Jim Parsons brings the character of prominent agent Henry Willson to life, but how much of Hollywood's depiction is actually true? A good amount of it, actually, if we take a look back at the real Willson's life as an agent to the stars - namely Rock Hudson.
The fictionalized Willson is a brash, closeted gay man who seemingly preys on inexperienced actors. He discovers Hudson - when he's still Roy Fitzgerald - and changes his name, his teeth, and his appearance to groom him to be a mainstay in Hollywood. He also sleeps with him, knowing Hudson is also in the closet. In the show, though, Willson loses control of Hudson when the actor decides to go public with his screenwriter boyfriend. After treating his client like trash and pushing him away, he comes groveling back a year later saying he's a changed man...
The fictionalized Willson is a brash, closeted gay man who seemingly preys on inexperienced actors. He discovers Hudson - when he's still Roy Fitzgerald - and changes his name, his teeth, and his appearance to groom him to be a mainstay in Hollywood. He also sleeps with him, knowing Hudson is also in the closet. In the show, though, Willson loses control of Hudson when the actor decides to go public with his screenwriter boyfriend. After treating his client like trash and pushing him away, he comes groveling back a year later saying he's a changed man...
- 5/3/2020
- by Hedy Phillips
- Popsugar.com
Rock Hudson is a prominent character in Ryan Murphy's latest show Hollywood, now streaming on Netflix. Though Hudson is a very real actor who led a high-profile life in Hollywood, the characteristics between Murphy's iteration of him and the real man are vastly different. In Hollywood, Hudson shows up in the City of Angels with his real name, Roy Fitzgerald, looking to become a star. The handsome and very green actor is terrified to be gay but ends up accepting that he is. This is basically where Murphy deviates from Hudson's real story and into a fictional character.
Hudson, whose birth name was Roy Scherer but became Roy Fitzgerald when his stepdad adopted him, did grow up in Winnetka, Il, before coming to Hollywood to become a star. After sending his headshots all over town, he met an agent named Henry Willson. Like in Hollywood, Willson took a liking...
Hudson, whose birth name was Roy Scherer but became Roy Fitzgerald when his stepdad adopted him, did grow up in Winnetka, Il, before coming to Hollywood to become a star. After sending his headshots all over town, he met an agent named Henry Willson. Like in Hollywood, Willson took a liking...
- 5/3/2020
- by Hedy Phillips
- Popsugar.com
This article contains spoilers for all seven episodes of Hollywood.
“When the legend becomes fact, print the legend.” That line from The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, the last masterpiece from one of Golden Age Hollywood’s most revered directors, John Ford has become pretty legendary itself. Yet it seems Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan decided to do Ford one better in their version of Hollywood: write the fantasy.
Running across seven episodes on Netflix, Hollywood is far more a golden hued fairy tale than even Quentin Tarantino’s vision of 1969 Tinseltown in Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood, and yet the Murphy series is both inspired by and written around some very real people. A few of them were the biggest movie stars of their eras, and others were dreamers denied or discarded from the promise of a life in the spotlight. Here are some of their stories.
Rock Hudson...
“When the legend becomes fact, print the legend.” That line from The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, the last masterpiece from one of Golden Age Hollywood’s most revered directors, John Ford has become pretty legendary itself. Yet it seems Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan decided to do Ford one better in their version of Hollywood: write the fantasy.
Running across seven episodes on Netflix, Hollywood is far more a golden hued fairy tale than even Quentin Tarantino’s vision of 1969 Tinseltown in Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood, and yet the Murphy series is both inspired by and written around some very real people. A few of them were the biggest movie stars of their eras, and others were dreamers denied or discarded from the promise of a life in the spotlight. Here are some of their stories.
Rock Hudson...
- 5/1/2020
- by David Crow
- Den of Geek
Washington, Jun 8(Ani): Late Us actor Rock Hudson's so-called "gay confession" to his wife, which was recorded by a detective 50 years ago, has now been revealed to public.
The family of the detective revealed the conversation as part of a secret file release.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, actor's wife Phyllis Gates confronted him about being gay in 1958; this conversation was secretly tape-recorded by Detective Fred Otash, a private detective also hired by stars like Marilyn Monroe and Judy Garland to keep a check on their husbands, the Huffington Post reported.
According to a transcript of the discussion obtained by THR from Otash's family, Gates asked the actor if he was equally fast with the boys as with.
