After his death, the fact he was gay was revealed by Tales From The City author Armistead Maupin. Some thought the secret should have stayed buried, but over the year it’s helped people reassess the star and his roles, in light of what’s now known about his personal life.
Now screenwriter Tyler Ruggeri is planning to bring that story to a larger audience, as he’s sold his script, The Making Of Rock Hudson, to Trudie Styler (the wife of Sting) and Celine Rattray of Maven Pictures, according to Deadline.
The film will be told through the eyes of Henry Willson, the agent who discovered Hudson and turned him from a shy kid to the a-list star of Giant and Pillow Talk, all of which had to be done by hiding his sexuality. At the time, anyone publicly known Rock was gay would have destroyed his career. As Deadline notes, ‘When the showbiz tabloid Confidential threatened to publish rumors that Hudson was leading a secret life in 1955, Willson arranged for Hudson to marry his secretary, Phyllis Gates. They did a good job of keeping Hudson’s private life private right up until he died in 1985, when he became the first major movie star to pass away from complications relating to AIDS.’
“Tyler’s screenplay perfectly captures the daunting, and in many ways timeless, struggle between public and private persona,” said Rattray and Styler. “It was a time when a leading man’s career could be destroyed if the vice squads or the tabloids got the wrong impression.”
It’s certainly an interesting subject, especially as Rock is known to have become an expert at living a gay, hidden private life – including weekend parties attended by dozens of young men – all while hiding this from the public.
At the moment no director is attached.