Roy Harold Scherer Jr. was born smack dab in the middle of both the Roaring 20’s and the country in Illinois, Thanksgiving of 1925.
Of all the gay and bisexual actors and actresses we’ve covered, Hudson was easily the most elusive and convincing in his career long presentation as a very straight screen idol and leading man. While known to many in Hollywood circles, his private life only came to public light over three decades into his career, when he was one of the earliest celebrities to openly discuss his being stricken with AIDS.
A naval veteran and strangely enough, a lifelong Republican and de facto Goldwater Girl (!) he pursued his dream of acting despite a pronounced and career long difficulty in remembering lines, being rejected from drama school and wasting no less than 38 takes to deliver a single line in his first onscreen role – a testament to his All American good looks and winning personality, to be sure.
After being signed to Universal, he was cast in several forgettable and forgotten cheesy period westerns, pirate and supposed adventure films before landing industry attention with his Oscar for the execrable James Dean/Elizabeth Taylor melodrama Giant. But it was with his oddly fortuitous pairing with Doris Day and neurotic comic relief sideman Tony Randall in a series of fluffy and decidedly conservative romantic comedies at the end of the 1950s that he truly attained marquee leading man status.
Going on to star with Italian sex symbols Gina Lollobrigida and Claudia Cardinale, as well as other attempts to replicate the Hudson/Day formula with lesser lights like Leslie Caron and Paula Prentiss, Hudson began to tire of these sort of light comedy roles, moving to television for the highly enjoyable and well remembered McMillan and Wife alongside the equally loveable Susan Saint James and gay icon (and Rosie the paper towel lady!) Nancy Walker
for a several season, nigh-decade spanning run.
His latter roles tended towards the decidedly idiosyncratic: John
Frankenheimer’s existential paranoia opus Seconds, Alastair MacLean’s flawed if enjoyable Cold War spy film Ice Station Zebra, Roger Vadim’s sexploitation slasher/comedy Pretty Maids All In a Row, entertaining disaster epic Avalanche and the pensive meditation of a miniseries that was The Martian Chronicles.
So join us as we take on the All-American leading man who hid a surprising edge behind the surface veneer, the one and only Rock Hudson, only here on Weird Scenes!
Week 108 (10/19/23): Hide in Plain Sight: the Life and Career of Rock Hudson
https://weirdscenes1.wordpress.com/
https://www.facebook.com/WeirdScenes1
https://twitter.com/WeirdScenes1 (@weirdscenes1)
https://thirdeyecinema.podbean.com/
https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/third-eye-cinema-weird-scenes-inside-the-goldmine-podcast/id553402044
https:// (open.spotify.com) /show/4s8QkoE6PnAfh65C5on5ZS?nd=1
https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/09456286-8956-4b80-a158-f750f525f246/Third-Eye-Cinema-Weird-Scenes-Inside-the-Goldmine-podcast
Weird Scenes Week 91 (2/23/23): Clint Eastwood Makes Your Day
Weird Scenes Week 95 (4/20/23): From Horse Laughs to Hollywood to Fat Suit Hell: The Rapid Rise and Precipitous Fall of Eddie Murphy
Weird Scenes Week 90 (2/9/23): Richard Harris in the 70’s
Weird Scenes Week 89 (1/26/23): The Films of Michael Crichton
Third Eye Cinema Week 96 (1/22/23) Chris Hector of Ahab (10 years on)
Weird Scenes Week 88 (8/25/22): Satan in the 70’s (a discussion of satanic cult films)
Weird Scenes Week 87 (8/11/22): Paranoia, Decadence and Dissolution – The Films of Roman Polanski
State of the Disunion - Guns n’ Russians and the Neverending American Horror Story
Weird Scenes Week 86 The Hard Boiled Exploits of Philip Marlowe
Weird Scenes Week 85 (12/9/21): Go Ape! The first major multimedia craze and how it disappeared into the vaults of time
Weird Scenes Week 84 (11/11/21): Questions Within Enigma: the films of Stanley Kubrick
Weird Scenes Week 83: SF with a message - the dystopic visions of the counterculture era
Week 95 (10/17/21) - Show-Ya (and special guest)
Weird Scenes Week 82 - Ridin' the Rails with Rob: the unflappable cool of Robert Mitchum
Weird Scenes Week 81 - Tony Curtis
Weird Scenes 4/5/21: Zero Minus One – Resurrection Revival Meeting Grab Bag (Coronavirus One Year On)
Weird Scenes Week 80 - Donald Pleasance Week 2: Final Stage
Weird Scenes Week 79 - Donald Pleasance: Dawn of the Deviant
Weird Scenes Season 10: Zero Hour - State of the Disunion special report
Weird Scenes Week Zero Coronavirus Update: The Dump Trump Special
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
Cinema: A to B
I Finally Watched...
Star Wars Escape Pod
Pod Meets World
Pop Culture Happy Hour