The family of the detective revealed the conversation as part of a secret file release.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, actor's wife Phyllis Gates confronted him about being gay in 1958; this conversation was secretly tape-recorded by Detective Fred Otash, a private detective also hired by stars like Marilyn Monroe and Judy Garland to keep a check on their husbands, the Huffington Post reported.
According to a transcript of the discussion obtained by THR from Otash's family, Gates asked the actor if he was equally fast with the boys as with.
- 6/8/2013
- by Smith Cox
- RealBollywood.com
While today it is common knowledge that '50s screen heartthrob Rock Hudson was gay, in his Hollywood heyday his studio, Universal, went to great lengths to project his image of what was then considered an all-American man. The actor's agent, Henry Willson, even went so far as to arrange for Hudson to marry Willson's secretary, Phyllis Gates. While Hollywood insiders knew the true nature of the union, apparently - according to newly released transcripts from the archives of a private detective hired by Gates - Mrs. Rock Hudson also suspected as much and confronted her husband about it. As...
- 6/7/2013
- by Stephen M. Silverman
- PEOPLE.com
Actor Rock Hudson's so-called "gay confession" to his wife, a conversation that was recorded more than 50 years ago, has been revealed as part of a secret file release by the family of Detective Fred Otash.
Back in 1958, Hudson's wife, Phyllis Gates, confronted the Hollywood legend about being gay, according to The Hollywood Reporter. That confrontation was secretly tape-recorded by Detective Fred Otash, a private eye who had dirt on everyone from Marilyn Monroe to Judy Garland. Gates had hired him to keep tabs on her husband.
"Rock, your great speed with me, sexually. Are you that fast with boys?" Gates asked Hudson, according to a transcript of the discussion obtained by THR from Otash's family.
"Well, it's a physical conjunction [sic]," he replied. "Boys don't fit. So, this is why it lasts longer."
Visit The Hollywood Reporter to read the full story behind the release of the files.
Gates' 1955 marriage to Hudson eventually deteriorated,...
Back in 1958, Hudson's wife, Phyllis Gates, confronted the Hollywood legend about being gay, according to The Hollywood Reporter. That confrontation was secretly tape-recorded by Detective Fred Otash, a private eye who had dirt on everyone from Marilyn Monroe to Judy Garland. Gates had hired him to keep tabs on her husband.
"Rock, your great speed with me, sexually. Are you that fast with boys?" Gates asked Hudson, according to a transcript of the discussion obtained by THR from Otash's family.
"Well, it's a physical conjunction [sic]," he replied. "Boys don't fit. So, this is why it lasts longer."
Visit The Hollywood Reporter to read the full story behind the release of the files.
Gates' 1955 marriage to Hudson eventually deteriorated,...
- 6/6/2013
- by The Huffington Post
- Huffington Post
Exclusive: Maven Pictures’ Celine Rattray and Trudie Styler have acquired The Making Of Rock Hudson, a script by Tyler Ruggeri about the transformation of a young Midwesterner into a legendary movie star. Maven will produce with Gadabout’s Aaron Cruze and Stephanie Marin. The transformation of Hudson from a shy kid into a sex symbol with rugged good looks was a tricky bit of business, in that he was forced to keep secret his homosexuality. The script tells the story from the vantage point of Henry Willson, the agent who discovered Hudson. Beyond changing the actor’s name, Willson became adept at keeping secrets. One would hope that such a stigma is fast becoming a thing of the past, as more and more actors are now open about their sexuality. Back in Hudson’s heyday, such honesty would have been instant career suicide. When the showbiz tabloid Confidential threatened to...
- 3/18/2013
- by MIKE FLEMING JR
- Deadline
In the 1950s almost every movie magazine proclaimed Rock Hudson “the most popular star” or “top male star.” Standing at six feet, five inches tall, potent, with a smooth muscular body and heroic square jaw, Hudson’s manly persona and good looks made him a popular star in Douglas Sirk melodramas such as Magnificent Obsession (1954) and All That Heaven Allows (1955). He displayed a flair for comedy in a series of films with Doris Day, including Pillow Talk (1959), Come September (1961), Send Me No Flowers (1964) and was nominated for an Academy Award for his performance across James Dean in Giant (1956). In 1966 he starred in Seconds, a psychological thriller directed by John Frankenheimer. When released the film received negative reviews, but has since become a cult classic and is considered one of Rock Hudson’s best films. Hudson gave the best performance of his career, but sadly the film far ahead of its time,...
- 11/12/2010
- by admin
- SoundOnSight
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