Rock hudson aids magazine cover

In 1955, when a scandal magazine threatened to expose his sexual preference, Universal arranged a hasty marriage of convenience with Henry.!

A red Newsweek magazine cover with the title 'AIDS' in large black letters.

Hi, this is Matt Bomer, and I’m honored to celebrate the life of Rock Hudson.

On July 25, 1985, movie star Rock Hudson, one of the biggest celebrities in the world from the mid-1950s to the mid-1960s, was the most famous person ever to publicly announce he had AIDS.

Just over a week before, he had appeared with frequent co-star Doris Day at a news conference promoting her new cable TV show. He looked gaunt and frail. He couldn’t eat a meal that Day had prepared for him.

NEWSWEEK Magazine August 12, 1985 AIDS Victim Rock Hudson Deadly Disease - G557.

TIME MAGAZINE, South Africa; AIDS; Rock Hudson; Black Rage; Aug 5, 1985; Vintage.

In 1955, when a scandal magazine threatened to expose his sexual preference, Universal arranged a hasty marriage of convenience with Henry.

But awareness about the disease is also growing; actor Rock Hudson comes forward with his illness, two weeks before TIME's issue is published, ".

Rock Hudson--whose recent frail appearance stunned a public that retains an image of him as a tall, dark and handsomely square-jawed.

Ten weeks later, on October 2, 1985, Rock Hudson was dead at 59 years old.

An Oscar nominee and a four-time Golden Globe award winner, Rock Hudson never came out publicly as gay. The perceived risks to his career were apparently too great for him to do so.

Rumors of Rock’s homosexuality led to a planned exposé in Confidential magazine in 1955, the same year Life magazine named him “Hollywood’s Most Handsome Bachelor.” But his agent Henry Willson (the one portrayed by Jim Parsons in Ryan Murphy’s Netflix